New York Stock Exchange on April 14, 2025.
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A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter by Robert Frank, a weekly guide for high-net-worth investors and consumers. Sign up to receive future editions directly to your inbox.
Family offices increased their holdings in the second quarter and reduced their exposure to real estate and private market investments, according to the latest CNBC Family Office Portfolio Tracker.
Retail offices held 37% of their portfolios in stocks in the second quarter, up from 34% in the first quarter, according to the CNBC Portfolio Tracker powered by Addepar, a fundamental data and artificial intelligence platform used by financial professionals around the world.
The jump in the family office’s stock holdings is the biggest in years and shows the firm remains bullish on AI trade and stocks despite concerns about bubbles and highly concentrated markets.
“Family offices feel more comfortable with a higher allocation to public equity,” said Eric Poirier, CEO of Adepar. “The increase in public equity was the largest quarter-on-quarter change we’ve seen in the last three to four years.”
The CNBC Portfolio Tracker explores the portfolios of single-family offices, the personal investment arms of wealthy families, in real time. While most information about family office investments comes from surveys, Addepar’s data reflects the aggregated and anonymized actual portfolios of hundreds of family offices representing more than $1.4 trillion in combined assets.
Rising stock prices in the second quarter were offset by declines in private markets and real estate. Family office holdings in private companies, real estate, private equity, venture capital and private credit decreased by 3 percentage points. It also took down less than 1 percentage point from its cash pile in the quarter, suggesting it’s looking to put more money to use.
The 3 percentage point change from alternatives to equities is significant for a family office and challenges the notion that the wealthiest investors prefer exotic alternatives to retail equities, but this was primarily the result of market fluctuations rather than active buying and selling. Stock market gains in the second quarter (the S&P 500 index rose about 15% during the quarter) helped boost stock prices. Allocations to alternatives decreased due to a fall in private market valuations due to private credit issues.
However, rather than rebalancing, family offices are increasing equity allocations as a share of their portfolios, suggesting a long-term bullish trend in stocks. Poiret said AI trade is likely to attract significant interest.
“AI-themed betting is generating a great deal of movement and activity, and it’s mainly expressed in public and private markets,” he said.
The top five stocks held by family offices in the second quarter were Microsoft, owned by 77% of family offices, followed by Amazon and Alphabet (76%), Apple (70%), and Nvidia (69%).
In the private market, family office allocations to alternatives fell to 46% from 49% in the second quarter, the biggest drop in years. Mr Adepale said the decline was mainly caused by private credit funds reducing asset values. According to Adepar, 18% of recent vintage private credit funds (vintage from 2020 onwards) have recorded a decline in net asset value. By comparison, post-2016 private credit funds experience write-downs of 9% on average in the first four years of their lifecycle.
Real estate and venture capital funds also fell in value, Poirier said.
“We don’t really see any change in inflows or outflows,” Poirier said. “Rather, it’s family offices marking their private equity.”
Family office bond holdings have held steady at 8%, hedge funds at 7% and “other alts”, which includes merchandise and collectibles, at 6%. After public equities, the largest investment segment was private companies, accounting for 15% of the portfolio.
Looking ahead to the third quarter of the CNBC Family Office Portfolio Tracker, Poirier said the big themes to watch will be interest rates and bonds.
“The interest rate environment, the bond world, is very dynamic right now,” he said.
