Rainmaker counts 133 active offices nationwide
Australia’s family office sector now oversees at least $323 billion, with Rainmaker Information identifying 99 local offices that report funds under management. The total has risen sharply from $88.6 billion in 2010.
Rainmaker also counted 133 active family offices across the country. That gives Australia 2.2% of all recorded family offices worldwide by organisation count.
A family office is a private organisation set up to handle a wealthy family’s investments, finances, governance, succession planning and administration. Some serve one family only, while others work for several wealthy families.
The market remains highly concentrated. Offices with at least $1 billion under management control 93% of reported assets, and the 10 biggest groups hold 56% of the total.
Typical office sizes are also large. The median Australian family office manages about $1.2 billion across all reporting entities, rising to $2.0 billion among those that reported in the most recent calendar year.
Sydney and Perth dominate assets
Sydney holds the largest share of reported family office assets at 36%. Perth follows with 30%, ahead of Melbourne on 23% and Brisbane on 11%.
Rainmaker linked the weight of Sydney and Perth to where entrepreneurial fortunes and resources-related wealth are concentrated.
Dr David Gallagher, Rainmaker Information’s executive director of research, said family offices are becoming a more important part of the investment market as wealth creation, inter-generational transfers and business exits speed up around the world.
He said families often use these structures to spread their exposure across different assets as their wealth grows and becomes harder to manage.
Rainmaker described family offices as one of the most private and opaque parts of the wealth market, with limited public disclosure. To build its figures, the company combined its long-running tracking of Australian family office assets with Family Office Access data on global operating structures and key decision-makers.
The broader international dataset covers 5,957 family offices across 89 countries and 1,102 cities. North America accounts for 51% of recorded offices, while Europe represents 23%.
Gallagher said the rise of Australia’s family office sector also reflects two decades of successful entrepreneurs, business owners and multi-generational wealth holders building larger pools of private capital.
