By Mindaugas Suklevicius – Founder and Fund Manager at HF Quarters
Europe is entering a period of historic wealth transition. Over the coming years, trillions of euros are expected to change hands, reshaping control, decision making, and governance within family offices by 2030. Yet many families remain underprepared. Globally, only just over half of family offices have a formal succession plan in place, leaving a meaningful portion exposed when leadership and ownership shift.
Succession planning is one of the clearest areas where family offices often fall short, despite many anticipating a transition within the next decade. European focused research consistently highlights governance and succession as key risk areas. In practice, planning is frequently delayed or deprioritised until circumstances force action. At the same time, wealth transfer at the very top is accelerating. In 2025 alone, a record number of new billionaires emerged through inheritance, underscoring the scale and speed of the transition now underway.
Against this backdrop, professionalisation has become the norm across family offices worldwide. Families increasingly favour clear structures, defined responsibilities, and a deliberate approach to what is managed in house versus outsourced. When applied to portfolios, several practical priorities emerge.
First, family governance must be clearly connected to investment governance. How the family council interacts with the investment committee, how disagreements are resolved, and where delegation begins and ends all need to be explicit particularly during periods of transition, when decision rights can easily blur.
Second, intent needs to be translated into structure. Family objectives should be reflected in documented mandates, risk limits, and liquidity frameworks. Without this, pacing, capital calls, or distributions risk becoming improvised at precisely the wrong moment.
Third, friction should be planned for not avoided. Defining triggers for interim leadership, ensuring signatory coverage, and agreeing in advance on portfolio actions under stress can preserve momentum when it matters most. Yet globally, fewer than one third of family offices extend risk management practices beyond investments to their broader operations, leaving them vulnerable to disruption during handovers.
Ultimately, strong infrastructure enables smooth succession. When roles, limits, and liquidity rules are clearly defined and agreed well before control changes hands, families are better positioned to avoid forced decisions and preserve execution speed. The European wealth transition is no longer a distant prospect. Putting the right operating system in place now is essential to ensuring that wealth and the structures that support it endure across generations.