Ensuring proper wealth management without the right help can be overwhelming for anyone. Thankfully, family offices have come here to solve that. If you need family office recruitment solutions, there are a few tips to consider to get the right candidates to fulfill any roles.
Those who offer family office services must hire people with a proven track record of success while showing industry expertise in the role they’re supposed to work in, whether it’s executive leadership, tax planning, investment management, estate planning, or others.
Here, we’ll look at all the steps you need to consider when hiring the right people to work in a single-family office or a multi-family office.
Why Is It So Important to Focus on the Recruitment Process for Family Offices?
Recruitment processes for delicate entities like family offices are as important as the ones meant to hire people for private banks, for example. Remember that the goal of single- or multi-family offices is to provide family members with peace of mind that their wealth is being managed properly, as well as other services.
Considering how a family office often serves high net-worth families, getting them the best talent for wealth and risk management is essential.
The recruitment process for family businesses will allow you to find candidates who can adapt to any situation and that are capable of providing an innovative approach to the role they were hired for, whether it’s succession planning, wealth management, or other.
Finding someone who has knowledge in private banking, for example, will help the family office with the wealth management process much more effectively.
To summarize, you must be able to structure all the roles you need to cover, make a cost analysis, set compensation/benefits, and then start planning the recruitment process.
10 Tips for Family Office Recruitment to Consider

1 – Define Your Purpose, Values, and Culture
It should be obvious, but you must be able to define what your family office represents so that potential employees understand what they’re getting into. Overall, a candidate will want to verify you’re working with a clear strategy and purpose, so if you’re not able to define what your purpose, values, and culture are, you will not be able to find the right fit for any role.
Overall, clarity is key.
2 – Define All Roles and Responsibilities Carefully
Be as careful as possible when defining what the job is about, what the responsibilities will be, and what the expectations you’re managing are.
When it comes to family offices, it’s essential to find candidates who can perform optimally under any circumstance, and even though you may not be able to find someone who is a professional in every industry, you must find candidates who can adapt.
3 – Consider Working with a Recruitment Organization
Recruiting for a family office on your own can be stressful, so if you’re having trouble getting the results you want, consider hiring with a recruitment firm.
These firms are responsible for assisting family offices in finding the best candidates possible for any role. Even though this supposes an extra investment, it will be worthwhile.
4 – Focus on Suitable Candidates That Meet Your Values and Culture
As the title implies, you must find candidates who fit into your current (and future) cultural structure. Once you define everything we just mentioned, you will have a clearer idea of what you should expect from your future team members.
Another essential factor you should consider is personality testing. Understanding behavior patterns among your employees will help you get them into the right role within your family office.
5 – Remember Emotional Quotient When Hiring
EQ refers to the ability of any individual to manage their emotions while working. In essence, you must find someone who can keep working and communicating without their emotions getting in the way; this helps them avoid conflict and emphasize with their clients.
Overall, EQ is even more important for family offices, as most family members tend to have conflicting or opposing opinions and behaviors, which may make the employee more likely to get frustrated.
6 – Hire Based on How Strong of a Fit the Person Is
You may be tempted to hire someone just because they share your beliefs, education, or thought processes. While this could help you, you also must focus on hiring someone for their ability to fit in your family office, as the goal is to create an efficient working environment.
While ‘mirror-image hiring’ could benefit you to an extent, you will limit your team’s ability to have a diversity of thought and efforts, which could get you in trouble when you want to think of creative solutions.
7 – Balance Qualifications and Competencies
Hiring someone with the necessary qualifications will always be important, but you shouldn’t ignore competencies too. Overall, you don’t have to sacrifice a cultural fit to get someone with a better skill set.
Make sure you keep an open mind when interviewing and hiring someone so that you get someone with the right qualifications and competencies for the job.
8 – Prepare the Perfect Interview Process
The interview process is the perfect opportunity for you to sell yourself and all the benefits the position has for the employee. As long as you make a great first impression, you will have paved the road to success.
Prepare a good set of questions that focuses on challenges, values, competencies, and cultural fit. Remember that this is the time when you’ll be able to reject any candidates that won’t be the right fit.
9 – Focus on Success
Your entire family office team should be designed and organized to succeed. Once you hire the right person, you must also think about retention plans. Here, you will need to redefine your business goals, discuss the resources you have available to meet those goals, and enforce strong communication.
10 – Find Candidates Who Will Fit for the Long Term
When it comes to family offices, your goal must be to find a candidate who will remain for a long time. A common issue with recruitment processes is that the family office can’t retain the employee for too long, which can become a problem and can cause them to lose money and time.
Make an effort to make your recruitment process as streamlined as possible, and define everything carefully so that you hire trusted employees who will remain with you for a long time.
Bottom Line – Get Help with Your Family Office Executive Search and Recruiting Today
Now that you know everything about the process to hire someone for a family office, it’s time to put your knowledge into practice.
We know how stressful the recruitment process for a family office can be, so if you need any help, you could greatly benefit from a recruiter. These experts will help you find proper candidates through a customized and unique selection process, ensuring you find long-term employees who can provide clients with everything they need.
For a free consultation on your family office hiring strategy, contact us at info@questorg.com or 212-971-0033.
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