Citi Wealth's 2026 global survey of 350-plus family offices reveals a strategic pivot toward public equities and succession planning, driven by inflation concerns and April 2026 inheritance tax reforms that cap business and farm relief at £2.5 million per individual.
The median family office in Citi's sample increased public equity exposure during 2026, with nearly half directing fresh capital to global developed equities. This pivot reflects a calculated response to what respondents named as top-of-mind concerns: inflation, followed by interest rate volatility, financial system stability and market correction risk. Private markets remain central to the allocation strategy—particularly growth equity and direct investing—but the liquidity case for public equities has strengthened.
Three-Pillar Strategy: Capital, Capability, Continuity
The survey identifies three interlocking imperatives shaping 2026 family-office strategy. Capital deployment has become more deliberate, with offices moving beyond passive holdings toward active direct investment and bespoke co-investment structures. Capability building reflects a trend toward institutional governance: families are hiring dedicated investment professionals, tightening decision processes and adopting formal risk frameworks. Continuity planning, the third pillar, signals that succession risk has crystallised into urgent action: families are convening governance councils, drafting family constitutions and preparing next-generation leaders for stewardship across 15-to-30-year horizons.
Succession priorities appear sharpened by tax environment change. Citi's survey occurred as UK Parliament finalised the inheritance tax reforms due to take effect 6 April 2026—a development that has immediate relevance for the substantial number of family offices with UK-regulated assets or cross-border estate structures.
Inheritance Tax Relief Caps Reshape Cross-Border Planning
From 6 April 2026, UK inheritance tax law applies a £2.5 million combined lifetime cap on Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR) at the 100-per-cent rate per individual. Assets above this threshold qualify for 50-per-cent relief, effectively raising the marginal inheritance tax rate on qualifying business and farm assets from the standard 0 per cent to 20 per cent above the cap.
The reform is particularly material for family offices where generational transfer of operating businesses or land holdings is a core structure. A married couple can now shield up to £5 million of qualifying business or agricultural assets from inheritance tax in full, with any surplus eligible for 50-per-cent mitigation. The change eliminates the unlimited relief that previously applied to such assets, forcing offices to model liquidity requirements for estates that exceed the cap.
The April 2026 change is the opening salvo of a two-year tax cycle: a second, more sweeping change arrives 6 April 2027, when unused pension savings enter the scope of inheritance tax for the first time. That change stands to affect wealth transfer strategies for families where pensions are a material component of estate structure—a common configuration among UK-domiciled principals with late-career accumulation.
Why This Matters for Hong Kong Family Offices
Hong Kong family offices with cross-border operations—particularly those with UK property holdings, UK-regulated entities or pension funds—should treat the April 2026 threshold as a planning inflection point. The shift from unlimited to capped relief forces offices to recalibrate two key decisions: the vehicle in which to hold UK-qualifying assets (direct ownership versus trustee structures) and the timing of transfers within the seven-year gift-tax lookback window that still applies to non-business/farm property.
For offices with multi-jurisdictional families—Hong Kong principals with UK pensions, London property or stakes in family businesses with UK operations—the inheritance tax cap creates a cross-border coordination problem. The office must model UK tax exposure separately from Hong Kong stamp duty (unlikely but possible on trust-held property transfers) and mainland China tax exposure (increasingly relevant for families with PRC operational assets). The April 2027 pension expansion deepens that coordination need and extends the planning timeline into 2027.
A family office with £4 million in UK-held business assets and £3 million in UK pension savings faces a simplified arithmetic: under the April 2026 rules, the business assets get full relief; under April 2027 rules, the pension assets add to the taxable estate, creating exposure on assets the family may have believed tax-sheltered. Cross-border offices begin such modelling 18 to 24 months ahead of enforcement, which means now.
The Two-Year Window and Next Checkpoint
The next material event for family-office tax planning is the April 2027 pension change, when unused savings held in pension wrappers join the taxable estate for the first time. That change is likely to be the subject of follow-up surveys among trustees, advisers and offices in late 2026 and early 2027, and will become the focal point of wealth transfer planning cycles this autumn and winter.
For now, Citi's 2026 report documents a critical moment where family offices are simultaneously managing a markets re-entry (favouring public equities for liquidity and near-term returns) and a tax re-entry (the first major UK inheritance tax tightening in a generation). The offices moving fastest on the three-pillar strategy—capital deployment, capability building, generational continuity—are those that began succession and tax planning 18 to 24 months ago. For offices catching up now, the eight-month window from October 2026 to April 2027 is the final planning window for structures that should have been optimised under the old rules.
