2025 was a turbulent year for the global economy, with private clients around the world taking an increasingly proactive approach to diversifying across asset classes and regions to protect and grow their wealth. As we move through 2026, Darren Kelland, Head of Private Client at Hawksford, explores how the US private client landscape specifically is continuing to shift.
How are the perceptions of international investors changing in relation to the US market in early 2026?
Darren Kelland (DK): The sentiment at the start of this year was that, driven by its own domestic economic policy, the US was a less attractive market for international – and domestic investors – and unless there was a significant shift in that policy, that was likely to remain the case. The US administration’s 'America First' philosophy in particular made the free movement of capital more challenging, and while that was perhaps a benefit for patient capital, those who were looking for more certainty over shorter time horizons have looked for other opportunities.
Ultimately, what we have seen as we’ve moved into 2026 is a continuation of that trend – but it has not been a shift in one single direction, but rather a bifurcation into cautious short-term positioning alongside sustained medium-term conviction. That’s been supported by wider macro market drivers, including of course escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, which is introducing renewed energy-related volatility.
What about US-based investors?
DK: The immediate economic fortunes of domestic investment have made US-based investors a little twitchy. There are muted signs of an inflationary response to tariffs, but the concept of US-based manufacturing replacing overseas trade will inevitably equate to increased costs for consumers. This may be balanced with greater GDP, but it's difficult to see how this won't end up in a wage-price spiral.
In the medium-term, structural confidence in the US remains intact among private investors and family offices, with the offer of superior earnings growth, depth of capital markets and opportunities linked to innovation.
In the shorter-term, however, US-based clients remain cautious, and as a result are looking increasingly overseas for calmer investment waters.
What are those ‘calmer waters’, and where are investors looking?
DK: Ultimately, it’s about investors seeking out safe havens. Across Western markets, inflation has become the biggest concern, GDP is relatively muted and there may well be interest rate rises on the horizon to curtail those inflationary pressures. Interestingly, the US dollar has weakened and strengthened since the start of the year, and gold prices have risen and then fallen, demonstrating something of an inverse relationship to the US dollar.
Combined, all this suggests that Asia is positioned well at the moment as an attractive, stable region for investment, being geographically distant from the geopolitical issues in the Middle East and Europe, and with a positive economic outlook. China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia, for instance, are all expected to grow at levels beyond the current expectations of Western economies. Things can change rapidly, of course, but the indications point to private capital seeking stable growth making its way to Asia.
What does the longer term picture look like for the US private client space?
DK: There are a lot of forces at play, but the longer-term picture for private clients is for a more selective and sophisticated approach to US exposure. What has changed is not whether to invest in the US, but how.
Private clients, for instance, are leaning towards greater selectivity and a continued migration into alternatives such as private equity and co-investments, while family offices are treating the US less as a passive allocation and more as an active, opportunity-driven market.
What does that mean in terms of structuring, and how is Hawksford supporting these shifting dynamics?
DK: The evolution we’ve witnessed over early 2026 in relation to the US centres around ‘cautious conviction’. That means private clients and family offices building in more defensive measures backed up by appropriate structures in the short term, to address market volatility, domestic policy and wider geopolitical concerns, as well as agility to tap into the opportunities in Asia. But that needs to be balanced against a longer-term outlook which holds a continued strong belief in US structural outperformance.
With that in mind, global capability and flexibility from a service provider perspective are critical. This enables private clients and families to move quickly when and where they need to, with appropriate, watertight structuring solutions. In that respect, the movement of capital towards Asia is a strong play in particular for Hawksford – it’s a region where we have a strong presence and are well placed to help clients protect their wealth or to invest or expand. We have a substantial presence in Singapore, Hong Kong and China, for instance, as well as a well-developed network throughout Asia, which we fully expect to prove attractive as US mobile capital looks to avail of opportunities in those markets over the coming months.
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