While many of us have a lot of our wealth tied into the stock market, it’s a very different story for the world’s wealthiest families. Looking at recent data on family offices (the private investment arms of ultra-wealthy families) from CNBC and AI data platform Addepar, these families only have around 34% of their portfolios in equities.
So what else are they invested in? And are there ways for regular investors to copy them?
Wealthy investors have diversified investment portfolios
The pie chart below shows the average family office portfolio allocation in Q1 2026, according to Addepar. The data’s based on the portfolios of hundreds of family offices, ranging in size from $200m in assets to over $10bn and representing a total of $1.4trn in assets.
Immediately, a few things stand out. First, these investors have really diversified portfolios – there are lots of different asset classes.
Second, there’s quite a bit of exposure to alternative investments. I’m talking about asset classes such as private companies, private equity, hedge funds, and real estate.
The allocation to private companies is worth highlighting here. At 15.8% of the total, that’s a significant allocation to this area of the investment world.
Are private companies worth a look?
Is it worth following the wealthy and allocating some capital to private companies? I think so.
These days, a lot of successful companies are staying private for longer and making their investors a lot of money away from the stock market. Just look at SpaceX – it’s about to come to the public markets with a valuation of around $1.75trn.
It’s not an asset class I’d load up on, personally. Because it’s risky – a lot of early-stage private companies fail (it’s worth pointing out that wealthy families can afford to take on more risk).
But a small, diversified allocation could pay off. It could potentially offer a whole new source of growth while simultaneously offering diversification benefits.
How to gain access
Now, one easy way to gain exposure to private companies is via the Schiehallion Fund (LSE: MNTN). This is a publicly-traded investment trust that invests in later-stage private businesses.
It’s managed by Scottish investment firm Baillie Gifford. It’s the firm that manages the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (which also offers access to some private companies).
This product provides exposure to some really exciting private companies. At the end of April, top holdings included SpaceX, Anthropic, Databricks, Stripe, Wayve, and Vinted.
All of those companies have a ton of potential. And many could get much bigger before they go public.
Now, I need to stress that this product’s risky. While its performance has been very strong of late, it’s actually down over five years (because tech valuations soared during Covid and plummeted in 2022).
I think a small allocation’s worth considering however. In my view, it has the potential to play a valuable role in a portfolio.
Should you invest £5,000 in Schiehallion Fund right now?
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Edward Sheldon owns shares in Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust
