UBS family office clients are quietly pulling money out of the US

The world’s wealthiest families are doing something that would have seemed unthinkable five years ago: they’re reducing their bets on America.

UBS Group’s 2025 Global Family Office Report, which surveyed 317 single-family offices with an average net worth of $2.7 billion each, found that global family offices are actively cutting their US exposure. The reasons are familiar to anyone who’s been paying attention: trade war anxieties, tariff uncertainty, and the kind of geopolitical turbulence that makes billionaires nervous.

The numbers tell a conflicting story

Here’s where it gets interesting. While global family offices are pulling back from the US, American family offices are doing the exact opposite. US-based family offices allocated 86% of their portfolios to North America in 2025, up from 74% in 2020. That’s a 12-percentage-point increase in home bias over just five years.

Globally, roughly 80% of all family office assets remain concentrated in just two regions: North America and Western Europe.

The survey, conducted between January 22 and April 4 of this year, captures a snapshot of sentiment during one of the most volatile stretches of US trade policy in modern memory. The global trade war ranked as the top investment concern for 2025 among respondents. Not inflation. Not recession. Trade war.

For context, these are family offices managing an average of $1.1 billion in assets each.

Where the money is going instead

Family offices aren’t exactly stuffing cash under mattresses. The report shows they’re planning to increase their allocation to developed-market equities by approximately 29%, while slightly trimming their exposure to private equity.

Some family offices are exploring diversification into the Asia-Pacific region, while others are increasing their European allocations. UBS emphasized that the rebalancing reflects long-term strategic thinking rather than short-term market timing.

Crypto remains persona non grata

UBS’s findings show an absence of interest in cryptocurrencies or digital assets among family office clients. The report makes no references to cryptocurrencies, digital assets, or tokens — no allocations, no plans to allocate.