BlackRock survey of 206 single-family offices shows newer offices driving alternative investment shifts as private equity appetite rebounds
Family offices across the Americas are adding to infrastructure and private equity while holding steady on private credit, according to a new BlackRock survey that also points to a widening split between newer and long-established offices in how they approach alternative investments.
The asset manager polled 206 single-family offices in the U.S., Canada and Latin America between July and August, working with its data unit Preqin. The respondents collectively oversaw an estimated $491 billion in investable assets.
Infrastructure gains the most ground
No alternative asset class showed stronger momentum than infrastructure. Thirty percent of respondents said they plan to raise infrastructure allocations over the next 12 months, and just 6% plan cuts. BlackRock said the 24-percentage-point gap was the widest of any alternative it measured.
Younger offices, which BlackRock defined as offices founded less than 20 years ago, are behind most of that demand. Among them, 38% expect to increase infrastructure exposure, compared with 16% of offices more than two decades old. Newer offices also hold more already: 11% reported infrastructure allocations between 6% and 15%, and no older office in the sample reported an allocation that large.
The report argues gap comes down to a matter of timing. Infrastructure has emerged as a mainstream investable asset class only over roughly the past 20 years, so older offices built their illiquid portfolios around a different set of opportunities. Respondents most often cited diversification (32%), inflation hedging (26%) and low correlation with other assets (20%) as their reasons for investing.
The appetite BlackRock saw contrasts with findings earlier this year in J.P. Morgan Private Bank’s 2026 global family office report., where 79% of family offices had no exposure to infrastructure despite its role in supporting data centers, energy demand and digital networks tied to AI expansion.
Private equity rebounds, but exits weigh on returns
Private equity remains the anchor of family office alternatives portfolios, as a little more than half of respondents (52%) put more than 15% of their alternatives allocation in the asset class. Another 32% plan to add over the next year, up from 26% in BlackRock’s 2025 global family office survey.
The two generations of offices take different routes into private equity. Among newer offices, 45% named secondaries as a preferred route, compared with 28% of older ones. BlackRock reads this as a way to build positions quickly while limiting J-curve exposure. The J-curve refers to the early years of a private fund, when fees and costs typically push returns below zero before gains arrive. Established offices lean more on co-investments, at 75% against 60% for newer offices.
The optimism has limits. About three-quarters of respondents (76%) cited the exit environment as a main obstacle to private equity returns over the next 12 months, and half pointed to valuations.
Why are family offices lukewarm on private credit?
Private credit is the exception. Nearly half of respondents (49%) plan to keep allocations where they are, with 17% planning increases and 15% planning cuts. That is a cooler reading than a year earlier, when private credit topped the wish list.
The flat headline number may hide some reshuffling. Among offices planning changes, distressed debt is set to draw the strongest net demand. Business development companies and fund-of-funds, meanwhile, face net outflows.
Liquidity is the main constraint across private markets. Illiquidity was the top barrier to allocating more, cited by 54% of respondents. Access to top-tier managers (39%) and fees (36%) followed. Only 16% are reducing private capital exposure because of their view of the market cycle, and 48% say they are not changing allocations at all. Respondents expect to fund new commitments mainly from distributions on existing private funds and from cash on hand, rather than by selling public holdings.
“Newer offices are approaching private markets and liquidity differently than their more established peers, reinforcing the importance of balancing investment opportunities with each family’s unique cash-flow needs, constraints and long-term objectives,” said Armando Senra, head of the Americas institutional business at BlackRock.
BlackRock’s own alternatives push
The survey comes as BlackRock moves deeper into the same markets its clients are weighing. In its own third-quarter earnings disclosures, the giant asset manager said its alternatives platform held $800 billion in total assets at Sept. 30 – including $216 billion in infrastructure and $249 billion in private credit – up from $717 billion a year earlier. Fee-paying alternatives assets were $573 billion.
Alternatives are a small share of BlackRock’s $15.5 trillion in assets but a much larger share of its fees, representing some 3% of assets and approximately 15% of base fees and securities lending revenue. BlackRock said it raised $68 billion in gross private markets fundraising over the 12 months through September and deployed approximately $88 billion.