Salaries at Single Family Offices: How much can you earn?

Salaries at Single Family Offices: How much can you earn?

Careers at single family offices – the investment firm’s of the world’s wealthiest – are getting more and more attention from investment professionals. While ten years ago almost every young investment banker wanted to finally work at a private equity fund, today also single family offices are an attractive exit option. Also the number of single family offices is increasing: alone in Europe, there are right now almost 500 important single family offices listed in our database. We give insights on how much you can earn at a single family office, what the benefits are and how the single family office salary is composed.

Salaries for Investment Managers and Associates at single family offices

In most cases, investment professionals can start working for single family offices on associate level or higher. Analyst position are rarer since most SFOs don’t have the resources to educate their staff. In Germany, usually „Investment Managers“ are paid between 70.000-100.000€. Salaries at single family offices for Investment Managers are comparable to that. In high-profile single family offices salaries can be 20-30% higher than in the investment industry. These premiums are paid for well-educated talents or especially skilled and experienced candidates. But also when the single family office salaries are comparable to industry salaries (without 20-30% premium) the real pay is way higher: working hours are usually rather moderate, compared to night shifts at investment banks and PE funds. In addition, jobs are often safer than in the industry. Furthermore, there are plenty of lucrative exit opportunities:

  • Portfolio companies (as CEO, CFO, interim management, etc.)
  • Investment banks as family office leads
  • Other single family offices
  • Separate investment firms of family members

CEO salaries at single family offices: how much do top executives earn?

There is no fixed number for single family office CEO salaries. The remuneration of top family office executives heavily depends on the size of the SFO. However, an industry standard is a salary between 300.000-1.000.000€. The salary is strongly correlated with the assets under management (AUM) of the SFO. While SFOs with AUM in the amount of several billions of euros often pay over €1M per year, smaller ones with up to €100M AUM in most cases pay around 300.000€ or less. The salary consists of a base component and bonus payments. In some cases, the total salary can get way higher through shares in the family office, profit participation and co-investment opportunities. A good example is the JAB Holding of the Reimann family: the family owns the largest part of the shares, the rest is split by the management team around Peter Harf and Oliver Goudet.

Salary differences between family and non-family members

Especially in smaller single family offices, it is often the case that family members are also leading the family investment firms. According to our experience, in SFOs with AUM up to €50M, almost every firm is led by a family member. With SFOs with AUM up to €100M, probably half of the family offices are led by family members. In larger family offices with billions of euros of AUM, the trend goes to an external management team due to family governance. Usually, family members are paid less than non-family members (20-30%) for a couple of reasons. Externals have to be paid better due to high competition from other SFOs, PE funds and investment banks. Furthermore, family members are usually already incentivized through their share in the family wealth. The salary from the family investment firm is rather a steady acknowledgment for their work.

How to start a career at a single family office?

The first step to get a job at a single family office is to get a family office insider. Familyofficehub.io is the leading source for information about single and multi family offices. You should:

  • Sign up for our newsletter here to get the best job offers. We publish a monthly newsletter of the most relevant single family office news. The newsletter includes new family offices, family office investments, reports about industry trends and – soon – also relevant single family offerings. Don’t miss that opportunity!
  • Follow us on LinkedIn. Be the first to get-to-know relevant single family office news and SFO job offerings directly through your LinkedIn newsfeed.

This article is part of our single family office career section. 

Picture Source: Veronica Reverse

Relevant lists of single family offices

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