Press release
Northern Trust and Wharton Global Family Alliance Announce Survey Findings on Family Offices
Sixth survey provides view into latest investment and governance trends, including involvement of Next Gen and ESG CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Northern Trust
About this update from Northern Trust Corporation
[{"type":"text","content":"\nSixth survey provides view into latest investment and governance trends, including involvement of Next Gen and ESG\n\n\n CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nNorthern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) and the Wharton Global Family Alliance (Wharton GFA) announced findings from the Wharton GFA’s sixth benchmarking survey of family offices, highlighting best practices, trends and financial performance drivers of family offices. Faced with vast geopolitical and economic uncertainty and complex family dynamics, the survey found that family offices are returning to a focus on core principles: making sure they have the right investing and governance plans, and the best strategies, to fulfill the family’s long-term goals, including:\n\n\n\nHow family offices are responding to inflation, potential recession and geopolitical risks;\n\n\n\nSpecial considerations for direct investments;\n\n\n\nInterest and action related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing; and\n\n\n\nHow families are most effectively making decisions and preparing the next generation to manage the wealth.\n\n\n\nGeopolitical and Economic Uncertainty\n\n\nWhen asked about their greatest concerns, family office respondents cited inflation (24%), the possibility of recession (18%) and geopolitical risk (17%) as top of mind. While these concerns are not surprising given the current environment, they do manifest in a similar fashion: increased market volatility.\n\n\nDirect Investments and ESG Investing\n\n\nFamily offices have substantially increased direct private investments at the expense of making investments through private-equity firms. However, at the same time, family offices have not staffed up with private equity professionals to evaluate, structure, monitor and add value to such direct investments.\n\n\n“Private investments are attractive for many family offices because of the potential for high returns, but it is imperative that they deploy the right resources to evaluate and manage these investments,” said Professor Raphael Amit, Founder and Chairman of the Wharton Global Family Alliance and the author of the Wharton 2022 Family Office report.\n\n\nIn addition, many family offices report that they are or plan to deploy capital to ESG investments. Even so, a significant number of survey respondents report that ESG investments amount to less than 10% of their portf...