The family office is evolving from a wealth management vehicle into a sovereignty architecture.
In 2025, global family office assets surpassed $124 trillion. More significantly, the fastest-growing segment is what we term the "sovereign family office," a structure that integrates multi-jurisdictional citizenship, residency, tax optimization, and generational wealth transfer into a single, coherent strategy.
The Architecture of Generational Freedom
Consider a typical engagement: a US-based family with $50M in assets acquires Portuguese Golden Visa residency for EU access, Grenadian citizenship for US E-2 treaty access and China visa-free entry, and establishes a Singapore family office for Asian wealth management. Each piece reinforces the others, creating a structure that is antifragile by design.
The next generation inherits not just wealth, but infrastructure: passports, residencies, banking relationships, and strategic options that would take decades to build from scratch. This is the essence of legacy planning in the modern era.
Key Trends for 2026
Healthcare access is emerging as a primary driver, with families seeking EU residency specifically for access to European healthcare systems. Education is another catalyst, as Golden Visa residency provides access to EU university tuition rates. And geopolitical hedging is no longer a fringe concern but a mainstream family office priority.