While in the Corporate world of work, most organisations follow a very rigid hierarchy, Family Office structures are less hierarchical and extremely flat. Some have less than three employees while others have up to 20, some are led by the Chief Executive Officer, others a CIO and this lack of standardisation is evident no greater than when it comes to ‘the top spot’.

We took 7,500 leading professionals from our own database to analyse who holds the position of Family Office Leader and the results were remarkable. We found that 42% carried the job title of Head of Family Office, a further third (36%) own the title of either Managing Director, Managing Partner or Executive Director and just 20% were called Chief Executive Officer, arguably the most common title given to Leaders in the corporate world.

It seems the first conclusion we can draw is that there is certainly not one ideal Family Office title and it seems there is no traditional chain of command either.

If we were to draw inspiration from the more traditional working world, we might also assume; as we have outlined in the image below, that the CEO or Head of Family Office oversees the remaining c-suite be it Chief Financial, Operating or Investment Officers.

However, in the world of Family Offices, rarely do titles change and in our experience, the majority of those in ‘top spot’ are in fact one of the remaining c-suite heads, overseeing finance or investments first and office second. Or at least, that is what their job title might suggest when in practice, the Head of Department turned Leader often adopts a hybrid role overseeing anything from investments and accounts to philanthropy and people.

Ian Buchanan is a prime example of this structure.

For access to all of our statistics and interviews around the topic of The Ideal Family Office Leader, download the full report.