According to Business Insider, a new report from IMD’s Global Family Business Center and the Family Business Network, based on 186 survey responses and 65 interviews from the first half of this year, reveals a massive shift in family office hiring. The next generation of heirs is prioritizing impact investing, sustainability, tech innovation, and diversity, sparking a surge in demand for ESG specialists and CIOs. But the supply of qualified candidates hasn’t kept pace, creating an acute talent scarcity. The family office sector itself is booming, with Deloitte estimating a 31% increase in offices from 2019 to late 2024. Peter Vogel, the report’s co-author, states the core problem bluntly: “there just isn’t enough talent available.”
The New Wishlist
So what’s driving this war? It’s a classic changing of the guard. The kids don’t want to run dad’s old-school investment club. They want their capital to do more. That means hiring people who can navigate ESG metrics, impact investing, and modern tech stacks. It’s not just about returns anymore; it’s about legacy and values. But here’s the thing: finding someone with deep technical skills in, say, private equity and the emotional intelligence to navigate complex family dynamics is incredibly rare. You’re basically looking for a unicorn who can analyze a carbon footprint report at 10 AM and mediate a sibling dispute over the portfolio by lunch.
The Golden Handcuff Problem
Even when families find their unicorn, keeping them is a whole other battle. Vogel hits on a key issue: what’s the value proposition for a top performer? At a big bank or hedge fund, the career ladder is clear and the upside from carried interest can be astronomical. In a family office? You might hit the CEO or CIO title fast, and then… that’s it. The mobility is limited. So families are getting creative, structuring long-term “golden handcuff” incentives and pseudo-carried-interest deals to keep their star hires from jumping ship. But can they ever really compete with the pure financial firepower of a mega-fund? Probably not. They have to sell a different kind of mission.
An Opaque And Messy Market
This whole situation is made worse by how secretive and undefined the family office world is. Think about it. The term isn’t regulated. A “CIO” at one office might just manage stocks and bonds, while at another they’re overseeing direct investments in climate tech startups and industrial panel PCs for a manufacturing portfolio company. There’s no standard job description. And since discretion is the name of the game, professionals don’t exactly advertise who they work for. As Vogel says, there’s no big database of “family office people.” So hiring becomes a game of expensive headhunters and whispered referrals. It’s an inefficient market, and that inefficiency drives the competition and cost way up.
Where Does This Go?
Look, this trend isn’t slowing down. The great wealth transfer is underway, and the NextGen priorities are now boardroom priorities. We’re going to see more specialization in recruitment firms, maybe even the rise of dedicated training programs to build this hybrid skill set. Families will keep improvising, pulling in trusted advisors and bankers to build their teams. But the core tension remains: can these private offices, for all their allure, build a compelling enough package—part mission, part money, part quality of life—to win the war for the talent they desperately need? I’m skeptical they can win on compensation alone. They’ll have to win on vision. And that might be the biggest shift of all.
