What actually attracts good people to a family office?

The best family office hires are not won on compensation alone. The factors that attract and retain excellent people in a family office are: genuine proximity to decision-making, the quality and values of the family, the reputation of the office, the scope of the role, and the culture of the team. Families that try to compete purely on salary tend to attract people who will leave for the next salary increase. Families that offer the full package — mission, scope, culture, and fair pay — attract people who stay.

Why is hiring for a family office different from hiring for a corporation?

Hiring for a family office differs from corporate hiring in three important ways: the loyalty expected is deeper and more personal, the discretion required is absolute rather than professional, and the tenure expected is much longer. These differences mean that the interview process should assess character and values as carefully as skills and experience — and that reference checks should go deeper than a corporate hire would require.

Knowledge Base · Updated in 2026

There is no war for talent in single family offices

The "war for talent" in family offices is a story repeated at every event and on every LinkedIn feed. After thirty years in the trenches, the war is a phantom — and a profitable one for the people selling it.

The story is a self-inflated myth, probably fuelled by second-tier recruitment agencies looking for a way into the discreet family office space. By overcomplicating the hiring process, they justify their fees and inflate salary expectations — including for junior analysts who have not yet seen a full market cycle.

Let me be clear about what I am not saying. For senior, high-stakes leadership profiles, top-tier executive search firms dedicated to families are essential. I have worked for years with excellent, quiet firms that do this brilliantly. They are not the ones making this noise. They continue, discreetly, to find the people needed to run family offices.

The problem is that, slowly but surely, seasoned family office executives are starting to echo the noise themselves. They have read the same "talent shortage" headlines often enough that it is percolating into their thinking, even though they have not experienced it. In turn, they put unnecessary pressure on principals to treat every new hire as if it were a NASA launch.

If you are a family member or SFO executive in the middle of hiring, let me take the temperature down.

Recruit for the flag, not the CV

In a family office, there is one rule when recruiting: you recruit for the flag, not the résumé. You do not necessarily want the "brightest" if they are also the most restless. You want the person who will put the family's interests before their own.

Technical knowledge is a commodity. Hard skills can be bought, and a consultant can patch a temporary gap while a new hire is trained. Trust is non-transferable. Integrity cannot be outsourced.

Prioritising character over an MBA may look old-fashioned, but the most successful offices were built on dedication. Trust is the only currency that does not devalue in a downturn. I have seen plenty of "geniuses" jump ship at the first sign of trouble — usually when their yearly bonus came under threat — while the loyal builders stayed to fix the mess.

Family offices are desirable employers

I have never seen a well-run family office struggle to find candidates. Most FO executives have inboxes overflowing with bankers and consultants looking for a seat at the table.

Recruiting is, of course, a difficult exercise. It takes time and energy — it always has and always will. But if an SFO is struggling to hire, it is very often because they have agreed to fight on the VC or PE fund's turf. Let us remember what we offer that the rest of the financial world has lost:

The ability to create wealth across generations, not quarters.
Investment with genuine purpose and impact.
Work alongside inspiring entrepreneurs and teams.
Long-term stability, without the threat of being fired after a bad quarter on the S&P 500.
A different job every day, close to the action and to the decisions.

People are lining up to work for family offices. The challenge is not finding them. It is filtering out the mercenaries to find gifted stewards — people who are good at what they do, trustworthy, and aligned with the family's values.

The mercenary trap: salaries and bonuses

This "war" narrative is artificially driving up base salaries and pushing for bonuses indexed on Assets Under Management. This is a mistake.

If someone joins you primarily for a "market-leading" bonus, they will leave the moment a higher bidder appears. That is the definition of a mercenary spirit, and it is toxic to a family operation.

A more reasoned approach works better. Pay well, certainly. But do not be held to ransom by a recruiter telling you "that's the market" for a junior profile. And avoid the bonus fallacy. A family office bonus should reflect stewardship and legacy preservation — not a percentage of market performance.

When exceptional performance occurs, by all means give significant bonuses — even those that double or triple annual salary. But keep them as a multiple of salary, never as a percentage of assets. Performance is the result of many teams and external factors, not just the work of the investment team alone. And the team is not the one carrying the risk. The family is.

The traditional model still works — even better than before

The "war for talent" is, in the end, a marketing bubble designed to make families feel anxious. The SFO model has been successful for centuries precisely because it ignores volatile trends. It favours long-term hires and provides remuneration that grows with time, skill, and experience — all three walking in lockstep, as anyone would expect.

Families do not need warriors. They need builders. They do not need talent wars. They need long-term alignment. Focus on finding people who value the family's legacy, and you will discover the war was over before it ever began.

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