Start a Family Office Recruiting Firm

1. 1

   Learn the roles cold

   Family offices hire a distinctive set of seats: CEO or president, CFO and controller, investment analysts and CIOs, trust and estate administrators, household and estate managers, and executive assistants who function as chiefs of staff. Each blends technical skill with fit for one specific family's culture and privacy expectations. Your edge is understanding what these roles actually do, which generalist recruiters guess at.

2. 2

   Choose your lane and search model

   Decide whether you serve single-family offices, multi-family offices, or both, and whether you run retained searches (paid in stages, exclusive) or contingent ones (paid on placement). Executive seats usually justify retained work; specialized staff roles often run contingent. Committing to a lane makes you referable as the specialist rather than another resume forwarder.

3. 3

   Build the candidate bench before the first search

   The product is access: a quiet, current bench of proven family office professionals who trust you with their moves. Build it through industry associations, conferences, alumni networks of family offices and wealth firms, and careful one-on-one outreach. Candidates in this world talk to recruiters who respect confidentiality and waste no one's time; be that recruiter before you have a mandate.

4. 4

   Set fee structures and agreements

   Executive search is typically priced as a percentage of the placed candidate's first-year compensation, with retained searches paid in installments and contingent fees due on start. Use written agreements covering fee basis, replacement guarantees, and confidentiality. Family office compensation is substantial because staff is the dominant cost of running an office, and your fee follows the seniority of the seat.

5. 5

   Win the first mandate through trusted channels

   Family offices do not post these roles; they ask their attorney, their CPA, their multi-family office, and other families. So your marketing is relationships with exactly those professionals, plus family office networks and conferences. A single well-run search, discreet, fast, and honest about fit, converts into repeat mandates because turnover somewhere in a family office is constant.

6. 6

   Run searches with discretion as the differentiator

   Every search touches private information about the family and the candidates. Use blind role descriptions, tight candidate lists rather than mass outreach, and background and reference processes appropriate for someone entering a family's inner circle. The family is not just hiring skills; it is granting access. Your process must visibly honor that.

7. 7

   Deepen into an advisory relationship

   Once you have placed well, families ask what a role should pay, how to structure a new office's team, and when to add seats. That advisory layer, compensation benchmarking, and organizational design deepens the retainer relationship and smooths the gaps between searches. The goal is being the first call whenever the office thinks about people.

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Best for: Recruiters, family office professionals, and wealth-industry insiders with strong networks and real discretion

Not for: This is not for recruiters who need fast, high-volume placements, since searches run months and mandates arrive by referral. It is also completely wrong for anyone loose with confidential information, because discretion is the entire basis of the business.