Risk is always relative. If you have enough capital, you can afford to focus solely on the long run, and plan positions accordingly. In general portfolio theory

Risk is always relative. If you have enough capital, you can afford to focus solely on the long run, and plan positions accordingly. In general portfolio theory managers aim to optimize an objective - for short term hedge funds that's typically Sharpe ratio or just net return, but for long term focus (e.g. a rich family), you focus on minimizing the probability of shortfall. That is, your family is going to spend some x% of your wealth every year. Then you only need to return x% on the fund (approximately) on a yearly basis. There is very little real risk associated with this strategy, if you're rich and needing to earn a small percent of your total assets, say 3%. Now, if your family isn't rich, you're probably going to need to spend much more than 3% in income, and your probability of shortfall increases dramatically. This is similar to how college endowments work - do you think Harvard's endowment has a high chance of going dry anytime soon? Tangentially, their tax-free status is tied to spending 5% of the assets each year, which actually makes their job a lot harder, and is why they need to still raise money.