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Friday, 13 May 2016

America’s richest families are turning their backs on private equity firms

Wealthy families embrace their inner Warren Buffets: Families at the top of America’s rich list are turning their backs on private equity funds and doing acquisitions themselves, Bloomberg reported. An April survey of 80 family offices by the Family Office Exchange found that almost 70% of family offices undertake direct investing, making returns of 15% on average, which is almost double the gains that private equity firms make. There are numerous advantages to this trend, mainly the fact that rich families don’t have to pay the 2% annual management fee to private equity firms and get to keep 20% of the profits. They also wouldn’t be feeling the pressure from investors to sell within 10 years to cash out, avoiding a “force exit.” Private equity firms, on the other hand, are now employing executives “to court wealthy families” so that they don’t lose their source of money, with four trillion from rich families reportedly “up for grabs.”

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