Family office executive succession: CEO and CIO turnover data

Family office executives tend to stay a long time, which makes their eventual departure more disruptive, and most offices have no plan for it. The KPMG and Agreus 2025 Global Family Office Compensation Benchmark Report, based on 585 offices, found that one in four family office professionals have worked for their office for more than ten years and the majority for between three and five, with overall turnover described as low. UBS's Global Family Office Report 2026 found that only 35% of offices have a succession plan for the office itself, covering continuity of staff and services, against 57% with a wealth succession plan for the family. J.P. Morgan's 2026 report found a third of offices rank over-reliance on a single individual or provider among their top three risks to continuity.

Tenure and turnover

The KPMG and Agreus data describes a stable workforce. Hiring activity was muted in 2025, with most offices reporting no change to team structures, and the report attributes this partly to high retention. Over 60% of respondents said they were content with their compensation structure and 30% said they were actively seeking a new role; the leading reason for considering a move was growth opportunities, followed by compensation and the desire for greater impact. The report also notes that CEO career paths have broadened, with this year's CEOs drawn from banking, accountancy, investment management and other family offices; in the UK, 30% came from accountancy, 30% from banking and 15% from another family office.

Long tenure is a strength until it becomes concentration. An executive who has run the same consolidated reporting, the same manager relationships and the same banking mandates for fifteen years holds knowledge that is rarely written down.

Who holds the top jobs

Morgan Stanley and Botoff Consulting's 2025 Single Family Office Compensation Report, covering 433 US firms, found that family members hold the chief executive role in 27% of all single family offices and in 53% of investment-focused offices, and the chief investment officer role in 6% and 13% respectively. Family-member executives were paid on average 63% of what non-family executives earned. Deloitte's 2024 Family Office Insights found that 35% of family office heads were non-family professionals and expected this to rise to 49% after the next succession. In KPMG's UK sample, 15% of CEOs were family members.

Key person risk

J.P. Morgan's 2026 report, based on 333 offices, put the lack of a succession plan for decision-makers and over-reliance on a single individual or provider at 33% each among top-three risks, and flagged lean offices led by long-tenured individuals as a particular concern. Morgan Stanley observed in May 2026 that the departure of a chief investment officer, chief financial officer or executive director can disrupt operations, undermine institutional memory and expose governance gaps where responsibilities are concentrated, and that offices most often formalise their structures after such an event rather than before. Crain Currency reported in June 2026 on an advisory firm that runs an annual stress test removing a key person on paper after its own founder's unexpected death, to check whether the business still functions.

The risk is larger in small offices. KPMG found the majority of offices globally operate with five or fewer employees, 54% without a family board and 36% without an investment committee. In a five-person office, the CIO's departure removes most of the investment function.

How offices plan for it

The offices that do plan use a small set of tools. The first is documentation: delegated authorities, manager and counterparty contact records, an operating manual (37% of offices in the UBS data) and a decision log. The second is a named deputy for each critical role, which in small offices often means a trusted external provider on retainer rather than a second employee. The third is retention design. Morgan Stanley found that 54% of all single family offices and 62% of investment-focused offices use long-term incentive plans, and that 76% of those with plans offer a bonus or reward to encourage participation; vesting typically runs three to five years or more, which aligns the executive's horizon with the family's. The fourth is a written succession plan for the office's leadership with a timetable, which is the 35% figure in the UBS report.

The CEO role itself is described in the family office CEO role, recruitment in hiring a family office CIO, and incentive structures in long-term incentives and carry.