The Rise of the Cross-Border Family Office

Ten years ago, asking where a family office was based usually got one answer: London, Geneva or New York. Today the honest answer is often "which part do you mean?"

A typical picture now looks something like this. The founder lives in Dubai. One child is at university in London and another has settled in Singapore. The operating business is in continental Europe, the family trust was settled in Jersey decades ago, and new investments are made through a vehicle in the DIFC. The family office is no longer one place. It is a network of people, entities and legal systems.

The research confirms this is now the norm rather than the exception. Ocorian's 2026 Family Office Report found that 87% of family offices have opened offices in additional jurisdictions in the past five years, and 61% reported more family members living abroad or holding more than one citizenship. AlTi Tiedemann Global and Campden Wealth found in 2025 that 57% of single family offices had at least one family member living outside the office's home jurisdiction.

What has changed

The UK has changed its approach to inheritance tax. From 6 April 2025, long-term residence replaced domicile as the basis for determining exposure on overseas assets. Broadly, residence in at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years brings those assets within scope, and exposure can continue for three to ten tax years after departure, subject to transitional provisions. Residence planning therefore requires a longer view.

International financial centres are competing for family capital, but the choice requires more than comparing incentives. Families must understand the local substance requirements, investment capabilities and ongoing costs of establishing a meaningful presence.

Families are also diversifying jurisdictional risk. Geopolitical uncertainty makes banking access, regulatory stability and operational continuity part of investment planning. Relationships across several centres can reduce dependence on any single institution or jurisdiction.

Where the family lives is only part of the story

A cross-border family office is also an investment enterprise. Its responsibilities extend beyond coordinating residence, tax and succession to deciding where capital should be deployed, which businesses to own and which partners to back. A family may be based in one jurisdiction while building a portfolio of operating businesses, real estate and private market investments across several others.

This requires a clear distinction between the geography of the family and the geography of its capital. Relocating a principal does not, by itself, create a coherent investment strategy. The family still needs an agreed mandate: its return objectives, appetite for illiquidity, concentration limits and the decisions it will retain in-house.

Relationships can open the door to an investment, but ownership requires more. When investing alongside another family or a local partner, the questions become practical: who controls the asset, what information shareholders receive, how further capital is approved and what happens when investors want different outcomes. These are central questions for any family deploying capital across borders.

Liquidity also needs to be considered across the whole family balance sheet. Private investments may require further capital while family members need distributions in different currencies. The office needs visibility over those obligations, alongside the resources available to meet them, so that long-term investment conviction is supported by the ability to remain invested.

What families need to understand

Legacy structures need fresh scrutiny. Offshore trusts and holding vehicles may no longer deliver the outcomes families expected when they were established. Changes in residence, beneficiaries and tax rules can alter their treatment. The relevant question is whether each structure still serves today's family and investment objectives.

Succession also crosses legal systems. Families need to understand which laws govern inheritance in each jurisdiction and whether wills and ownership structures work together. A single English will may not adequately address assets held internationally.

Coordination is the real bottleneck. Ocorian's research identified cross-border tax coordination and oversight of private market vehicles as the areas where family offices feel most stretched. Each local adviser may be excellent in their own jurisdiction yet unaware of how their advice interacts with the trust in Jersey or the beneficiary in Singapore. Unless someone owns the whole picture, nobody does.

Reporting supports investment decisions as well as compliance. Without a consolidated view across jurisdictions, currencies and investment vehicles, families can struggle to understand their overall exposure, coordinate decisions and maintain effective oversight. That view should encompass liquidity, outstanding capital commitments and the concentration of risk across both the investment portfolio and the family’s operating businesses. With Common Reporting Standard obligations and filings in several countries, gaps in reporting can also become gaps in compliance.

The practical decisions

For principals and boards, five decisions deserve attention now.

1. Map residence for every family member, year by year. Count tax years against the UK long-term residence test and equivalent rules elsewhere, and note when tails and regime windows end. Where a child studies or a founder retires now carries long tax consequences.
2. Review legacy trusts and holding structures. Test each one against today's rules and today's family, not the circumstances on the day it was set up.
3. Align wills and succession documents with where assets actually sit. Consider whether separate wills or local structures are needed in each jurisdiction, and check that they do not revoke each other.
4. Appoint one owner of the whole picture. This may be a family office executive or a lead adviser, but it must be a named person with the authority to coordinate the specialists. Investment authority should be equally clear: who approves transactions, monitors concentration and liquidity, and resolves conflicts between family members or related investment vehicles?
5. Choose jurisdictions for substance, not headlines. Before adding a new centre, be clear what the family will actually do there, who it will employ and what that will cost each year.

The rising generation is already there

The generation now taking on responsibility in family offices has often studied in one country, worked in another and lives in a third. For them, cross-border is simply how life works. Many are inheriting offices designed for a single country and a single founder. Bringing them into governance early, including decisions about residence and structure, is one of the most effective ways to make those structures survive the transition.

Why we created Family Office Women, A Global Alliance

A second shift is running alongside this one: women are taking greater responsibility for the ownership, allocation and governance of family capital. As family principals, business owners, investors, investment committee members and next-generation leaders, they are helping determine which businesses families own, which partners they back and how wealth is sustained. For internationally connected families, these responsibilities extend across markets, legal systems and generations.

We founded Family Office Women to connect women who own, allocate and govern family capital. The alliance brings together female family principals, investors, next-generation family members and senior family office leaders in a private setting for informed dialogue and trusted relationships.

Our conversations address investment evaluation, partner selection, governance and long-term growth. Through private gatherings and peer exchange across international centres, members share experience, understand unfamiliar markets and explore potential collaboration.

Meaningful participation includes investment committee representation, access to information and a role in shaping mandates, risk appetite and succession. These responsibilities should be developed early, giving women the experience and authority to help determine the direction of family wealth.

Designed or drifted?

For internationally connected families, the question is whether their family office has been deliberately designed to support how they live, invest and own assets. A coherent approach connects investment strategy, decision-making authority and family priorities across jurisdictions. That is how a global footprint can become a lasting source of opportunity and resilience.