Relational Wealth: Ownership Diffusion and Ownership Confusion in Wealthy Families

Economic elites have accumulated staggering resources. But scholars tend to conceptualize their wealth as singularly owned by individuals or households, neglecting long-established relational aspects of economic behavior. Using 30 interviews and six months of in-depth ethnographic observation at a “family office” that manages large fortunes, I ask how relationships shape elite perceptions of wealth ownership and the subsequent flows of family wealth. I find that when assets are legally shared (“diffused”), ownership perceptions can mismatch, and ownership can be “confused”. When owner- ship is confused, diffusing actors like family offices can influence ownership perceptions, shaping how elites wield wealth in practice. These shifts usually, but not exclusively, benefit “patriarchs.” Understanding the increasingly consequential resources of economic elites requires us to examine the assumption of unambiguous ownership: elite wealth is fundamentally entangled in familial and professional relationships.