Family Office Exchange (FOX) revealed that 88 percent of family offices plan to increase salaries next year with a median increase of 3 percent. By contrast, in 2014, 83 percent of family offices saw salaries rise, with a median increase of 4 percent. The finding is part of the 2015 FOX Family Office Compensation and Benefits Report.
New data, collected for the first time, shows a surprising proportion of the CEOs of family offices to be women. The study reports that 35 percent of the participating family offices have female CEOs, compared to just 4.6 percent of S&P 500 companies. The average family office CEO is 54 years old, and staff members range in age from 22 to 84 years old. Thirty-six percent of participants, with CEOs who are 60 years or older, are facing imminent succession issues.
“In an environment where finding and retaining talent is the number one concern, having peer data that addresses the entire package—from base salary to benefits and flexible work hours – helps the office leadership ensure that they are doing everything they can to be competitive.” Said Jane Flanagan, Director of Family Research at FOX.
This year’s report, which was co-sponsored by Grant Thornton LLP, contains compensation data for 25 different family office staff positions. The data comes from 112 different family offices reporting on nearly 800 individual staff positions, with information on salary, incentive compensation, benefit packages, and retirement plans.
“Long-term incentives are becoming more prevalent and can be a powerful tool for offices seeking to attract and retain the best available talent.” Said Bruce Benesh, Grant Thornton’s national partner-in-charge of Compensation and Benefits Consulting.
FOX is a global membership organization of enterprise families and their key advisors.