Private Credit Loses Ground in Fight for Family Office Money (1)

It’s the hottest trade on Wall Street. Everywhere you turn, money managers have upped their investments in private credit, helping the asset class balloon into a $1.7 trillion industry. But there’s one group where interest appears to already be waning — the family office.

Managers of the fortunes of the world’s ultra-wealthy are searching out private credit funds at a slower pace this year than last, according to the latest data from Preqin, an analytics company that tracks the alternative investment industry.

It bodes ill for direct lenders that are relying on the trillions of dollars that ...