The gap between single-family offices hiring and the pool of qualified job candidates is wide and hard to close. But the finance professionals with contrasting and increasingly important skills will stick out in the crowd.
In a March survey by the CFA Institute of 1,350 hiring managers across financial disciplines—accounting, banking, asset management and others—the journeymen said that professionals entering their industries lacked skills related to two things: other humans and artificial intelligence.
“Employers increasingly value both soft skills and AI readiness, yet those are the exact areas where new entrants fall short,” the CFA Institute’s report says.
The institute, which includes over 200,000 chartholders worldwide, commissioned the survey of managers based in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
What were once nice-to-have skills when someone stepped into the office for the first time are now required, even of recent college graduates. Out of the managers surveyed, 61% said financial statement analysis, 47% said Microsoft Excel, and 44% said data analysis were things new hires should be proficient at.
Still, managers made it clear that they are prizing employees who are personable and good communicators, and who can leverage AI.
Sixty-eight percent of survey respondents said that soft skills make new entrants most employable today, and 53% said that’s where there is the biggest skills gap.
Young professionals with ambitions to climb the ranks of organizations should also take soft-skill development seriously. One in three survey respondents cited soft skills as the primary driver of promotion. (The CFA Institute survey included higher-ranking directors, senior executives and C-suite employees.)
Managers also say there is an AI skills gap. A third of them expect professionals early in their careers to be skilled in finance-related AI; 52% said it makes someone more employable. However, 43% of managers said young employees aren’t skilled enough and only 42% of new entrants are “very prepared” for what is required of their roles.
The survey results underscore the need for baseline skills to continue to expand and evolve, which some professionals working for or with family offices already acknowledge.
Bastiat Partners, a boutique investment bank in Los Angeles, created a summer program that will heavily focus on teaching the craft of relationship building, which it says will better prepare college students for family-office investment jobs. Seemingly every software company is making AI a part of itself, including those that count family offices as customers—whether they are venture-backed upstarts like Asseta or more mature companies, like Addepar.
It’s worth noting that these in-demand skills are not equally important in the eyes of managers. They gave soft skills nearly three times the weight of AI skills when it came to hiring; 99% said soft skills are becoming more important, “reinforcing that career success will require capabilities beyond AI fluency.”
Family office technology is evolving quickly—but it’s still hard to see what works in practice.
On May 19, FOTechHub is hosting a virtual Demo Day featuring 13 short, use-case-driven sessions across accounting, reporting, private assets, tax workflows, and family office operations, plus opportunities to connect with operator peers.
No long pitches—just focused, expert-led live demos showing how tech is solving real problems today.
If you’re evaluating new tools or rethinking your stack, this is a fast, practical way to see leading platforms side by side and get up to speed on what’s working now. Access is complementary for family offices.
More News
- ICYMI Tuesday: Modus interviewed Wall Street Journal editor Justin Baer about why and how he wrote his new book “House of Fidelity,” the most detailed account yet of the Johnson family and their powerful financial firm. Read the Q&A here.
- Speaking of AI and finance, Anthropic revealed financial services agents this week.
- James and Kathryn Murdoch’s investment company, Lupa Systems, is in advanced talks to buy Vox Media’s New York magazine and podcast division, The Wall Street Journal reported this week.
- The Great $110 Trillion Wealth Transfer Won’t Happen Any Time Soon. The Wall Street Journal did some good reporting about what I’ve been saying for years: “The great wealth transfer” is talked about like a doomsday on the calendar; it’s more like the glaciers…
- Raising Cane’s Grew From an Idea a College Professor Hated is a good reminder that not everyone is going to see or believe in your vision. Now, Raising Cane’s is the third-largest chicken chain in the U.S. by sales and is growing fast.
- Some great reporting about the history of political giving in the U.S. in The New York Times. If you’re a history, politics or what-wealthy-people-do-with-their-money buff, check out: A Look Inside the Case That Enshrined Political Power for Billionaires.
- BCG dropped its 2026 Global Principal Investors Report. There’s not a ton in it about family offices that Modus readers don’t already know. But it’s a good reminder about their scale. Family offices account for an estimated $6 trillion in capital. That’s a lot! But that is also only part of the roughly $42 trillion of “principal investor” money belonging to sovereign wealth funds, public pension funds, and family offices—and a fraction of the $147 trillion of managed assets globally.
- Semafor debuted an AI tool that analyzed every statement from the speakers at its Semafor World Economy gathering in Washington D.C. recently and cataloged which points of view they most often converged on, then made it available to everyone. Here are the takeaways on the AI race, private credit and public markets.
- The map that keeps Burning Man honest is cool and interesting.
Preserving the greatest legacies requires the greatest mobility.
For over a decade, Integris Aviation Consultancy has helped family offices worldwide use private aircraft to give them back something they can't make more of: time.
We've helped dozens of clients buy and sell aircraft—and create safe, effective aviation programs. Reach out and see how we can help you.
David Clark
Founder, Integris Aviation Consultancy
david@integrisaviation.com
Jobs
- The Dalio Family Office is hiring a talent acquisition specialist to “enhance and operationalize our candidate and new hire experience, from high-volume interview scheduling to building out an excellent onboarding journey.”
- Mack International has a new search; a “recently reorganized” single-family office in Jupiter, Florida, is hiring a CEO. This person will report directly to two second-generation principals, who now oversee a diverse enterprise, including a very successful operating company.
- Morgan Stanley is hiring an associate vice president of family office client engagement strategy in New York.
Other Stuff
- 2,000+ people follow the Modus LinkedIn. It only posts worthwhile stuff.
- News tips are important, and you should keep sending those about high-profile executives departing or accepting new jobs; trends that aren’t getting talked about; software companies raising capital or other changes that can impact their customers (you!).
To share information in confidence, reply to this email or message me on Signal (+1 330-962-6441) using a personal device that your employer cannot access. - Want to get your brand in front of real family-office workers and other relevant professionals? Sponsor Modus! Fill out this form. I’ll send you the latest sales deck that competitors envy.
I'll be in...
- In a theater, watching “The Devil Wears Prada 2.”
- Boston later this month. Let me know if you want to get a coffee in Back Bay.
A correction made on May 11, 2026: A previous version of this newsletter incorrectly reported that the CFA Institute had over 190,000 chartholders, the number on its website. The institute has over 200,000.
