In this article, we will take a deeper look into the largest family offices in the world, ranked by their assets.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, a family office is a privately held company that handles investment and wealth management for a wealthy family. Most commonly, the family would have at least $50-100 million in investable assets since operating the family office could cost over $1 million a year. The main goal of a family office is to effectively grow and transfer family wealth across generations.

Family offices may also handle other family-related tasks, but we will primarily focus on financial management.

From a legal standpoint, a family office operates similarly to a corporation or an LLC. Its employees are usually compensated with incentives based on the profits or capital gains it generates.

Family offices might invest in a wide range of assets. These range from high-risk assets, such as private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds, to somewhat lower-risk assets, such as public equity, funds, and real estate.

DuPont and Rockefeller families are considered the pioneers of family offices, starting them up in the 19th century. However, family offices started increasing in popularity only fairly recently, starting in the 1980s and accelerating in the 2010s, after many tech companies started to experience stellar growth.

The most common type of family office is the single-family office, which manages the wealth of a single family. However, there could be multi-family offices (managing the wealth of multiple families) or virtual family offices (managing the wealth of geographically scattered families). In this article, we will focus mostly on single-family offices.

We have contacted most family offices from this list with an inquiry to share their information but have not gotten answers in a timely manner. Therefore, the data we present is collected from multiple sources (Wikipedia, LinkedIn, family offices’ websites, SWF Institute, etc.).

Top 20 largest family offices by Assets (2025)

According to our research based on publicly available information, the largest family office worldwide is Walton Enterprises LLC, followed by Cascade Investment and Bezos Expeditions.

Largest Family Offices by Assets Statistics

If we take a closer look at the biggest family offices globally, some interesting statistics start to emerge. Cumulatively, the top 10 largest family offices currently manage just over $1 trillion in assets. This number could be compared to the GDP of wealthy countries such as Switzerland or Saudi Arabia.

To further put things into perspective, the largest academic endowment in the world is the Harvard University endowment, which was valued at over $50 billion in 2023. If it was a family office, this would put it at 11th place globally.

The distribution among the top 100 family offices is also very top-heavy: the top 10 family offices manage around $1 trillion, while the bottom 90 family offices manage around $590 billion cumulatively. In other words, the top 10 family offices manage nearly two-thirds of the total assets of the top 100 family offices.

If we look at the distribution of family offices by geographical regions, we can see a clear domination of North America. Over half of the top 100 family offices are NA-based, which is about twice as much as those based in Europe, which are more than twice as common as those in Asia. Australia and the Pacific, the Middle East, and Latin America have only 8 family offices in the global top 100 combined, while Africa doesn’t have a single one.

There are also some interesting data points to be found in the 2023 UBS Global Family Office Report. The report includes data from 230 family offices globally.

Perhaps the most interesting is their asset allocation. Around half of their total assets are allocated to equities (both public and private), with fixed income and real estate both taking up significantly less space at the 2nd and 3rd spot, respectively.

Cash holdings are at 9%, hedge funds are at 7%, and the remaining 6% is distributed among precious metals, private debt, art, commodities, and infrastructure.

If we take a look at the geographical distribution of family offices’ equity (both public and private), we can see that it is dominated by developed markets at around 80%.

However, a 20% equity exposure to emerging markets is significantly higher than what most global equity indexes allocate to emerging markets (usually around 13%).

When looking closely at family offices’ asset allocation, we can see that it is largely dominated by traditional asset classes (public equity, fixed income, real estate) and some alternative asset classes usually reserved for institutional investors (private equity, hedge funds).

There is little room for new asset classes such as cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance, and other digital assets. Currently, nearly half of family offices (44%) doesn’t allocate any of its funds to digital assets. A further 38% of family offices allocate less than 1% of the total portfolio to digital assets, while just 18% of family offices allocate more than 1%.

When asked what is their biggest reason for concern in the next 2-3 years, family offices cite global geopolitical circumstances by far most commonly (35% of respondents).

Recession worries (13%) and rising inflation (11%) are at distant second and third places in this category.

List of the top 20 largest family offices

The largest family office in the world is Walton Enterprises LLC, which manages around $224.5 billion for the Walton family, descendants of Sam Walton. Sam Walton founded Walmart in 1962 along with his brother James and handed over the ownership of the company to his heirs before he passed away in 1992. Walmart has over 2 million employees and is the largest company by revenue in the world today.

This second-largest family office is managing the wealth of Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates. The manager (Michael Larson) directs Cascade Investment’s assets through Bill and Melinda Gates Investment, a company that also manages the portfolios of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other entities. Gates left his full-time role at Microsoft in 2008 to focus full-time on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Bezos Expeditions is a family office managing the personal investments of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The company invests in early and late-stage venture capital projects, as well as in seed-stage projects in various sectors.  Bezos stepped down as Amazon’s CEO in 2021 but remained active in the company as board Chairman.

An investment firm managing the assets of Sergey Brin, co-founder of technology giant Google, and his ex-wife Anne Wojcicki (CEO of 23andMe). It was founded in 2005, after Google’s IPO, to manage the wealth of the (then married) couple. They invest in various asset classes, including commercial real estate and public and private equity, but manage to keep a low profile regarding access to more detailed investing information.

Mouse Partners is managing the wealth of Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, the French brothers who own the luxury fashion brand Chanel. The brothers inherited the company from their father, Pierre Wertheimer, who founded it alongside the famous French fashion designer Coco Chanel in 1910.

A family office managing the assets of Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s former CEO (2000-2014) and owner of the LA Clippers, and his wife Connie. It focuses mostly on philanthropy, especially helping children born in poor families with economic mobility. Ballmer was Gates’s classmate at Harvard and was hired by Gates in 1980 as the 30th employee at Microsoft.

Founded in 1991, Waycrosse manages the wealth of the Cargill family, owners of the food conglomerate Cargill Inc. (America’s largest private company by revenue). Some of their major businesses are trading, purchasing, and distributing grain and other agricultural commodities, trading in energy, steel, and transport, as well as raising livestock and producing food ingredients.

Being the largest European family office, Fedesa manages the fortune of the Italian Ferrero family. They are the owners of the multinational company Ferrero SpA, which is the world’s second-biggest chocolate manufacturer. The Ferrero SpA is a private company described as one of the world’s most secretive firms. It was also voted the most reputable company in the world in 2009 by the Reputation Institute.

This Canadian family office is managing the assets of the Thomson family, namely brothers David and Peter Thomson (descendants of Roy Thomson). This company is the majority owner of a multinational media conglomerate, Thomson Reuters and also owns a 100% stake in The Globe and Mail newspaper, among others.

It manages the real estate assets of the Spanish business mogul and one of the wealthiest people in the world Amancio Ortega. Ortega founded the Inditex clothing company, perhaps best known for its brands Zara and Bershka. He reportedly receives nearly 2 billion euros in annual dividends from Zara, most of which he invests in global real estate via Pontegadea.

Dubai Holding is a global investment holding company and the biggest family office in the Middle East. It manages the wealth of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and the Vice President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The company holds over $35 billion in assets in multiple countries, including some of the most valuable real estate in Dubai and the UAE.

Formed in 1998 as MSD Capital, this family office manages the assets of Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Technologies, and his family. In December 2022, it was restructured to form DFO Management. They invest in various sectors, including technology, transport, tourism, sport, clothing, and more.

Athos KG is one of the largest family offices in Europe, and it is the holding company of German pharmaceutical billionaires Thomas and Andreas Strüngmann. Athos KG’s investments are primarily in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.

Founded in 1970 as a hedge fund, but since being restructured into a family office, this company manages the wealth of the U.S. financial mogul George Soros. It was reportedly one of the most profitable companies in the hedge fund industry for a long period of time, averaging over 20% returns over four decades.

Named after the author Ralph Waldo Emerson, this family office manages the assets of Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of the late Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs. Their investments and philanthropic contributions mostly focus on education, immigration reform, the environment, media and journalism, and health. The company itself defines its operations as “philanthrocapitalism”.

Kirkbi A/S Manages the assets of the Danish Kristiansen family, the owners of the famous toy manufacturer Lego Group. Since being founded in 2016, the family office owns 75% of Lego, with the rest being owned by the Lego Foundation. It also owns 34% of Merlin Entertainment, which owns 100% of all Legoland parks worldwide, among other assets.

Euclidean Capital is the family office of the US hedge fund tycoon James Simons. His hedge fund, Renaissance Technologies (RenTec), is one of the best-performing funds globally and is famous for its secrecy. They invest in various sectors but focus more on the healthcare sector.

Being the only family office in Asia to crack the top 20 list globally, the Hartono Family Office manages the wealth of the Indonesian billionaires – brothers Michael and Robert Hartono. They own a private tobacco company named Djarum, inherited from their father, Oei Wie Gwan, after his death in 1963. They are also holding investments in the banking sector, electronics, plantations, properties, and more.

By managing the assets of one of the wealthiest US families (the Newhouse family), this single-family office serves more than its 100 family members. Their wealth is derived mostly from S.I. Newhouse and his family founding Advance in 1922, and today, their assets include major stakes in the television network Discovery and telecommunications company Charter Communications.

Manages the wealth of the Johnson family, the American family that controls Fidelity Investments. Fidelity Investments was founded by Edward C. Johnson II. in 1946 and has since become one of the largest financial services companies in the world. The company is still privately owned, with a 49% share in the hands of Edward’s granddaughter, Abigail Johnson, and the rest owned by current and former employees.

Conclusion

While mostly founded for wealth preservation and growth, family offices can also serve other purposes. Some of these include philanthropy, tax optimisation, and more. Undoubtedly, the North American region in general and the US in particular have been leading the way in this regard, but other regions are catching up.

It seems like family offices are more popular in the Western world for legal and tax reasons there could also be cultural considerations when talking about the topics of family wealth preservation and growth. 

As we saw earlier, behind sometimes misleading names of the companies, we can find some of the most famous people in the world, including founders of some of the most valuable companies today. However, some family offices operate more secretly, and their owners aren’t as prominent publicly. Also, not all the wealthiest people in the world choose to use the family office type of company to manage their and their families’ wealth.

FAQs