A family office is a privately held company that exists in a high net-worth (HNW) or an ultra-high net-worth (UNHW) household to help them manage their wealth and investments. The family office assists a HNW or UHNW family to run their businesses, investment, and lifestyles and often includes administrative staff, accountants, HR, and executive assistants.

In this blog we’ll discuss further what is meant by a family office, the various roles within a family office, and what is required to work for a family office.

What Can a Family Office Manage?

A family office is as unique as the family it serves, but for the most part family offices are created to manage a family’s overall wealth and financial needs. There are a few common services that are frequently provided by those working within a family office setting. Some of these may include:

Investment strategy and management
Tax planning
Estate planning
Philanthropic planning
Family education & multi-generational planning
Lifestyle management services

When Do You Need a Family Office?

For HNW or UHNW families, it is not uncommon to have a family office that is integrated into your day-to-day life. Some families choose to create their own personal family offices (known as a ‘Single Family Office’), whereas others may look to hire external services and share their offices across families (known as a ‘Multi-Family Office’ or ‘MFO’). Increasingly, families are also looking to use a ‘Virtual Family Office’ so that whole families can effectively manage their investments and wealth no matter where they are based globally. Households looking to create a dedicated family office typically have at least $100 million in investable assets whereas individuals or households with assets greater than $20 million may be better served by an MFO. Families and households may choose to create a family office so that they can maintain control of their own finances whilst preserving privacy, benefit from collective buying power across the whole family, and have a dedicated team devoted to upholding their family values and image whilst assuring their financial and personal long-term goals.

Is Working for a Family Office the Same as Working for a Family?

In short, no - working for a family and working for a family office are not the same. Working for a family often means that you are dealing with the principal of the house on a regular basis and you may be the only employee in that household. On the other hand, a family office may be an advisory firm focusing on private wealth management, or a separate legal entity that has been created to manage often multi-generational families and their wealth. They often hire multiple staff members so that they can offer end-to-end solutions for UHNW families encompassing everything from investment strategy and budgeting to household staff recruitment and management. Therefore, for households that have a family office, you would expect to see multiple staff such as lawyers, accountants, insurance professionals and more. For households requiring a family office, their lifestyles often require as much managing as a medium or large private firm and as such, require adequate and appropriate staffing.

Who Works in a Family Office?

As discussed above, often a family office will require many staff members with some family offices hiring around 15-20 people, each with their own set of expertise. Within this, there are a multitude of roles but some of the most common roles are:

→ Chief of Staff/Chief Operating Officer

→ Lawyers

→ Accountants

→ Financial Advisor

→ Personal Assistants

→ Estate Planners

→ Other Household Staff (e.g Nanny/Housekeeper/Private Chef etc)

What are the Benefits of Working for a Family Office?

No matter your position, there are definite benefits of working for a household that has a family office. Firstly, if you like working as part of a larger team, working for a family office means that you are likely to have colleagues in the same household working towards the same goal. Often when working as a Nanny or Housekeeper, you can be the sole employee of the house but working for a family office means that you may be able to work with other people in similar roles and you may even report to more senior staff instead of the parents/estate owners. What’s more, when working for a family office it is more akin to working for a medium or large-sized company and so you may expect to have slightly better benefits versus working in a more traditional principal-employee setting.

Whilst the above may certainly be true, working in a family office isn’t for everyone. Whilst you are likely to be part of a bigger team, you are also more likely to be treated as an employee instead of as part of the family. A household requiring a family office often means that the family’s day-to-day lives are very complex and so you may have less regular interaction with the principals and also be further away from decision-making. For more advice on the advantages and drawbacks of working for a family office and to work out whether it might be a good career route for you, be sure to read this article.

How Can I Work for a Family Office?

The requirements to be work for a family office will vary hugely dependent on the role that you are applying for. Whilst a high-quality education appropriate to the role will be paramount, it is also expected that you have previous experience working within households/properties of this nature and an employer will expect to see strong letters of recommendation from previous employers that will testify to your trustworthy and reliable nature. After all, employers are will be trusting those who work in their family office to work in their home and deal with their families, personal and financial information, property and belongings.

Bringing you peace of mind: My Household Managed

My Household Managed was founded by a former recruiter and nanny, so we understand the importance of people’s rights as domestic employees and act as an advocate for them when placing them in a job. Our goal is to find the perfect match for both homeowner and job candidate, while saving both the time and energy in the process.

Our 10-step process is as follows:

Client/family office submits an online application
We have an introductory call with the client to get to know them and their family, lifestyle, and specific needs
We create a customized job description and post it to our website (once we have client approval)
We perform an applicant search through our database, or source new candidates
We narrow down to the 3-5 best-matched candidates and share their resumes, references, interview notes, and any other important information
A phone or virtual interview is held between the client and candidate
If the client is interested, a second interview is held at the estate
A written offer is made to the chosen candidate, followed by a background check
Along with the client, My Household Managed creates a work agreement — signed by both the homeowner and new employee
My Household Managed provides new hire resources, including onboarding materials for the employee; payroll, tax, and insurance information; and 30-day and 10-month check ins