Intergenerational capital is leaving Northern Europe and seeking in the Mediterranean what it can no longer find: predictability
They are neither celebrities nor cover-story tycoons. They do not feature on Forbes lists nor do they open skyscrapers bearing their names. They are tech founders, second-generation heirs and wealth managers who operate through structures designed to think in terms of decades, not quarters. And they are looking south. Family offices — those private vehicles that manage the investment, succession, taxation, philanthropy and residency of large family fortunes — have begun a quiet shift towards southern Europe that is not driven by a trend or a whim of the weather. It responds to a logic that UBS, in its 2024 Global Family Office Report, has clearly defined: “Family offices take a long-term, multi-generational perspective”. That perspective no longer finds a home in London, Zurich or Frankfurt.
This phenomenon is part of a wider trend. According to the Henley Private Wealth Migration Report 2025, 142,000 millionaires are expected to change their country of residence this year – the highest figure ever recorded. But within this wave, the movement of family offices is of a different nature. A wealthy individual can move and return. A family office that relocates takes with it capital, jobs, investment networks and professional services. This is not luxury tourism. It is the settlement of financial power.
The UK has been at the epicentre of the upheaval. The abolition of the non-dom regime, announced by Keir Starmer’s Labour government and effective from April 2025, has removed the tax advantage that for over two centuries had made London the global capital of international wealth management. According to projections by Henley & Partners, the country will lose 16,500 millionaires in 2025 alone. Many of them are not isolated individuals: they are the visible heads of family structures that have begun to relocate their decision-making centres.
The destination has not, as one might expect, been Dubai or Singapore. At least not for everyone. A significant number have chosen the European Mediterranean. Italy recorded a net inflow of 3,600 millionaires in 2025. Portugal has attracted 1,400. Greece, 1,200. The three countries have combined competitive tax regimes — Italy’s flat tax for new residents, Portugal’s reforms to attract investors, Greece’s incentives — with something more difficult to legislate: institutional stability, quality of life and a political climate that, compared to the north, is moderate.
A private client director at Henley & Partners put it in terms that sum up the core motivation: “High-net-worth individuals are increasingly seeking stability and security”. For a family office, that stability is not an add-on. It is the prerequisite upon which everything else is built.
Family offices in Europe
The concept of the family office is not new. Its modern origins date back to 1882, when the Rockefeller family set up a structure dedicated to managing their wealth following the expansion of Standard Oil. In Europe, the Rothschilds had been operating along similar lines since the early 19th century. But for decades, these offices have remained anchored to traditional financial centres: the City of London, Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse, Amsterdam’s Grachtengordel.
What has changed is that the location of wealth is no longer bound to coincide with the location of the market. Knight Frank noted this in its 2024 reports: “Wealth is increasingly mobile”. High-level remote working, the digitalisation of asset management and the normalisation of cross-border structures have made it possible for a family office’s operational hub to be located on the Costa del Sol, in the Algarve or in the Cyclades without losing a single iota of connectivity with global markets.
The profile of the new resident reinforces this view. It is not the retired businessperson seeking sunshine. According to data from UBS, it is a member of the second or third generation who has studied at international universities, operates in English, prioritises sustainability and quality of life, and has grown up with a global outlook on residence. UBS has noted that “next-generation family members are reshaping investment priorities”. That redefinition includes where to live.
Southern Europe offers these families something that the north has begun to lose: calm. Not just in terms of the climate, but also in terms of regulation, society and reputation. At a time when the debate over wealth taxes has intensified in France, Germany and the Nordic countries, and when political polarisation has turned wealth visibility into a risk, the Mediterranean offers a less pressured environment. For families managing multigenerational legacies, discretion is not an aesthetic preference. It is an operational necessity.
Capital that stays
The economic impact of these relocations goes beyond mere wealth figures. Henley & Partners has documented that up to 20% of millionaires who move to another country are active entrepreneurs. A family office that sets up in a particular area does not simply pay tax there. It hires lawyers, tax advisers, investment managers and qualified domestic staff. It generates an ecosystem of high-value services which, over time, attracts other similar structures. Monaco has demonstrated this for half a century. Luxembourg and Ireland have replicated it with variations. Now, the Costa del Sol, Lisbon and Athens aspire to occupy a similar position.
In this context, the decision on where to live has ceased to be a personal matter and has become a strategic decision with business, tax and inheritance implications. Kate Everett-Allen of Knight Frank has explained that the pandemic has accelerated ‘lifestyle-led relocations’—but the underlying driver is another: the convergence between where one lives and where one invests. Previously, money was in one country and life in another. Now, the two tend to coincide.
Countries that have grasped this dynamic are now competing not only to attract capital, but also to retain infrastructure. An attractive tax rate is not enough if the judicial system is unpredictable, if the bureaucracy is hostile or if the social environment penalises wealth. Italy, with its scheme offering a flat tax of €100,000 per year for new tax residents, has attracted hundreds of family offices since its introduction in 2017. Portugal, despite the reformulation of its non-habitual residence programme, continues to attract high-net-worth individuals. Greece, with its golden visa and incentives for investors, has entered the fray with a bang since 2023.
The map of European financial power, in short, is being redrawn almost unnoticed. Without sensational headlines or champagne-fuelled inaugurations. The new resident does not arrive with suitcases. They arrive with a structure, with a generational time horizon and with a question that no finance minister in northern Europe wants to hear: why stay where they no longer feel welcome?
