The job of recruiting for family offices can feel mundane. Mark Somers and his colleagues have spent an unknown number of hours with offices, and with potential candidates, asking and answering the same questions thousands of times. It would be faster for them to just write a book for all these people, Somers recalled joking.
The idea, it turned out, wasn’t so silly.
A book was another opportunity for Somers Partnership, a U.K.-based recruiting firm founded by Mark and his wife, Jo Somers, in 2005, to share their expertise about working at family offices and help others establish a foundation of knowledge. In 2020, they published “How To Work For A Billionaire,” which included practical advice for job seekers and insights into what it's actually like to work at a family office. Then, in 2023, they published a book more intended for family members and office employees, “Family Office Fundamentals: Human Capital Matters.”
But the world of family offices has evolved over the past five years. The number of offices has grown (there are now 3,550 in North America and at least twice that many globally), their investment management is getting more complicated, competition among them for talent is heightening, and they are generally trying to professionalize and improve their operations. With all of that in mind, Somers Partnership decided the first title should be overhauled.
“Basically, because the sector has changed so much, we had to rip that one up, rewrite and update it and bring it to life. And that's what this latest book is. It's written on the basis of that earlier book, what we learned from it, and what has changed,” Mark Somers told Modus.
The new book, “Family Office Careers: The Definitive Guide to Working for a Billionaire,” which is now available for pre-order and will begin shipping in September, covers topics familiar to family-office professionals.
According to Somers, it wasn’t long ago that a family office was the last stop in someone’s career — a nice job, slower than whatever they left in Canary Wharf, that eased them into retirement. Those types of positions are fewer now, as offices raise their expectations. They’re seeking experienced professionals who still have both the energy and the will to work hard. The recruiting firm hopes that readers will acknowledge this reality and self-select, and perhaps share information about themselves with the Somers Partnership database, a pool of 15,000 candidates who may be a good fit for an office.
Identifying poor candidates is also part of the book. The recruiting firm uses the same third-party services as banks and other financial institutions to vet professionals. Diligence in the family-office world is especially important because it isn’t regulated like other industries, Somers explained. Bad or even nefarious family-office employees are often fired but face no other consequences because a family fears the embarrassment. “Well-poisoners” must be avoided, Somers said.
The book also helps offices be honest with themselves about qualified candidates.
“You're going to be burning your own capital as opposed to running it out of the income. So does that make sense? I don't know. And would you be able to attract a CIO of sufficient caliber to come and run maybe a hundred-million-dollar [portfolio] as opposed to the billions they'd like to be running? So we always have those conversations,” Somers said.
Although he’s the only author named on the new book, Somers is quick to credit his wife and their six employees and interns who contributed to it. It’s a close bunch; the Somers built a small office in their garden so that employees wouldn’t have to commute in and out of London, allowing them to spend more time with their families.
Years of everyday recruiting and effort to improve have made Somers Partnership and its book singular, said Trish and Ron Botoff of Botoff Consulting, a company focused on family-office compensation.
“Mark and Jo's 20 years together building Somers Partnership into a standard bearer for family offices is reflected in their published works,” Trish Botoff said.
Somers hopes anyone interested in working for a family office will buy the book, but in the meantime, he offered a short list of must-haves for good candidates: A desire to serve a “higher purpose, humility and the ability to go with the flow, an appetite for hard work, strength of character and diplomacy. And finally, suspension of disbelief.”
More News
- There's been a lot of feedback on the Modus Family Office Tech Map — v3 is coming soon!
- "Mom, Dad, can you tell the story again about how Grandpa started our family office?" OnlyFans Owner Paid $701 Million as Dividend Hits Record.
- The Rich Order $100,000 Memoirs for Family Only. That feels (to me, a writer) expensive, considering you can get personal documentaries that rival Netflix content for a comparable price.
- Donovan Michaels seemingly thought that he would get the 454-foot-long super-yacht when he divorced David Geffen. The billionaire kindly reminded him it’s a “money suck” in a long Wall Street Journal story about their split and the game of chicken they are playing over Geffen’s wealth.
- A Billionaire, a Psychic and a Bad Investment: The Friendship Breakup From Hell.
- Your Professional Decline Is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You Think.
- And finally, some required reading this Labor Day weekend in The New Yorker: How a Billionaire Owner Brought Turmoil and Trouble to Sotheby’s.
Jobs
- 1932 Capital Management, the single-family office of the Brown family, which founded the logistics company NFI in Camden, New Jersey, is hiring a private investments associate. The job pays a salary of $125,000 to $175,000 and an annual discretionary bonus. If they are hiring an associate, maybe they found a director of investments they were looking for in March.
- DS Advisors, a New York City-based single-family office, is hunting for a chief financial officer.
- Granite Capital Management, a single-family office in New York City, is hiring an executive assistant. This person will be expected at the Midtown office five days a week. Comp includes up to a $110,000 salary and other benefits.
- Mary Porter is hiring an executive assistant for her small family office in Edinburgh, Scotland. If you’re interested, or know someone who might be, send her an email.
- Another New York City-based family office and investment firm is looking for an accounting manager.
- Pitcairn is hiring a family wealth associate in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
- A family office in Stamford, Connecticut, is hiring an accountant.
- A private, family-owned hospitality investment and management firm is hiring a director of family office who will be responsible for financial, operational, and personal affairs.
- Northern Trust is hiring a senior trust advisor. This person will be managing a “complex book of relationships” that includes single-family offices and will have a mix of responsibilities: fiduciary, asset servicing, advisory services, banking, technology and reporting, and investment solutions. The role is based in Chicago, pays up to $288,000 and has other benefits.
Other Stuff
- Modus newsletters always have original reporting and they’re searchable online.
- Follow Modus on LinkedIn (1,500+ people already do).
- Know a family office doing something truly unique or interesting? About a software or service provider for sale? High-profile personnel changes? Modus covers all of those things. But what’s a good news tip? Documentation and other things. You can reply to this email and share information with me in confidence, or message me on Signal using a personal device that is not accessible by your employer.
I'll be in...
- NYC for Labor Day weekend. Maybe at the U.S. Open? TBD.
- L.A. for Future Proof. I’m moderating a panel. More about that next week.
- Chicago in October for a family-office conference.
