Family Offices Pivot to Outsourcing for Specialized Expertise

The shift toward external providers is driven primarily by a demand for sophistication that internal teams struggle to match. According to Ocorian, the firm that commissioned the study, 74 percent of offices view high-level expertise as the catalyst for outsourcing, while 62 percent point to the sheer difficulty of maintaining diverse skill sets in-house. Smaller offices, in particular, face mounting pressure to abandon DIY models as the cost of internal infrastructure climbs.

Illiquid investment advice leads the outsourcing trend, utilized by 55 percent of respondents, followed closely by cyber security at 49 percent and personal finance at 48 percent. While extended concierge services remain largely handled internally for now, 70 percent of offices signal a willingness to shift these tasks to external partners as their needs evolve. When vetting these new partners, the ability to navigate multiple jurisdictions ranks as the top priority for 62 percent of decision-makers, outweighing pure cost considerations by a ten-point margin.