The Numbers Are Real

UBS just published its Global Family Office Report 2026. The survey ran from January through late March, pulling responses from 307 family offices worldwide. These aren't retail investors checking their 401(k). The average participating family is worth $2.7 billion, according to Reuters.

The headline finding: 60% of family offices plan strategic changes to their investment allocation in the next 12 months. That's roughly double the rate of the past five years, according to CNBC.

North America is the only region these investors plan to reduce exposure to. They're adding to Latin America, Africa, Asia Pacific, and parts of Western Europe. The shift represents a significant reallocation of capital away from the U.S.

What's Driving It

John Mathews, UBS head of private wealth management for the Americas, told CNBC the conversation has shifted. A year ago it was trade tariffs. Now it's geopolitical risk, sovereign debt levels, and long-term interest rate trajectories.

UBS strategist Maximilian Kunkel said nearly half of surveyed family offices concluded they were excessively exposed to U.S. dollar-denominated assets across multiple categories. That realization is pushing them to diversify.

The specific concerns: an AI bubble risk in a highly concentrated U.S. stock market, a falling dollar, volatile policy swings out of Washington, and rising debt alongside bond yield pressure.

Almost two-thirds of family offices surveyed believe confidence in the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency could weaken over the next year, according to Times Now News, citing the UBS report.

"De-Dollarization" — What It Actually Means

Per Wikipedia's entry on dedollarisation, this refers to efforts by governments, firms, and market participants to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar in reserves, trade, and cross-border finance. It's been a slow-moving trend for two decades — the dollar's share of global reserves has drifted down gradually since the early 2000s.

The dollar replaced the British pound sterling as the dominant reserve currency starting in the 1920s. The Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944 cemented it as the global anchor. Nixon ended gold convertibility in 1971. The system has been under stress in one form or another ever since.

De-dollarization accelerates during periods of U.S. policy instability — which describes the current moment.

What Mainstream Coverage Is Getting Wrong

Left-leaning outlets are using this story as a cudgel against Trump tariff policy specifically, framing it as a referendum on his administration.

The deeper problem is decades of bipartisan fiscal recklessness. The U.S. national debt didn't hit dangerous levels in 2025. It's been building under both parties for 25 years. Obama doubled it. Trump added trillions in his first term. Biden added more. The wealthy families moving money aren't making a partisan statement — they're responding to a balance sheet, and that balance sheet is the cumulative result of Republican and Democrat spending alike.

Right-leaning coverage, meanwhile, tends to either dismiss this story as fear-mongering or blame it entirely on Biden-era policies. The dollar's structural challenges predate any single administration.

UBS executive Benjamin Cavalli noted: "For the first time, we are feeling that family offices want to build up in Asia Pacific and, to a certain degree, also in Western Europe." He added that while this mainly affects non-U.S. family offices, signs are emerging from American ones too, according to Times Now News.

The "Jurisdictional Diversification" Play

The new strategy among ultra-wealthy investors is "jurisdictional diversification" — spreading assets across multiple countries to hedge systemic risk. No single country is a safe haven right now.

Family offices are rotating toward emerging market equities, infrastructure investments, and away from real estate, per the UBS report. Asia Pacific and Western Europe are the destinations getting the most attention.

Two-thirds of family offices are making these structural moves.

Why Regular People Should Care

When the world's wealthiest families systematically reduce dollar exposure, that puts downward pressure on dollar demand. A weaker dollar means your purchasing power shrinks. Import prices go up. Gas, electronics, food with foreign inputs — all get more expensive.

The U.S. dollar's reserve currency status is the single biggest financial advantage this country has. It lets us borrow cheaply. It keeps inflation lower than it would otherwise be. If that status erodes — even gradually — the cost of America's debt spirals and ordinary Americans pay the price through higher interest rates and inflation.

Neither party in Washington is treating this as the emergency it is. The wealthy are hedging. The rest of us don't have that option.