ZURICH, May 28 - Wealthy family offices around the globe are reassessing their reliance on the U.S. dollar, according to a UBS report released on Thursday. The Swiss bank said geopolitical tensions and mounting sovereign debt are driving a broader re-evaluation of portfolio risk among the families it surveyed.
The report, UBS's Global Family Office Report 2026, drew responses from 307 clients worldwide. Participating families in the survey had an average net worth of $2.7 billion. The polling was carried out between January and late March - a window that ended before the dollar began to outperform a number of its peers.
UBS highlighted several themes emerging from the survey. About two-thirds of family offices expect confidence in the dollar as a reserve currency to decline over the course of the year, the bank said. That sentiment, UBS added, has prompted many offices to review their currency exposures and overall asset mixes.
UBS strategist Maximilian Kunkel told the bank's readers that the dollar's depreciation in the year prior to the survey led numerous family offices to reassess holdings. Nearly half of the respondents concluded that they are overexposed to the U.S. currency across various asset classes, according to Kunkel.
That reassessment is translating into concrete portfolio changes. The report notes plans to reduce allocations to dollar-denominated assets and a move away from U.S.-centric positioning. Family offices indicated intentions to increase allocations to emerging market equities and infrastructure investments while trimming real estate holdings.
"For the first time, we are feeling that family offices want to build up in Asia Pacific and, to a certain degree, also in Western Europe," UBS executive Benjamin Cavalli said. He added that this trend is most pronounced among family offices located outside the United States, though a small degree of de-dollarisation is also visible among U.S.-based family offices.
Geopolitical conflict emerged as the top concern for respondents by a wide margin. UBS said that concern is prompting family offices to pair shifts in asset allocation with multishoring strategies - the practice of establishing family office activities across multiple jurisdictions to spread jurisdictional risk.
What UBS surveyed
- 307 family office clients worldwide participated in the survey.
- Responding families had an average net worth of $2.7 billion.
- The survey was conducted between January and late March, before the dollar began to outperform many peers.
The report paints a picture of cautious reallocation by high-net-worth families: reducing dollar concentration, seeking greater geographic diversification into Asia Pacific and Western Europe, and favoring emerging market stocks and infrastructure over some real estate positions. At the same time, geopolitical risk is reshaping operational footprints through multishoring.