Wealthy families are shortening their time horizons and moving into private deals. The instinct behind it is sound. The destination is not.
Two things are true at the same time.
The generation inheriting wealth says they want different advisers and wealth managers than their parents. They also want control, transparency and alignment from the people who manage their money. Yet they are moving that money into the least transparent, least liquid and most expensive corner of the market.
What is changing
The data makes the direction of travel clear. Ocorian’s 2026 Global Family Office Report, covering 200 family offices with a combined $119bn, found that 79% say the next generation is already shaping investment strategy, and 97% say the heirs’ priorities differ from the founders’. The flashpoints are private markets, digital assets and physical assets.
Alongside that, allocations to alternatives have climbed to around 42% on average, while public equity exposure among the largest family offices has fallen from roughly half of the portfolio in 2022 to under 40% today. Mandates once reviewed annually are now reviewed monthly.
These behavioural changes are also happening in the wider retail wealth management space.
Why it is happening – and why it is sensible
At a family office roundtable this spring, one participant put the psychology bluntly: when families hear the word fund, they think about fees, lockups, and not being able to access their money. When they hear the word deal, they think about making money and having access to it.
That reflex is not irrational. It is the entirely predictable consequence of forty years in which the asset management industry has made itself aloof, costs impossible to find, its holdings impossible to inspect, and its performance impossible to attribute.
If your only experience of a professionally managed portfolio is a document that will not tell you what you own or what you are paying, of course you will conclude that the money is better off somewhere you can see it and touch it.
The diagnosis is right. The prescription is wrong.
You leave a fund because you object to the fees and arrive somewhere the fees are higher and layered. You leave because the valuations feel unaccountable and arrive somewhere the manager marks its own homework between funding rounds. You leave because you want to act, then sign a ten-year lock-up to do it.
That is not an escape from opacity. It is a subscription to it.
The horizon is the asset
Here is the part that ought to worry every wealth family with an investment committee, or other families around their kitchen table.
The single most reliable way to reduce a long-run return is to shorten the period over which you are prepared to earn it. Not fees, not tax, not stock selection – horizon, time.
A family office’s structural advantage over a pension fund, an insurer or a listed company was never superior insight. It was the absence of anyone who could force it to sell. Capital with no redemption date can sit through drawdowns that oblige everyone else to liquidate at the bottom.
Shortening the horizon gives that advantage away, then pays a premium in fees and illiquidity to buy back a worse version.
Volatility is not the risk. Volatility is the admission price. The risk – the one that is permanent, compounds quietly, and never appears on a performance report, is not being invested.
What the next generation actually wants
The behavioural changes happening in the Family Office sector apply more widely to retail investors, too. Strip out the asset classes and the wish list is short, and entirely reasonable:
- To know exactly what they own.
- To know exactly what they are paying, in one figure, all in.
- To be able to change their mind without penalty.
- To know their manager’s money sits beside theirs.
None of those four things requires a private deal, a lock-up or a carry structure. All four are available today, in a daily-dealing portfolio of listed assets – if the manager is willing to show you. But most are not.
Where SCM Direct stands
We built SCM Direct on the ethos that investors are entitled to 100% transparency. A fees food label – one clear, all-in cost figure they can read and compare immediately – and to see every holding they own.
We publish the complete portfolio holdings. We publish the total cost of investing, including the charges most firms leave out. We invest our own money in the same portfolios our clients hold on the same terms. There are no performance fees, no lockups, no gates and no exit penalties. If you want your money on Tuesday, it is yours in a few days.
That is not a marketing position. It is our whole proposition. Nothing to hide.
And you do not need a family office to invest like one. You need the four things a good one insists on, and the discipline to hold on long enough for them to matter.
SCM Direct portfolios are available from a £10,000 initial investment plus £200 a month. And whether you are investing £10,000 or £10,000,000 with us, the fees, decisions, and service are the same, because whatever your level of wealth, that is your wealth, and you deserve the same. For your peace of mind, the Founders invest their and their families’ money alongside you on the same terms and fees.
If your family is having this conversation across generations, we would be glad to help.
FAQ’s
Why are family office investors moving into private markets?
Because public market products have historically hidden their costs. When families hear “fund” they think of fees and lock-ups; when they hear “deal” they think of control. The instinct is a reaction to opacity, but private markets are themselves less transparent, less liquid and more expensive than a portfolio of listed assets.
Does a shorter time horizon reduce investment returns?
Shortening the period you are willing to stay invested is one of the most reliable ways to reduce long-run returns. A family’s structural advantage was never superior insight — it was that nobody could force it to sell. Reviewing positions monthly rather than across decades gives that advantage away.
What is a fees food label?
A single, all-in cost figure an investor can read and compare immediately, like a nutrition label on food packaging. SCM Direct’s founders have campaigned for it since launching the True & Fair Campaign in 2012.
What does SCM Direct’s total cost of investing include?
The published total annual cost includes management fees, administration, custody, underlying ETF charges and trading costs. SCM Direct’s typical total annual cost is 0.85%. See individual portfolio factsheets for the latest figures. TO CONFIRM: check this figure against the current factsheets before publishing.
Do SCM Direct’s founders invest their own money in the portfolios?
Yes. Alan and Gina Miller invest their own, joint and family money across all SCM Direct portfolios, on exactly the same terms and fees as clients.
What is the minimum investment with SCM Direct?
£10,000 as an initial investment, plus £200 a month. There is no maximum.
This article is information, not advice. We think you should always know when the people offering you information also offer you a product: SCM Direct is a discretionary investment manager and we manage the portfolios described above.
Capital at risk. Investments can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
SCM Direct is a trading name of SCM Private LLP, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (no. 497525).
