Key Takeaways
- • Cybersecurity has become the primary near-term risk for family offices, with 59 percent of surveyed offices citing data breaches and cyberattacks as near-term operational risks in 2026, up from 16 percent in 2025, according to RBC's North America Family Office Report.
- • Half of responding family offices experienced phishing attempts in 2026, and one-quarter saw a family member's personal accounts breached, while two-factor authentication fell from 92 percent to 83 percent and dual payment authorization dropped from 84 percent to 73 percent.
- • AI use is rising, with 54 percent of family offices using the technology for investment research and 36 percent to collect and manage internal data, though adoption remains cautious.
- • RBC's Adam Evans, chief information security officer, argues family offices need a governance roadmap, separating personal and office environments, and human review of AI output because large language models still produce hallucinations.
- • More than 70 percent of family offices now outsource at least part of their cybersecurity needs, per the report.
Summary
Artificial intelligence presents both efficiency gains and heightened security exposure for family offices, according to RBC Wealth Management. Generative and agentic AI can rapidly accelerate back-office processes and may reduce reliance on third-party services and lower operating costs. At the same time, concentrated wealth, lean governance structures and discreet operations make family offices an increasingly targeted group for cybercriminals, who are using AI to gather data at scale, hyper-personalize attack campaigns and create deceptive voice and video deepfakes drawn from social media.
RBC's North America Family Office Report identifies cybersecurity as the primary near-term risk cited by surveyed family offices. Concern about data breaches and cyberattacks grew to 59 percent in 2026 from 16 percent in 2025. The concerns are supported by experience: half of responding offices faced phishing attempts in 2026, and one-quarter saw a family member's personal accounts breached. Basic mitigations declined over the same period, with two-factor authentication falling from 92 percent to 83 percent and dual payment authorization from 84 percent to 73 percent.
Adoption is nonetheless advancing. The report finds 54 percent of respondents use AI for investment research and 36 percent use it to collect and manage internal data. Lori Woodman, managing director, Family Offices, RBC Enterprise Strategic Client Group, writes that many offices recognize that "a single breach or system failure ... can threaten the family's wealth." Adam Evans, RBC's chief information security officer, says offices with straightforward digital footprints can explore widely available tools such as Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini, and may later develop bespoke solutions as they grow more comfortable.
Manju Jessa, head, Family Offices and Strategic Clients, RBC Enterprise Strategic Client Group, stresses that sensitive information exchanged across advisors and trusted partners requires strong safeguards. Evans recommends separating a family's personal devices and social-media accounts from office and business environments, building layered cybersecurity appropriate to the assets being protected, and ensuring even small IT teams understand incident response roles. Planning should also address scenarios in which AI tools escape into other parts of a network and access data they should not reach.
Evans emphasizes that human oversight remains essential. "Large language models still suffer from hallucinations," he says, adding that output must be reviewed for accuracy. He concludes that AI will be highly helpful for productivity but that "family offices must be cognizant of AI's real-world risks as much as its potential benefits." The article was originally published in The Globe and Mail.
RBC's North America Family Office Report identifies cybersecurity as the primary near-term risk cited by surveyed family offices. Concern about data breaches and cyberattacks grew to 59 percent in 2026 from 16 percent in 2025. The concerns are supported by experience: half of responding offices faced phishing attempts in 2026, and one-quarter saw a family member's personal accounts breached. Basic mitigations declined over the same period, with two-factor authentication falling from 92 percent to 83 percent and dual payment authorization from 84 percent to 73 percent.
Adoption is nonetheless advancing. The report finds 54 percent of respondents use AI for investment research and 36 percent use it to collect and manage internal data. Lori Woodman, managing director, Family Offices, RBC Enterprise Strategic Client Group, writes that many offices recognize that "a single breach or system failure ... can threaten the family's wealth." Adam Evans, RBC's chief information security officer, says offices with straightforward digital footprints can explore widely available tools such as Microsoft Copilot, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini, and may later develop bespoke solutions as they grow more comfortable.
Manju Jessa, head, Family Offices and Strategic Clients, RBC Enterprise Strategic Client Group, stresses that sensitive information exchanged across advisors and trusted partners requires strong safeguards. Evans recommends separating a family's personal devices and social-media accounts from office and business environments, building layered cybersecurity appropriate to the assets being protected, and ensuring even small IT teams understand incident response roles. Planning should also address scenarios in which AI tools escape into other parts of a network and access data they should not reach.
Evans emphasizes that human oversight remains essential. "Large language models still suffer from hallucinations," he says, adding that output must be reviewed for accuracy. He concludes that AI will be highly helpful for productivity but that "family offices must be cognizant of AI's real-world risks as much as its potential benefits." The article was originally published in The Globe and Mail.
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