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Good help is hard to find. Family offices, the private investment companies of the ultra-rich, are more and more numerous. willing to pay extra for it.
The war for talent between family offices and Wall Street has driven up salaries not only for top investment positions but also for administrative staff. While compensation depends on the size and scope of the family office, executive assistants now often command base salaries above $140,000, according to three recruiters who spoke with CNBC. That’s well above the industry average of $81,500 for a senior executive assistant position, according to recruiting firm Robert Half.
There are approximately 8,000 single-family offices worldwide, including nearly 3,200 in North America, according to a survey by Deloitte Private. Family office administration roles can come with considerable responsibilities well beyond typical tasks such as compiling expense reports and managing correspondence. Mandates aimed at organizing travel for the entire family or coordinating household staff in several personal residences, for example, are often a good thing.
“You’ll have to do anything for this person, and you don’t know what that will be,” said Jonathan Hova, recruiter and senior vice president of Career Group. “If a pipe bursts in Southampton in January, that’s where you go.”
The median base salary for family office executive assistants is $100,048, according to a survey of 436 family offices and family investment firms by Botoff Consulting.
And the larger the family office, the more executive assistants can expect to be paid. At family offices with at least $2.5 billion in assets under management, that median salary is about 35% higher, according to the survey.
That’s before annual bonuses, which typically range from 10% to 20% of base salary, according to Botoff.
According to the survey, the top 10% of administrative assistants at family offices, regardless of size, earn $188,800 with a 20% bonus. Among the largest family offices, which are more likely to use long-term incentive plans, the top 10% of assistants can receive total compensation of up to $240,000.
“Some families are definitely going to be in for a shock,” said Trish Botoff, founder and CEO of Botoff Consulting. “But I think they also find that when they can control what services are provided, how they are provided and who they do it by, they are much more satisfied with the results they get.”
Executive assistants in family offices are often required to travel with the executives they support, both for personal and professional trips.
Recruiter Dawn Faktor Pincus is looking to hire an executive assistant who will travel with the family office manager at least once a month, including holidays. She estimated that the total compensation for the role would be greater than $200,000 between a base salary of $170,000, travel allowance, sign-on allowance and annual bonuses.
The travel and time commitment are only part of the reason this position pays so well, said Faktor Pincus, senior recruiter at Howard-Sloan Search. These ultra-wealthy employers are often picky, seeking candidates with high-level or Ivy League degrees or previous experience working with wealthy people, which comes at a high price, she said . For a family office wanting an executive assistant with a creative background, she placed a graduate of a prestigious university and an aspiring novelist.
“It’s a small pool,” Faktor Pincus said.
Most of these family offices want at least five years of related experience, with some requiring at least eight to 10 years due to the complexity of the role, according to recruiter Fira Yagyaev of Larson Maddox.
“They’re really at the heart of what the family experiences on a daily basis, so it’s probably one of the most crucial hires,” said Yagyaev, head of wealth management, trust and family office services at the recruitment agency.
At the same time, these accomplished helpers are expected to take on any task, large or small, without complaint. Hova said executive assistants can expect at least 10 percent of their work to approximate personal assistant duties.
“It’s still a service role,” he said.
Plus, the job involves some prickly personalities, Faktor Pincus said.
“A lot of times, very wealthy people can be difficult,” she said. “People don’t succeed as much by being so nice and so nice.”
