As the US and wider family office market has grown, one focus area has been the need to increasingly professionalize compensation packages for the non-family staff who run these organizations.

New reports from Botoff Consulting about what family offices pay staff finds that almost half (45 per cent) of those taking part in surveys use compensation strategies, and more than half (52 per cent) found recruiting talent challenging.

The firm has issued its 2026 Estate & Household Staff Compensation Report alongside its inaugural Benefit Practices Report. It collected from 417 participating UHNW families and family offices (up 37 per cent) and 1,651 incumbents (up 47 per cent).

As the world’s family offices sector professionalizes, one major focus area is how non-family figures in FOs are compensated, an important area where aligning interests is significant in organizations in charge of multi-generational wealth. 

Among details of the compensation report, it said there has been a rise of participants using compensation strategies, rising to 45 per cent this time around from 38 per cent in 2024-2025. More than half of all estate and household staff received salary increases in the first quarter of this year.

In the benefits report, Botoff said it found that 79 per cent of overall survey participants offer health insurance. Some 86 per cent of respondents report providing at least 70 per cent coverage of employees' health insurance costs. For family leave, 46 per cent of overall participants report offering maternity leave and just under a third (32 per cent) report offering paternity leave.

Botoff said its compensation benchmarks cover more roles, expanding by 50 per cent from a year ago to 48.

Since 2019, the number of family offices has increased by nearly a third to more than 8,000, according to Deloitte. That sharpens competition for top-tier talent. In an increasingly crowded landscape, compensation packages have become a critical strategic tool for attracting and retaining bespoke family teams. That makes accurate data on compensation even more important.

A previous interview with Botoff Consulting founder and principal, Trish Botoff (pictured below), about its work, can be seen here.

Trish Botoff

Earlier in 2026, the firm launched a survey for multi-family offices and registered investment advisors serving UHNW clients.