Business-owning families are more comfortable investing in other illiquid businesses and are also drawn to tangible assets, new research from Family Office Exchange suggests.

Studying a group of 56 wealthy families, some of whom were business owners and others who were financial families, FOX found that the business owners had higher holdings of real estate and direct private equity. Business owners allocated 17 per cent and 12 per cent to real estate and private equity respectively, compared to 9 per cent and 4 per cent for financial families.

Financial families, meanwhile, had higher allocations to fixed income (23 per cent versus 16 per cent), domestic equity (25 per cent versus 21 per cent) and international equity (11 per cent versus 8 per cent).

“Financial families placed a greater emphasis on income derived from public markets, which is not surprising considering they lack the steady income of an operating business and are managing a more finite pool of assets,” said Sara Hamilton, chief executive of the Chicago-based organization.

The findings add to data from TIGER 21, a members club for ultra high net worth individuals, which in April said that its members, who largely come from entrepreneurial backgrounds, had increased their holdings of private equity in the first quarter. Members had an average allocation to private equity of 22 per cent at the end of the first quarter.

The FOX survey also found that 83 per cent of participants were planning to shift asset allocations away from fixed income to higher yielding assets, with real estate, other real assets, private equity and emerging markets listed among the top opportunities for this year. And in a sign that the financial crisis and recession might be fading in investors’ minds, over half the families were somewhat to very optimistic about the US and global economies

The survey was carried out in conjunction with the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, among alumni of the institution’s Private Wealth Management course. Of these, 55 per cent had more than $26 million in assets.