The U.S., where growth accelerated in the third quarter to cap its strongest six months in more than a decade, is “a big bright spot in the world,” said Stephen Cecchetti, professor of international economics at Brandeis International Business School in Waltham, Massachusetts. As the Fed winds down unprecedented stimulus, the European Central Bank is contemplating its own quantitative-easing program to tackle the weakest inflation in five years, and Japan is continuing purchases.

Venture Deals

Peca has been attracted to venture-capital deals in the U.S., said Adams, who declined to name the family he works for, citing privacy reasons. The firm has taken stakes this year in The Bouqs Co., an online flower-delivery business, and Circa, a mobile news service, Adams said. Both are closely held companies based in California.

The family office generally invests $1 million to $3 million, working alongside private-equity firms rather than through funds because it pays no fees or carried interest on co-investments.

“One of the things we’ve been very active in, in the last two years, is the venture capital scene,” Adams said in an interview via Skype.

McCloskey’s firm usually seeks equity and lending transactions in companies with enterprise values of $5 million to $100 million, he said, declining to name the family sponsoring him for privacy reasons.

Sideline Cash

Aeterna helped finance RLJ Entertainment Inc., a Silver Spring, Maryland-based video content distributor founded by Robert L. Johnson, because it liked the business, management and risk-reward profile, McCloskey said. Four other lenders were involved in the $70 million deal, according to an RLJ filing.

“There’s so much cash on the sidelines ready to be put to work by families that took money out in the financial crisis or that have operating businesses generating a lot of income that they haven’t put in the market yet,” said John Benevides, president of Chicago-based CTC myCFO LLC, which advises family offices and is a unit of the Bank of Montreal. “They are giving us a shopping list.”

‘More Cautious’

That capital has made finding bargains a challenge. Price multiples for U.S. private-equity deals are the highest since 2007, and some transactions are being done with less leverage as more equity is being contributed to the average deal, said Andrew Lee, head of alternative investments for the chief investment office at UBS AG’s wealth-management unit, which oversees $1 trillion. Those factors may make it harder to see returns as attractive as in the recent past, he said.

“We’re more cautious on allocating aggressively to U.S.- focused private-equity opportunities,” Lee said. “On a one-off basis there may be situations that may make sense.”

Valuations have also risen in U.S. venture-capital deals, particularly for later-stage companies, Lee said.

One area where family offices find opportunities are private companies looking for a new, private owner, said Francois de Visscher, whose Greenwich, Connecticut-based firm advises single family offices and family-owned businesses.