Family offices in risk-on mode; bet on AI, private credit: Goldman Sachs

Family offices across the globe are in ‘risk-on’ mode, increasing their investments in artificial intelligence (AI)-related themes and private credit, suggests Goldman Sachs’ 2025 survey of 245 family offices. 

 

Of the total respondents, 47 per cent were based in the Americas, 26 per cent in Europe, the West Asia, and Africa (EMEA), and 27 per cent in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. 40 per cent of these family offices have a net worth between $1 billion and 5 billion, while 13 per cent of respondents’ family offices have a net worth of $10 billion or more. 

 

While maintaining a 12 per cent allocation to cash and cash equivalents, family offices are willing to deploy capital. In the next 12 months, 34 per cent of respondents, Goldman Sachs said, intend to reduce their cash balances with many planning to invest in ‘risk assets’. 38 per cent of family offices expect to increase their allocation to public equities going ahead, Goldman Sachs said. 

 

 

Among regions outside the US, family offices strongly favour their home and neighboring markets with 89 per cent of respondents in EMEA willing to allocate to the euro area and 80 per cent of those in APAC allocate to China and 24 per cent to India.

 

Investment in AI, private credit

 

86 per cent of family offices, Goldman Sachs said, have some form of investment in AI. While 52 per cent of respondents indicate they are invested via public equities and 38 per cent have exposure through AI-empowered companies, Goldman Sachs believes that these numbers may actually be understated.  

 

 

“Another area of focus in our conversations is secondary beneficiaries of AI, where about one-third of family offices are invested. This is likely reflected in part by interest in industrials and energy. Around one-quarter of family offices expect to be overweight in the next 12 months, and 27 per cent of respondents anticipate being overweight in energy or materials,” Goldman Sachs said.

 

Another focus area for family offices is private credit, where the allocation has increased nearly one percentage point to 4 per cent in 2025 (3 per cent in 2023).

 

“Family offices continue to find private credit attractive relative to traditional credit investments. In addition to higher returns, private credit may be seen to offer better downside protection, owing to its seniority in the capital structure, tighter covenants, and lenders’ ability to work with borrowers on customized restructuring solutions—something that is more challenging in the syndicated loan and public credit markets,” Goldman Sachs said.

 

Key risks

 

Inflation is the top investment risk for 34 per cent of family offices in the Americas compared to 25 per cent in EMEA, and 17 per cent in APAC. Globally, 57 per cent of family offices, including a higher proportion of respondents in the Americas, believe that inflation will rise in the next 12 months. Half of respondents, the note said, expect the probability of a US recession to increase. 

 

That said, while two-thirds of family offices are not invested in any form of cryptocurrency, interest continues to trend higher, with 33 per cent of respondents currently invested versus just 16 per cent in 2021. 

 

Tariff-related concerns

 

Geopolitical conflict is the top concern to family offices in APAC, where a significantly higher proportion of respondents (75 per cent) reported this as a top-three investment risk, Goldman Sachs’ findings suggest. 

 

“Concerns about tariffs are highest in APAC, with the US putting pressure on its largest trading partners, particularly China. Over the next 12 months, 77 per cent of family offices globally expect economic protectionism to increase and 70 per cent anticipate the average global tariff rate will be the same or higher, suggesting a perception that higher tariffs have become the new normal,” the report said.