In family offices, we do not hire on skills. Skills are a commodity, necessary as a threshold, but never differentiating in the final choice. When recruiting for a single family office, four traits have always mattered, and they have not changed.
Loyalty. Loyalty comes first. It means that when things go wrong, a person does not hide, deflect, or protect themselves. They step forward, take responsibility, and deal with it. At all times, they stand behind the flag, not behind their own career.
Ownership. Something has been lost in modern hiring: the principle of fire-and-forget. Delegate entirely, trust the person to carry the mandate to completion, and expect them back only when it is solved, when the plan genuinely needs to change, or when they need a real input. The people who make this model work treat the mandate as their own, not as something to be managed upward.
Drive. Do not hire people who explain why something cannot be done. As one of our founder's early mentors put it: "I don't pay you to tell me why you cannot do it. I pay you to get it done." Hire people who bring solutions to the desk at six on a Friday, not problems.
Adaptability. The fourth is the ability to blend in, or not. Some hires need to integrate seamlessly and lift the team around them. Others are hired precisely to shake the team up and create productive friction. Both have their place, provided unity is preserved.
What the team costs, by size and perimeter, is in our family office cost calculator.
Character comes first. Everything else can be taught.
Frequently asked questions
What should a family office look for when hiring?
The best hires for a family office share four characteristics that go beyond technical skill: loyalty (they stand behind the family when things go wrong, not behind themselves), ownership (they take full responsibility for their mandate without needing to be managed), drive (they bring solutions, not problems), and the ability to either integrate or challenge, depending on what the team needs. Skills are a threshold, not a differentiator. Character is what lasts.
Why do family offices hire for character over skills?
A family office hires for the long term, in an environment where trust and discretion are essential. Skills can be acquired; character cannot. A technically excellent employee who is disloyal, self-protective, or passive in a crisis is worse than a technically adequate employee who is the first to step forward when something goes wrong. Westwick applies this principle to every hire it makes and recommends for the families it works with.