Money talks as the world's wealthiest families got richer in 2016
A report by family office researchers Campden Wealth and Swiss bank UBS published on Tuesday said that just 10 of the world's 262 richest families saw a decline in their wealth in 2016 thanks to stock market booms and money making private-equity deals.
In total, 74% of families with an average fortune of $1.45bn reported an increase of their wealth in 2016, with a further 22% showing no change to their fortunes and a mere 4% posting a decline.
The average rate of return generated by family offices came in at 7%, significantly above the 0.35% offered by the likes of Barclays, Lloyd's and HSBC, according to the Bank of England.
"Irrespective of the global economic challenges, great wealth is continuing to be generated across the globe," said Campden Wealth's chief executive, Dominic Samuelson.
Samuelson said family offices, which were pioneered by the Rockefeller's when John D established one for the family in 1882 in his effort to preserve its wealth for coming generations, made a huge rebound from their 0.3% average return in 2015 thanks to booming equity markets and successful private equity deals, noting long-term investors had made "slightly riskier bets and chosen to select more illiquid strategies that have delivered better returns and yields."
Of those included in the study, 44% of family offices were run by a family member collecting an average pay of $367,000 - a 10% bump on 2015 - and an average bonus of 45% their base salary.