Investment executives at single-family offices are all handsomely paid. But the total compensation for chief investment officers at certain offices is especially lucrative, a new report shows.
In its first-ever survey of 106 single-family office investors in the U.S. and Europe, the recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles found that employees with the title of CIO were paid the most, and among them, those working for families with wealth originating in technology, investment, and industrial companies paid CIOs even more.
The family-office practice at Heidrick & Struggles, started in 2005, has conducted nearly 200 searches globally for single-family offices. It is most often tasked with finding executives to lead investing at especially large offices, and the survey reflects that. Almost half the respondents work for offices with investment portfolios between $1 billion and $5 billion; 10% manage portfolios between $5 billion and $10 billion; and 7% manage portfolios over $10 billion.
“We sought to really focus a lot more on the bigger family offices,” Daniel Aghdami, a partner at Heidrick & Struggles, told Modus. “It tends to be a little bit more difficult to get that data, and our brand and standing in the market were very helpful to get us that access.”
The compensation data below might be eye-popping for that reason.
Cash compensation for U.S. executives at large family offices continues to grow. On average, they were paid $919,000 ($471,000 salary and $448,000 bonus) in 2023, then $986,000 ($515,000 salary and $471,000 bonus) in 2024, and $1.1 million ($541,000 salary and $563,000 bonus) in 2025. Sixty-eight percent of respondents said their bonus was entirely discretionary. Only 9% said it was entirely formulaic and based solely on portfolio performance.
Additionally, executives, on average, had other incentive compensation in the form of carried interest or co-investment opportunities. That incentive compensation totaled $471,000 on average in 2023, $515,000 in 2024, and $541,000 in 2025.
CIOs in the U.S. earned more during those periods, and significantly more if they worked for the right office. Their compensation even surpassed that of the executives who held both the titles of CEO and CIO.
On average, U.S. executives with the CIO title were paid $1.4 million ($743,000 salary and $666,000 bonus) in 2023 and then $1.59 million ($846,000 salary and $741,000 bonus) in 2024. In 2025, they were paid an average of $1.82 million ($864,000 salary and $958,000 bonus), 40% more than the average executive surveyed. The average CIO was eligible for additional incentive compensation equal to their salary.
There was also a correlation between compensation and a family office’s portfolio. The bigger and more complex, the more CIOs tend to get paid.
The location of an office matters. Executives in certain places were eligible for far greater additional incentive compensation. In 2025, those working for family offices in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic region had an average additional incentive compensation of $1.7 million, well beyond that of other regions: $93,000 in the Midwest, $200,000 in the Southwest and $310,000 in the West.
Although geography itself isn't exactly what is shaping their pay. The coasts are where there are concentrations of specific industries and principals likely to offer better incentives. “The industry in which the principal has made their wealth does have an impact on how much they pay their CIO,” Aghdami said.
In 2025, CIOs working for family offices connected to people who made their wealth through an investment management business had an average additional incentive pay of over $2 million.
Other sources of wealth offered better opportunities, too. Offices with money originating from technology companies offered their CIOs an average of $1.3 million in incentive compensation, and industrial families offered $713,000. Meanwhile, offices stemming from consumer or retail businesses and healthcare offered $134,000 and $100,000, respectively.
Concentrations of investment professionals at other family offices, institutional investors, asset managers, and OCIOs to recruit from in places like New York City or San Francisco also reinforce the attractiveness of those places. There are roughly 8,000 single-family offices worldwide, many concentrated in a short list of cities, and their competition for talent is expected to grow.
But even as offices look outside typical talent pools, a billionaire hedge fund manager might still prefer a CIO with a background akin to theirs.
“There is, oftentimes, a bit of a predisposition toward recruiting out of certain environments for certain client types… a level of institutional demand that comes up at a certain threshold,” Renee Neri, a partner at Heidrick & Struggles, said. The firm has always observed this, but the report quantified it for them. “It was helpful to have the data to back the perception.”
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