RE AM family office salary expectation?

I've recently been headhunted for a property/asset management associate position at a family office with around 10 employees. They manage over $5 billion worth of property owned by a billionaire celebrity.

It's not an investment fund, they don't acquire new properties or anything they simply manage the properties for the billionaire. The billionaire takes a hands-off approach so the family office has full control over the assets and just has to report quarterly on the portfolio to the billionaire.

A) I'm not sure how the fee structure would work in this scenario as they don't aim to generate investment returns so how would things like performance/bonuses be determined.

B) What pay could I expect at the associate level for this role?

C) Comp later down the line when you become more senior? i.e. what could the head of the family office be making?

I'd assume the billionaire would want to pay the bare minimum otherwise they wouldn't have set up their own family office.

6 Comments
 

Such a wide range of salaries to be honest, most likely you’ll get paid a lower amount relative to more active shops of the same size, but again it depends on the office. I can’t speak for the fee structure and bonuses.

 
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In my experience it really depends on the investor. Some pay competitively because they are aggressive investors and want the best people while others may be more targeted towards capital preservation so look for lower returns and therefore don’t need sharks. Given you’ve said they are a hands off investor, my guess is that it would be lower than other comparable shops.

However, what that shops lacks in comp may be made up in benefits (time, vacations, access to events, usage of toys/vacation homes, etc.).

I know one guy that works for a small 5 person family office and the owner treats them like family. He gives everyone use of his private jet and one of his vacation homes for 2 weeks every year (he has like 6 houses with full staffs), gives one off bonuses when they sell assets, and always floats box seats, concert tickets etc. to whoever wants them. He also works 9-5 and has fridays off in the summers. So while he could get paid more somewhere else, there are other perks that keep him there.

 

Thanks for the reply. That sounds really cool tbh, although I don't get the same impression here given the billionaire takes a hands-off approach of not being seen, so we won't have any relationship with him to be treated as a family culture and get all these other perks.

Do you think it's more just about them wanting the cheapest method of managing the property effectively? i.e. starting their own family office so the billionaire wouldn't have to hire an external property manager that would charge a 2% AUM management fee?

 

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