Hiring Senior Executives for Family Offices: A Complete UK Guide

Hiring a senior executive into a family office is not the same exercise as hiring into a company, a fund or a private bank, even when the job title is identical. The principal is often the client, the shareholder and the line manager at once. The time horizon is measured in generations rather than holding periods. Discretion is part of the job description, not a courtesy. And since April 2025 the UK tax rules that shaped many family office structures have changed, which has altered what some families need from their senior team.

This guide is written for principals, family councils and existing family office leaders who are planning a senior appointment in a UK single-family or multi-family office. It covers the difference between the two models, the roles families most often hire, how to run a confidential search, when the FCA regulatory perimeter comes into play, the effect of the non-dom reforms, governance, and how compensation is usually structured. For the service itself, see our family office recruitment page.

Single-family office or multi-family office: start with the model

Before writing a role specification, be clear which kind of office you are hiring for. The two models attract different candidates, carry different regulatory obligations and reward different working styles.

A single-family office (SFO) serves one family. It may oversee investments, tax and estate planning, trusts, property, philanthropy, family governance and sometimes lifestyle services. The senior team works closely with the principal and other family members, often for many years, and the relationship is personal. The decisive question in an SFO hire is frequently not “can this person do the job?” but “will the family trust this person with matters they share with almost no one else?”

A multi-family office (MFO) provides similar services to several families on a fee basis. It is a commercial business with clients, a cost base, a growth plan and, in most cases, FCA authorisation. Senior hires in an MFO look more like hires into a wealth manager or boutique investment firm: business development, client service, process, risk and regulatory accountability all matter. Personal fit still counts, but it is fit with a firm and its client base rather than with one family.

Some offices sit between the two: an SFO that has started to take in money from a small number of related or friendly families, or an MFO that grew out of one founding family. These hybrids need particular care, because the move from serving one family to serving several can change the regulatory position as well as the culture. A specification that blurs the models tends to attract candidates who fit neither.

The senior roles family offices hire

The shape of the senior team depends on the size of the office, the complexity of the family’s affairs and how much is done in-house rather than through external advisers. The roles below recur.

Head of family office, CEO or head of the principal’s office

The senior leader with overall accountability for the office, its people and its advisers. Titles vary: CEO, managing director, head of family office or simply director. In smaller SFOs the role is close to a chief of staff to the principal, coordinating lawyers, accountants, private bankers and property managers. In larger offices it is a genuine general management role with budgets, a team and a board or council to report to.

Chief Investment Officer

The CIO sets and runs the investment strategy across public markets, funds, private equity, real estate and direct stakes in operating businesses. Where the family makes direct investments, the CIO may also sit on investee boards. It is often the most demanding appointment in the office and the one where the candidate pool is narrowest. Our family office CIO recruitment page covers this role in more depth.

Chief Financial Officer

The family office CFO consolidates reporting across entities, trusts and jurisdictions, manages liquidity, works with tax advisers and often oversees the office’s own finances and controls. In an MFO the CFO also runs the commercial finance of a regulated business, including regulatory capital where that applies. See family office CFO recruitment.

Chief Operating Officer

Where the office has multiple jurisdictions, trust structures, property, staff and philanthropic activity, a COO brings order to operations, technology, cyber security, vendor management and risk. In MFOs the COO frequently carries regulatory responsibility as well.

General Counsel

Larger offices increasingly bring legal oversight in-house, with a general counsel who manages external firms, governs trust and corporate structures, handles transactions and protects the family’s privacy and reputation.

Non-executive directors and independent investment committee members

Independent voices on the family office board or investment committee provide challenge, continuity across generations and expertise the family does not hold. More families are adding them as the office grows or as a new generation takes part. Our family office NED recruitment service handles these appointments.

Not every office needs every role full time. A smaller SFO might need senior finance or investment judgement for two days a week rather than a permanent executive, which is where a fractional C-suite for family offices can fit.

Confidentiality and discretion in the search

Families value privacy for good reasons: security, reputation, relationships between family members and the commercial sensitivity of their investments. A search that leaks can do real harm, and it is not unusual for a family to have been burned by a careless process in the past. Discretion therefore has to be designed into the search from the first conversation.

• Describe the role without naming the family. Early approaches should give candidates enough to judge interest (scale, scope, location, investment style) without anything that identifies the principal.
• Use staged disclosure. Reveal the family’s identity only to candidates who have been assessed, are seriously interested and have signed a non-disclosure agreement.
• Control who knows. Agree in advance which family members, staff and advisers are aware of the search, especially where the appointment replaces an incumbent.
• Take references with care. Referencing has to be thorough, but it must not tip off a candidate’s current principal or the wider market.
• Test the candidate’s own discretion. How a candidate talks about past employers in interview is a fair guide to how they will talk about yours.

The principal’s involvement matters as much as the protocols. Family office appointments rarely work when the whole process is delegated. The principal, or the family members the executive will work with most closely, should meet the shortlist more than once, ideally in less formal settings as well as structured interviews.

The regulatory perimeter: when a family office needs FCA authorisation

Whether a family office needs FCA authorisation depends on what it does and for whom. Managing investments, advising on investments and arranging deals are regulated activities when carried on by way of business. A single-family office that manages only its own family’s wealth may fall outside the need for authorisation, typically by relying on exclusions such as those for activities within a group. Whether those exclusions apply turns on the precise structure, so families should take legal advice rather than assume they are outside the perimeter.

The position usually changes when an office starts managing or advising on money belonging to third parties, which is the defining feature of a multi-family office. At that point the firm is likely to need Part 4A permission from the FCA. The FCA’s own authorisation guidance directs firms to the Perimeter Guidance Manual (PERG 2) to decide whether they need to apply.

For hiring, this has three consequences:

• Senior Managers and Certification Regime. An authorised MFO falls under SMCR, so roles such as CEO, executive directors, compliance oversight and money laundering reporting will usually need FCA approval as senior managers before the person can perform them. Approval takes time, which has to be built into the hiring timetable.
• Regulatory experience becomes part of the specification. An MFO CEO or COO who has never run a regulated business is a risk, however strong their client relationships. Candidates should be able to show they have handled regulatory accountability before.
• Compliance becomes a senior hire. Authorised offices need compliance and financial crime oversight. Some appoint a full-time head of compliance; smaller firms may use a part-time specialist. Our family office compliance recruitment page covers both routes.

The FCA and HM Treasury have been reforming parts of SMCR, so check the current requirements at the point of hiring rather than relying on older guidance. An SFO considering taking in outside money should settle the regulatory question before it recruits for the new model, not after.

Non-dom reform and what it means for family office hiring

From 6 April 2025 the UK replaced the domicile-based remittance basis with a residence-based system. The government’s policy paper on reforming the taxation of non-UK domiciled individuals sets out the main features:

• A four-year foreign income and gains (FIG) regime. New arrivals who have not been UK tax resident in any of the previous 10 consecutive years get full relief on foreign income and gains for their first four years of UK residence.
• A residence basis for inheritance tax. Non-UK assets come within the scope of UK inheritance tax once a person is a long-term UK resident. HMRC’s guidance on inheritance tax for long-term UK residents explains that this generally means UK residence for at least 10 of the previous 20 tax years, with a tail of between three and ten years after leaving.
• Changes for trusts. The protection from tax on foreign income and gains arising in settlor-interested trusts is no longer available to individuals who do not qualify for the FIG regime.
• A Temporary Repatriation Facility. Former remittance basis users can bring pre-April 2025 foreign income and gains to the UK at a reduced rate for a limited period.

For many families this has meant reviewing where family members live, how trusts are structured and where the office itself should sit. That review has hiring consequences. Families need senior people who can work with tax and trust advisers across jurisdictions and turn advice into structures that are run properly. Some offices are adding in-house tax or structuring expertise; others are strengthening the CFO or general counsel role. Where family members have moved abroad, the office may need leaders comfortable running teams across the UK and another jurisdiction, or the senior team itself may need to relocate.

This guide is not tax advice, and individual circumstances vary widely. The point for hiring is that a role specification written before April 2025 may no longer describe what the office needs, and should be revisited before a search begins.

Governance: family constitution, investment committee and the board

A senior executive can only be as effective as the governance around them. Candidates know this, and the strongest will ask who decides what before they accept.

A family constitution or charter sets out the family’s values, how decisions are made, how family members can work in the business or office, and how disputes are resolved. Where one exists, share the relevant parts with shortlisted candidates. Where it does not, be honest about how decisions are really made, because a CIO who discovers after joining that every allocation needs informal approval from three relatives is unlikely to stay.

An investment committee with a clear mandate, risk limits and a mix of family and independent members gives a CIO a framework to work within and gives the family assurance that investment decisions are being challenged. Its terms of reference should be settled before a CIO is appointed, or the new CIO should be hired explicitly to help write them.

A board or family council holds the office’s leadership to account. In an authorised MFO the board also carries regulatory responsibility. Independent non-executives are often the most effective way to make governance real rather than nominal, particularly during a generational transition.

When briefing a search, set out reporting lines, decision rights, the role of the investment committee and how family members interact with the executive day to day. Ambiguity on these points is one of the most common reasons family office appointments fail in the first two years.

Compensation: base, bonus, co-investment and carry

Family office pay is less standardised than corporate pay, and the right package depends on the size and complexity of the office, the role and the market the candidate is coming from. Rather than quote figures that may not apply to your office, it is more useful to look at the building blocks.

• Base salary. Usually benchmarked against the candidate’s alternative market, whether asset management, private equity, private banking or a corporate finance function.
• Discretionary bonus. Common across most roles. Clear criteria matter, because a bonus that depends entirely on the principal’s mood is a reason for strong candidates to decline.
• Co-investment rights. Many families let senior investment staff invest alongside the family in direct deals. This aligns interests and is valued by candidates from private equity, but the terms (access, sizing, liquidity, what happens on departure) need to be documented.
• Carried interest or profit share. Where the office runs a significant direct investment programme, senior investment staff may share in returns above a hurdle, structured in a similar way to private equity carry. The tax treatment of carry and similar arrangements has been changing, so families should take specialist advice on structure.
• Long-term retention. Deferred bonuses, long-vesting awards and pension contributions reward the tenure families usually want from their senior team.

The aim is alignment: the executive should benefit when the family’s long-term wealth is preserved and grown, not from short-term activity. Our family office executive compensation guide covers package design in more detail.

Where candidates come from

The pool of people who combine technical depth with the temperament family offices need is small, and most of them are not actively looking. The usual sources are:

• Leaders at other family offices, who understand the working style but are often bound by close relationships and confidentiality with their current family.
• Private equity and asset management professionals, particularly for CIO and direct investment roles. The skills transfer well, but the pace, decision-making and stakeholder relationships are different. Our guide to the candidate difference between family offices and private equity looks at this transition.
• Private bankers and wealth managers, who often fit MFO leadership roles well because they are used to serving several families.
• Advisers moving in-house, such as partners from law, accountancy and tax firms who have served the family or similar families, often suited to head of office, CFO and general counsel roles.
• Family members, where a family member with independent professional experience takes a senior role. This can work well, but needs clear governance so the role is accountable in the same way as any other.

Common mistakes in family office hiring

• Treating fit as a final-round formality. Fit with the principal and family should be assessed throughout, alongside credentials, not bolted on at the end.
• Delegating the whole process. If the principal does not meet the shortlist properly, the appointment is a guess.
• Confusing the SFO and MFO models. They need different people, and the regulatory position may differ too.
• Leaving governance undefined. Unclear decision rights drive early departures.
• Ignoring the regulatory timetable. If the role needs FCA approval, the start date depends on it.
• Copying a corporate package. Family office packages need co-investment, retention and alignment features a corporate template will not have.

How Exec Capital runs family office mandates

Our family office searches start with a detailed brief covering the office model, governance, decision rights, regulatory position and the relationships the executive will have with family members. We approach candidates on an anonymised basis, disclose the family’s identity in stages, and assess personal fit alongside technical depth from the first interview. Every search is run by our specialist team, with Adrian Lawrence FCA overseeing each mandate.

We work on permanent, interim and fractional appointments, so a family can choose between a full-time executive and part-time senior capacity. For offices based in the capital, see our London family office recruitment page, or start with our main family office executive search service.

Frequently asked questions

Does a single-family office need FCA authorisation?

Not always. An office that manages only its own family’s assets may be able to rely on exclusions, but this depends on the structure. Take legal advice, and revisit the question if the office starts to manage or advise on third-party money.

What is usually the first senior hire in a new family office?

Often a head of office or CFO who can bring order to reporting and advisers, or a CIO where investment management is the main need. The right answer depends on what the family currently relies on external advisers to do.

How do the April 2025 non-dom changes affect family office roles?

They have prompted many families to review residence and trust structures. That has increased the value of senior people who can work with tax and trust advisers across jurisdictions, and in some cases changed where the office or its leaders are based.

Should we offer co-investment or carry?

For senior investment roles in an office with a direct investment programme, it is common and helps attract candidates from private equity. Document the terms clearly and take tax advice on structure.

Can a family office use fractional executives?

Yes. Smaller offices often need senior finance, investment or compliance judgement for a few days a month rather than a full-time executive, and a fractional appointment can provide it.