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📩 Family Office Growth News | September 2026
Welcome to the 37th edition of Family Office Growth News.
A founder’s legacy can keep family capital committed for generations. Citi and RBC/Campden Wealth examine direct investing, outside expertise and succession, while Carlyle adds dedicated leadership to compete for Family Office commitments.
Who wants to remain an owner, where outside expertise earns its place, and who competes for the next commitment?
Let’s dive in. ⬇️
🔎 In Perspective: When Owners Want Different Things
Nearly 70% of Family Offices newly identified by FINTRX in Q2 had entrepreneurial origins. Across newly identified offices, interest in direct investments far exceeded interest in hedge funds.
"It offers a more legible proposition because the family can see the asset, the operator and the path to value creation," I told Griffin Kelly in his August coverage for The Daily Upside.
Ownership becomes more complicated when family members want different things from the same asset. Anna Sulkin Stern explored that tension through the Buss family's ownership disagreement in WealthManagement.com. My contribution to that piece centered on a question: "Who finances the founder's legacy after the founder is gone?"
It brought me back to something Paul A. Gonzalez said on a previous episode of Founders & Fortunes:
“Some of the happiest people I know come from these wealthy families who have completely exited the business that their family started, ran. And they view that as a success certainly.”
A founder’s choice of leadership can commit capital beyond their lifetime. The next generation inherits that commitment alongside the asset, even as its members develop their own ideas of success.
▶️ Subscribe to Founders & Fortunes:
Don’t Wait for the OpenAI IPO
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MarketBeat’s 7 AI Stocks to Buy Now report reveals 7 publicly traded companies already positioned to benefit as the next wave of AI investment moves beyond the private model providers.
These are the stocks investors can buy today, before the IPO crowd rushes in.
📈 September 2026 Monthly Pulse
From digital assets to active ownership to the competition for family capital.
📊 Citi Wealth’s 2026 Global Family Office Report
Citi surveyed 351 clients across 41 countries.
Among the findings:
Direct investing: Growth-stage opportunities, Series C or D, led respondents’ focus at 57%. Pre-IPO interest reached 40%, up from 22% in the prior-year survey.
External expertise: 38% of second-generation Family Offices expected greater reliance on external investment managers, compared with 18% of first-generation families.
Succession: Unclear future roles were the leading obstacle to developing future leaders, cited by 46%. Just 9% cited insufficient educational opportunities.
Digital assets: 46% reported no significant barriers to increasing allocations, while only 3% planned to increase exposure.
▌The ARONDIGHT Take
Citi’s digital-asset findings raise a question about what Family Offices actually want from the blockchain technology. With few planning to add exposure, easier access alone looks unlikely to generate much demand.
Tokenization already has concrete applications. Citi combines issuance and custody of tokenized private-company interests, aiming to simplify access and reduce intermediary costs. J.P. Morgan’s Fund Flow gives managers, transfer agents and distributors shared ownership records and automates capital payments, reducing manual reconciliation.
For Family Offices, adoption could follow improvements in how existing investments are accessed and administered.
🏢 RBC & Campden Wealth Report: Active Ownership Continues to Gain Ground
RBC and Campden Wealth surveyed 155 Family Offices. Families worth more than $1 billion represented 53% of this year’s sample, versus 39% last year.
Highlights:
Direct investments averaged 45% of private-market portfolios, versus 33% last year.
Actively managed direct holdings rose from 17% to 27%.
Venture investing favored funds over direct investments by roughly two to one.
▌The ARONDIGHT Take
Through Arondight, I’ve seen families invest directly where they know the business and back specialists where they need operating expertise.
Legacy Capital Fund focuses on acquiring and modernizing founder-owned businesses, including transportation and logistics companies. For an experienced owner, a fund’s value can lie in the sourcing relationships and operating capacity it would take years to build internally.
🤝 Carlyle Builds for Its Next Fundraises
Carlyle named David Seeberan Global Head of its Family Office Group and Victoria Matthews Head of the group for Europe and Asia, both newly created roles.
The firm puts its addressable Single Family Office market at $5 trillion.
▌The ARONDIGHT Take
Carlyle has a fundraising calendar to fill. Its target exceeds $200 billion in inflows during 2026 through 2028, reaffirmed at its August 2026 earnings call.
Over the prior three years, 250 existing investors expanded into additional Carlyle strategies.
Dedicated Family Office executives extend that same institutional playbook to family capital. Carlyle now covers Family Offices as a distinct fundraising channel, separate from RIAs and retirement assets.
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Thank you for joining me for September’s edition of Family Office Growth News.
💬 What would a manager have to bring to the table for your family to invest through a fund instead of directly?
Best regards,
Ryan Austin
Founder, Arondight Advisors
Email: [email protected]
Disclaimer: This publication is created and distributed by Arondight Advisors and may not be construed as investment advice. This newsletter does not provide an analysis of any company’s financial position and is not a solicitation to purchase or sell securities in any company. Arondight Advisors is a financial marketing firm, and not a registered broker dealer.
