When executive assistant Cathy Kinsella started working for her high-net-worth client, she didn’t have Spanish language skills or the ability to navigate international bank accounts and manage foreign real estate. Today she finds herself doing all three, since her client sold a vacation home in Florida and replaced it with one in Mexico.
“So now we’re all learning Spanish,” says Kinsella, a resident of Barrie, Ont., who has been working with her client for 15 years.
It’s rewarding work, and travel is a great perk, but when Kinsella flew to Cabo, it wasn’t a vacation. “I flew down there with him and his wife and helped them get set up. We bought him a car and set up bank accounts. I have to be on all those things, because I pay the bills, right?”
Right.
Working as an executive assistant to a UHNW person demands a broad skillset, a high EQ (level of emotional intelligence) and a hefty dose of discretion. Family offices say it can be a difficult role to fill, and no across-the-board job description matches every family’s needs.
Vancouver-based Shelley Forsythe, director of family enterprise planning at BMO Family Office, says that working as an EA for an ultra-wealthy family is different from most corporate positions.
“Unique job expectations that set family-office EAs apart from typical corporate EA roles include quarterbacking major projects and acting as gatekeeper, co-ordinator or liaison for highly sensitive family or financial enterprise matters,” she says.
When they manage tasks for different generations of a family, “they must understand generational differences, individual and family preferences, as well as work seamlessly within the family office and advisory teams,” she adds.
Brad Jesson, vice-president at Northwood Family Office in Toronto, says the position is much less transactional than a typical EA job. “It’s very relationship-driven.”
Regarding the workload, he adds, “I would say that there’s ups and downs. You go through very busy periods when the family’s got something going on, or busier times of the year, and then it can be quieter. It could be more demanding than a corporate EA position, but there are some families that are very generous and easy to deal with. It just depends on the people.”
Jesson noted that many multi-family offices, including Northwood, do not provide in-house executive assistants for families, though they often assist with identifying and recruiting suitable candidates for families to employ directly.
When it comes to hiring, emotional intelligence tops the list of desirable skills and attributes.
“Number one in any family office role, especially the EA, is high EQ,” says Jesson. “Then, you’re looking for attention to detail. They could make mistakes that could have reputational consequences if they email the wrong high-profile people, for example.”
Families do not want turnover in this role.
Brad Jesson, Northwood Family Office
Unique requests might also be in the mix. “So I would call that problem-solving—the ability to work without a rigid playbook. And being able to manage sensitive information.”
Natasha Jeshani, president and CEO of Vancouver-based Career Contacts, a fractional HR and recruitment firm, says that sensitivity and tact are key.
“EAs have proximity to a number of different layers in a family office, but proximity is not permission. Just because you are in the room doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily expected to participate in all of these discussions, and that’s a level of tact and maturity that comes with experience.”
The hiring process often starts with word-of-mouth research, Jesson says.
“There are some networks of single-family offices that will chat. I’m part of a network of 40 to 50 single-family offices, and someone asked: ‘Hey, does anyone know an EA that’s looking for a role?’ And I actually knew another family that no longer needed their EA for a variety of personal reasons, and I was able to make a recommendation.”
Career Contacts and other recruiting firms sit down with family offices to find out exactly what they need.
“We can’t work off of a generic executive-assistant job description for this,” says Jeshani. “So we learn what it is that they’re looking for, and then we create a profile of the ideal candidate. And we go out and we share that with our networks. We have a number of different avenues where we share that, and we also go out and actually headhunt these individuals.”
You have to be flexible. You have to be supportive. You have to put a different cap on every day and be ready to respond.
Cathy Kinsella, executive assistant for two wealthy families
Jeshani describes the screening process: “We have a written screen, we have a phone screen, and then we have a personal, virtual screen. So we really want to understand how they show up on paper, how they show up on a phone, and then how they show up in person or virtually, because they all have to do all three in this role.”
Once hired, EAs will likely sign a confidentiality agreement and might also receive media training, and, sometimes with very public families, safety or situational awareness training.
Jeshani says her company conducts reference checks and supports the hire with a three-month onboarding process to make sure they’re set up for success.
“The hope,” she says, “is that that’s where they are for the next 10 to 20 years.”
To ensure that kind of longevity, Jesson says, compensation is higher than in standard corporate roles.
“Families do not want turnover in this role,” says Jesson. “They want that person to be happy, engaged and satisfied. And so I would say generally that compensation is probably higher than the general EA pool, because the role is unique and discretion is so important.”
Kinsella, who splits her week working as an EA for two Northwood clients, says perks have included foreign travel, access to vacation properties and generous bonuses. The job also can require being on call after hours and doing personal as well as professional errands.
“You have to be flexible,” says Kinsella. “You have to be supportive. You have to put a different cap on every day and be ready to respond. Every day I sit at my desk and I have a plan, and I have my papers lined up for what I’m doing.”
Even so, “sometimes that plan just slips away.” Kinsella doesn’t mind, having decided to live in the moment and embrace a service mindset.
“My whole motto with both of them is I do everything I can to make sure their lives run smoothly and take the pressure off of them.”
It seems to be working. With her 15-year client, she says, “we joke about the fact that he doesn’t make a move without checking with me.”
Cindy McGlynn is a Toronto-based writer and editor who frequently writes about business, culture and the arts. In addition to holding communications roles at tech startups and writing for consumer and B2B publications, Cindy has edited two national magazines and served as a long-time columnist for the Toronto Star’s Eye Weekly magazine. She has been contributing to Canadian Family Offices for four years.
The Canadian Family Offices newsletter comes out on Sundays and Wednesdays. If you are interested in stories about Canadian enterprising families, family offices and the professionals who work with them, you can sign up for our free newsletter here.
Please visit here to see information about our standards of journalistic excellence.