Three-quarters of respondents (77 per cent) said their use of outsourced support across "key services" would rise. Only 21 per cent of them did not expect to see a change.

The study surveyed 200 family members and senior employees at family offices across 16 countries and territories, including the UK, UAE, Singapore, Switzerland and Hong Kong, collectively managing $119.37 billion in wealth. It was carried out by PureProfile in February.

The survey plays to a discussion that has gone on in the family offices industry for years about the benefits and costs of trying to carry out services in-house or farm them out to specialist providers. The pressure to take the latter course tends to rise among smaller family offices that may lack the resources to perform such tasks cost-efficiently. 

Illiquid investment advice is the most commonly outsourced service, cited by 55 per cent of respondents. This is followed by cyber security (49 per cent) and personal finance advice (48 per cent). Extended family services, such as concierge support and global insurance programmes, remain the least outsourced, at just 3 per cent. However, 70 per cent of respondents said they plan to increase use of such services as needs evolve. A further 68 per cent expect to increase outsourcing of wealth planning specifically, the survey found.

Respondents cited demand for more sophisticated services (74 per cent) as the primary driver of increased outsourcing, ahead of a lack of in-house expertise as family offices grow (62 per cent) and the cost-effectiveness of third-party providers (55 per cent). When selecting specialists, the ability to operate across multiple jurisdictions was the most important factor, cited by 62 per cent, followed by trust (58 per cent), technology and reporting capability (53 per cent) and cost (52 per cent).

Ocorian issued a report in 2023 making a similar prediction about family offices' outsourcing intentions.