High times for ultra-high-net-worth families

Stacks of U.S. one-dollar bills are arranged for a photograph in New York, U.S. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg

Average returns in 2017 double those in 2016, according to UBS and Campden survey.

These are heady times for the world’s richest clans.

Family offices scored average returns of 15.5% last year, up from 7% in 2016 and 0.3% the prior year, according to UBS Group and Campden Wealth. Those in Asia led the way with a 16.4% return in 2017, fueled by soaring stock markets and private equity.

This is the fifth annual survey from UBS and Campden, providing insight into the discreet world of family offices, which manage the fortunes, tax affairs and often lifestyles of the wealthy. While the Rockefeller family set up one of the earliest versions in the 1800s and European families were early adopters, they’ve proliferated this century, partly because of the boom in tech billionaires.

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen created Vulcan Capital in 2003. A few years later, Alphabet Inc. president Sergey Brin started Bayshore Global Management, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt set up Hillspire. Mr. Brin’s Los Altos, Calif.-based firm has employed ex-bankers, philanthropy experts and a former Navy Seal for security, while Mr. Schmidt’s Palo Alto-based family office controls a 20% stake in hedge fund D.E. Shaw & Co. The trio have collective fortunes valued at almost $100 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The pace of new family offices has accelerated especially within the past decade, driven by the rise of Asian wealth, with UBS estimating that a new billionaire is minted in China every two days. Asia is now home to a quarter of the people on Bloomberg’s ranking of the world’s 500 richest people, second only to North America.