As the race for talent intensifies, employee retention has become more important than ever, especially for Family Offices.

The clients of Family Offices are the ultra-rich who expect a high degree of privacy around their financial dealings. Those expectations, however, make it difficult for Family Offices to recruit the high-calibre professionals their clients deserve.

Those professions often come from large and prestigious companies with consistent compensation structures. That can make it difficult for Family Offices, which usually have fewer than a dozen staff members, to manage a similar degree of compensation management.

We believe that as the Family Office industry matures and grows, compensation should no longer be a product of guesswork but rather, it should be built on research.

With that in mind, and in collaboration with KPMG Private Enterprise, we created the Global Family Office Compensation Benchmark Report. The 115-page report comprehensively covers all aspects of Family Offices and their recruitment needs, including regional-specific data so Family Offices from across the world can better understand the compensation benchmarks in their respective jurisdictions.

Family Offices in the UK

The UK has a well-established Family Office ecosystem, with over 60% being in operation for over 10 years, making it a popular destination for Family Offices. The country has an abundance of competent and qualified talent, and London, in particular, has easy access to wealth and fund managers, banks and other financial institutions.

Some of our findings from the report include:

  • Composition

Most UK Family Offices (32%) have fewer than five employees, but at the same time, 28% have more than 20, showing how much they vary in size and structure.

This is perhaps a result of how Family Offices are tailored to the families they served. While some families may require very few functions requiring only a simple structure, others may need a variety of services that require a much more professionalised structure.

  • Compensation

Family Office CEOs in the UK typically have a salary of £198k-£264k, with an additional bonus of 41%–50% of their annual salary.

One of the most effective measures of retaining employees, especially investment professionals, is providing them with a long-term incentive plan (LTIP). However, we found that UK Family Offices have only offered these to 18% of their employees. LTIPs are crucial to retain and incentivise key employees.

  • Benefits

Employees in the UK increasingly expect a better work-life balance and more tangible benefits, such as remote working (80%), private healthcare (77%) and insurance (44%). This makes prioritising employee well-being an essential part of their retention.

These are just three of our findings that highlight how important it is for Family Offices to improve their compensation and benefits structure for key employees, and in fact ideally boosting them to above the average.

Read our 2023 Global Family Office Compensation Benchmark report to find out more about how you can ensure your key employees not only stay with the company, but also remain committed and incentivised.

For a more tailored conversation about how Agreus can help with your Family Office recruitment needs, contact us today.