Family offices are writing the checks

When the Wypychewicz family looked to grow beyond the industrial company that created their wealth, they didn't hire outside financiers. Their own Koronea Family Office cut the check. In March, Koronea agreed to spend nearly $70 million to secure a controlling position in Atlas Trafo, a Turkish transformer producer. It is one piece in a broader acquisition push aimed at assembling an international power engineering group anchored by ZPUE.

Deals like this are popping up more often as fortunes from Poland's first wave of post-communist entrepreneurs shift into professionally run capital vehicles that protect wealth while scouting investments at home and abroad. Private equity veteran Wojciech Jezierski said, "This is definitely not a fad. It is a sign of the growing maturity of Polish entrepreneurs and Polish capital," and added that in 2024 he came on board at the Wypychewicz family office to oversee assets and spearhead deals.

Koronea is seeing more inbound interest too. With transactions in Germany and positions in public markets, including the US, other business owners are seeking co-investments. Jezierski explained why that resonates: "Private business owners often trust other entrepreneurs more than banks, valuing advice from people who think like owners, take a long-term view and work in their interests rather than focus on fees." He added that Koronea is weighing its next evolution: "Given the scale of assets involved and the strong interest we are seeing, we are exploring whether a multi-family office model could be part of our evolution."

A bigger pool of wealth, and a broader playbook

Poland's economy has expanded to roughly twice its size over the last 20 years, lifted by productivity gains, foreign capital and tighter European integration. That tailwind produced a wide cohort of self-made founders across retail, manufacturing, logistics, property and tech. For years, surplus cash often went into local real estate, long a favorite inflation hedge. Then came the pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and demographic changes at home, and many entrepreneurs started rethinking how and where they hold assets.

Since 2021, the tally of residents holding at least $30 million has more than doubled, reaching about 3,000 - the swiftest growth among countries tracked by Knight Frank. UBS Group AG also notes Poland's dollar-millionaire count grew faster over the past decade than Germany, the UK or Italy. That momentum is opening doors in finance. Krzysztof Krawczyk - previously in charge of CVC Capital Partners' fund in Poland and now the founder of the K2 Investments platform - said, "Enabling wealthy individuals to enter private investments segment in a professional, structured and activist manner will be one of the financial industry's biggest opportunities." "The number of calls I'm getting tells me the market is there."

That shift to diversify abroad aligned with new tax rules in 2023 that made family foundations more attractive, encouraging succession planning at home and reducing reliance on offshore setups. More than 4,000 foundations have been registered, though many appear designed mainly for tax and estate reasons rather than active investing. "The new regulations helped significantly. Entrepreneurs and their families quickly began taking stock and realized that most of their assets were concentrated in Poland and, on top of that, were poorly diversified," said Michal Parkowski, head of Ceres Dom Investycyjny SA, which manages 7.5 billion zloty ($2 billion) for wealthy clients. "That, combined with the fear of war, gave a major boost to our business."

Succession is becoming urgent. Bank Pekao SA estimates almost 50,000 entrepreneurs are already beyond retirement age, with another 250,000 over 50, and PwC finds more than half of family firms are still founder-led. Recent family disputes have highlighted the value of robust structures. In the Solorz case, Liechtenstein foundations helped maintain control over media and telecom assets during a two-year feud.

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Who's serving this money, and what it means for your wallet

Local institutions moved quickly. Polish banks expanded private banking to deliver stable returns that outpaced inflation and protected decades of hard-earned wealth. Mutual fund managers followed by introducing products such as private debt as clients looked for higher yields. That evolution has opened new career paths in a market historically geared to mass retail across roughly 38 million people.

Many wealthy families are building in-house teams. In July, top executives from PKO TFI SA, Poland's biggest mutual fund, moved to billionaire Dominika Kulczyk's family office. Other notable families - among them the industrial wealth behind Koronea and TDJ, the Domogala family's investment vehicle - have hired professionals from Abris Capital Partners, EY, JPMorgan and PKO.

After turning STS SA into Poland's leading bookmaker and selling the business in 2023, Mateusz Juroszek expanded the family office he set up in 2021. "As one of the forerunners, we are now getting inquiries from other entrepreneurs asking for advice on how to set up their own investment boutiques," he said. "But building the right setup takes time, especially given the growing competition for investment and legal talent and the need to tailor the structure to each family's needs."

Global players are edging in. Through its local bank, BNP Paribas has begun introducing offerings for ultra-wealthy clients, while Goldman Sachs is hiring a private wealth adviser to develop a Central and Eastern Europe business, and UBS maintains only a small footprint in Poland after its 2023 acquisition of Credit Suisse AG. Many foreign firms continue to serve the richest Poles from hubs abroad or via local partnerships.

For domestic managers, that slower pace buys time to deepen relationships as the market grows. Poland also has a wider base of affluent entrepreneurs than nearby countries like the Czech Republic, which makes it harder for Swiss-based bankers to cover the rising client count without zeroing in only on the top tier.

For everyday investors watching from the sidelines, here's the takeaway: a lot of founders who took outsized risks in the 1990s are now cashing out and switching from growth-at-all-costs to wealth preservation. As Parkowski put it, "After selling their companies and receiving a large lump sum, they need to shift from taking risks to preserving wealth. Both they and their children increasingly see the need for advise to help allocate that money wisely. In many cases, they may ultimately prefer to hire local professionals." When more capital gets professionalized, it often pushes demand for steadier returns and better diversification - the same themes that help regular portfolios ride out uncertainty.

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