By Kim Luce, Jersey’s head of private wealth at TMF Group
THE world’s wealthiest families often share common goals: preserving and growing their wealth while protecting their legacy for future generations and prompting positive global change.
While no two families are the same, they experience similar challenges. Whether navigating geopolitical uncertainty, growing their footprint across new borders or adopting the latest technologies, family offices are operating in an increasingly complex, and competitive, environment that demands agility and thorough planning.
In order to survive and thrive, family offices must evolve, embracing more flexible operating models, leveraging specialist expertise and remaining nimble in the face of unprecedented change. Success depends on their ability to confidently adapt as new risks and opportunities emerge.
Jersey has an enviable reputation when it comes to providing private wealth and investment management services, as well as a robust, independent and internationally respected legal and regulatory environment.
It can help families to insulate themselves against economic volatility while aligning with trends that are reshaping the private wealth sector, which is shifting toward professional governance, alternative investments and technology-driven operations.
Widening the family footprint
As geopolitical uncertainty and inflation concerns rise, families are diversifying their investments, structures and operations across jurisdictions.
Diversification helps to spread and minimise risk.
Most are not fully abandoning jurisdictions altogether but adding new ones into a multi-jurisdictional approach. TMF Group’s research shows that for a third (31%) of families, remaining close to the markets they are investing in is the main consideration when choosing a new jurisdiction, followed by economic certainty (23%) and political stability (23%).
We are seeing a shift from a focus on individual asset protection vehicles to more long-term governance and resilience planning. Structuring and services are no longer just built around tax efficiencies or high returns; families are looking to “hub” themselves in jurisdictions that offer the stability they crave, as well as credible regulatory and legal frameworks and access to multiple markets.
This is where Jersey is becoming an increasingly compelling proposition on the global stage. The pace of legislative change has accelerated significantly over the past 18 months, with amended company and trust laws modernising governance and simplifying administrative processes, while the Moneyval assessment reinforced Jersey’s reputation as a secure jurisdiction.
The Abolition of Legitimacy Law, for example, is a significant step forward in terms of fairness and equality. It has updated rules to reflect the face of the modern family. Things have moved on in terms of family dynamics and how families operate and interact among themselves, and the law recognises this new reality.
In order to further sharpen Jersey’s competitive edge, we need to make sure that we are not legislating for legislation’s sake, that new laws add to the Island’s appeal and that new regulation doesn’t impact the commercial attractiveness of doing business in Jersey.
The push for professionalisation
The more jurisdictions a family enters, the more access it will have to new markets and new opportunities.
But it also increases complexity when it comes to dealing with different regulatory and reporting requirements. Each jurisdiction has varying local laws and expectations, while international frameworks – such as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, Common Reporting Standard, and BEPS Pillar Two – become more demanding as a family expands across borders.
Family offices are evolving their operating models and talent strategies to meet such demands, with a growing focus on acquiring and retaining the right talent to support both growth and compliance.
While talent is crucial, family offices don’t need to hire for every specialism. They will have their core trusted advisers in-house, but it’s equally important they have an experienced ecosystem around them in terms of legal counsel, tax advice and corporate services administration providers.
Jersey has that tried and tested ecosystem, so it is well placed to meet the needs of families looking for greater knowledge and governance.
We are seeing a distinct trend of family offices moving towards that outsourced provider model to help them deal with any talent shortfalls.
Entering a new jurisdiction creates new complexities, but if a family enters with purpose and emphasises good governance, they will be able to organise market entry more effectively.
They can keep core decision making in-house while outsourcing regulatory compliance and other specialised operations, ideally to a provider that can combine local knowledge with global reach.
Rethinking return on investment
As well as new geographies and new operating models, family offices are also considering new investments.
Private equity, real estate and private debt now surpass traditional public equities in many portfolios, with one industry study showing 60% of family offices are planning changes to their strategic asset allocation in the next 12 months as they search for yield and inflation resilience.
There is a move toward more private capital fund structures, with families collaborating to create co-investment strategies and joint ventures where they can invest directly but also maintain control, visibility and alignment with their own family objectives.
ESG is a big part of this trend, with families teaming up with like-minded peers who have the same expectations when it comes to both financial returns and impact investments. These types of investments can sometimes be quite illiquid and harder to both structure and then value in terms of return on investment.
It all comes down to what a family is trying to achieve. For example, a family may be keen to invest in a biotech start-up to drive meaningful societal impact and gain early access to breakthrough medical technologies, as well as high returns. But are they best served by a direct equity investment, a co-investment syndicate or a special purpose vehicle?
This is where a family can again tap into Jersey’s experienced expert ecosystem to help them structure the investment so it can unlock the desired outcomes.
The acceleration of AI
AI is definitely alive and well in the finance industry, as well as across legal firms and other support industries. Everyone is now using AI tools to enhance everyday tasks.
Enthusiasm for AI is prevalent across family offices, who are applying the technology to foundational operations and aggregated data in order to realise new efficiencies and improve decision-making.
But there are risks as well, with hallucinations hampering outputs. The private wealth sector deals with exceptionally sensitive clients, with a need for discretion to protect both their data privacy and their security.
It’s therefore advisable to adopt a balanced approach, especially in areas such as anti-money laundering and due diligence. Family offices should aim to control AI, rather than becoming controlled by it. There is no substitute for human sense and experience, so it’s important all use cases retain an element of human review and are considered in the context of what the family wants to achieve.
Planning for success
Jersey isn’t subject to the same levels of political change and economic instability seen in some other jurisdictions.
It’s also among the least complex jurisdictions to do business in, according to TMF Group’s Global Business Complexity Index 2026, showing that recent legislative and regulatory reforms are having the intended effect.
The Island provides family offices with the professionalisation required as the private wealth sector develops, and acts as a launch pad for investments across multiple other jurisdictions.
It all starts with a proper plan. Family offices should assess priorities and map out their operations. It’s important to future-proof plans, looking at succession timings and how to build in transition mechanisms to facilitate a smooth shift from one generation to another, ensuring that next generation is sufficiently educated and aware of their responsibilities.
Once that plan is in place, Jersey’s expert ecosystem awaits.
