Private Banking Kongress 2026: How Family Offices Are Reshaping Advisory and M&A
On 26 February 2026, Avalon Advisory attended the 38th private banking kongress at the Deutsches Sport und Olympia Museum in Cologne. Our Co-Founder Nicki Lange joined the event's investor panel, "Professionelle Mandate und neue Rollen: Wie sich die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Banken und Family Offices weiterentwickelt", a conversation on how the relationship between banks and Family Offices is evolving. The panel was led by Malte C. Dreher (Herausgeber, private banking magazin) and Christoph Fröhlich (Chefredakteur, DAS INVESTMENT), and brought Nicki together with Martin Drathen (Managing Director, WSH Family Office), Heidi Abraham (Family Office and Investment Strategist) and Sascha Häusler (Bereichsdirektor, KSK Köln).
A Shifting Landscape for High-Net-Worth AdvisoryThe starting point of the discussion was a clear structural shift. High-net-worth individuals and family offices are becoming more professionalised, and that is changing the traditional advisory model. Entrepreneurial families are structuring their assets more independently. Single Family Offices are building internal capabilities and redefining how they work with banks, asset managers and advisors. As capabilities move in-house, expectations rise, and roles and interfaces change with them.
The panel framed the shift around three questions:
How is the balance between traditional banking services and Family Office structures shifting?
What do families expect today from external partners, professionally and culturally?
Where does collaboration create value, and where does it intentionally end?
Avalon's Perspective: Working Alongside Family Offices
Nicki shared our view as an advisor that works closely with Family Offices. We provide access to curated investment opportunities and act as a trusted sparring partner in transaction processes. Family Offices, in turn, bring long-term thinking, entrepreneurial understanding and stable capital. That combination creates genuine alignment, especially in complex M&A situations where patience and a clear view on value matter as much as speed.
For us, the relationship with Family Offices is built on clarity, access and trust. They are reliable partners with a clear mandate and a differentiated perspective on risk and value creation. In a market where the lines between banking services and in-house capability keep moving, that clarity about what each side contributes, and where collaboration adds the most value, is what makes the partnership work.
Why This Matters for the Deals We Advise
Family Offices are an increasingly important counterparty in M&A, particularly for founder-led and entrepreneurial businesses looking for capital that understands the long game. Their entrepreneurial mindset, stable funding and willingness to think in decades rather than quarters make them natural partners in transactions where cultural fit and continuity are as decisive as price. Being close to this community, and understanding how it is professionalising, is part of how Avalon structures processes that hold up and partnerships that last.