The study conducted by Campden Research and sponsored by UBS analysed some 50 family offices across Europe, ranging from under EUR 100 million in assets under management to over EUR 1.5 billion.
One of the most surprising finds of the report was that in spite of the finding that risk was one of the top concerns, the family offices were simultaneously taking aggressive strategies and increasing their exposure to riskier assets such as equities and hedge funds.
In 12 months to June 2011, the average rate of investment returns for the family offices was around 8% but the decline in the investment returns of European multi-family offices was much greater as compared to the single family office.