I have two interviews with two separate Family Offices coming up soon. Anyone know their leverage level, how active they tend to be and the pay and hours?
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What are the roles and how did you land the interviews?
Bump - curious as to how you sourced these positions. I know a number of people at some well known family offices and they do mostly accounting-like functions and were sourced through recruiting firms.
Turns out these positions are Arab money companies. Selectleaders sourced. No accounting function, well maybe 10-20%, acquisitions like 50% and A.M. 50%.
Pm me with details i have some insight
I've worked at a few large family offices with dedicated real estate departments. The hours will generally be more laid back than at a bank or REPE. Activity level and risk tolerance can vary greatly. One of the family offices I have experience at had massive core holdings and a smaller collection of development and opportunistic investments, while the other was exactly the opposite.
The size of the family office will make a big difference. Some of the largest family offices are very active in the "institutional" investment space while the MM family offices like to play in the space between private/regional buyers and institutional investors.
I'm happy to answer more specific questions as they come up.
Interesting, I never realized in Real Estate family office means something different than what I believed it meant. My understood definition was a company which handles the money and investments for a family. The family are not active at all and have little to no understanding of finance, perhaps they made their money selling Greek Yogurt, or perhaps they sold their company to a PE firm and dont' want to manage anything because managing 100mm of assets is pretty daunting and a fulltime job.
I'm pretty sure this is right.
I've seen it both ways you have described. Sometimes the family has made a fortune making widgets or whatever and they have totally checked out leaving some professionals to manage their money and make it grow.
In other family offices the actual family members are still intimately involved in negotiating deal terms, sourcing deals, and sit on the investment committee.
Both have their pros and cons
Really varies by shop and situation. We have done things at 0-100% LTV with the Patriarch of the family office signing on for personal recourse. I'd say we have a more opportunistic risk profile and we do a lot of development for a family office. We have deep connections in the construction industry so that would explain our development focus.
I might even call us more of a development company than a family office. It's not like we're CFA types talking about portfolio construction. The family is very involved and nothing gets invested in without the green light from our Patriarch.... even the stuff that makes up 0.1% of his net worth.
What is the comp and hours like at these places?
Depends on the office. In general the hours are way more laid back than large funds, or at least funds that manage a similar amount of money. Working in family offices I've never had anyone question my use of PTO and it is encouraged that we use all of it. There has only been a few times when we are really busy that I've had to work more than 50 hours/week. It is extremely slow around the holidays. The downside of this culture is that sometimes things slip through the cracks because people were to slow to react or respond to opportunities or requests.
The comp should be in the ballpark of similar sized funds as well, but you'll be working less hours. I've noticed family office comp is usually tied to longer term incentives and performance (carry/participation). Once you're in a family office they try and make it financially difficult to leave. That's why it's often hard to break into a lot of these places, people never leave.
Comp isn't the best right now. Think somewhere in the 50s with no mention of a bonus. However, I've been told I will getting equity in deals I source. Hours are pretty 9-5 for the most part with no weekend work. No one looks at me weird if I leave early on a Friday (assuming there is still someone left in the office at that point).
I'm also employee #1 of the family office who isn't a family member and this is my first FT job. Kind of a very unique situation.
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