Retained FO searches: 25% to 33% of first-year comp. CIO search fee: $106K. CFO: $69K. What drives the number and what is included.
Executive search fees are not arbitrary. They reflect the difficulty of the search, the size of the candidate pool, the length of the engagement, and the confidentiality requirements that family office searches carry. Understanding what drives the number helps you evaluate whether a fee is reasonable before you engage a firm.
This guide covers what the market charges, what Talent Gurus charges, how fees differ by role and AUM tier, and what you should expect to receive for the investment.
Retained search firms in the family office market typically charge 25% to 33% of first-year base compensation. Contingency firms charge 25% to 35%, paid only on placement. Flat fee arrangements exist but are uncommon for senior roles.
The percentage sounds simple. The dollar amount is not, because compensation varies dramatically by role. A family office CFO search at P50 of $275,000 generates a fee of $69,000 to $91,000 at standard market rates. A CIO search at P50 of $425,000 generates a fee of $106,000 to $140,000. A house manager search at P50 of $130,000 generates a fee of $32,500 to $43,000. Same percentage. Very different economics. For full compensation benchmarks by role, see the Family Office Compensation Guide 2026.
The fee reflects more than the salary figure. It reflects the difficulty of finding the right person. Here is what that looks like across five common searches:
| Role | P50 | Fee at 25% | Scarcity | Weeks to fill | Counter-offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family Office CIO | $425,000 | $106,000 | 9.5 / 10 | 26 | 57% |
| Candidate pool 16 to 46 nationally. A six-month engagement against a pool where more than half of finalists will receive a counter-offer from their current employer. | |||||
| Family Office CEO | $350,000 | $87,500 | 7 / 10 | 12 | 35% |
| Shorter timeline, larger pool, but the cultural fit assessment with the principal is the primary complexity driver. | |||||
| Family Office CFO | $275,000 | $69,000 | 6 / 10 | 10 | 30% |
| The most accessible senior family office hire. Searches at this scarcity level can work on either retained or contingency. | |||||
| Head of Security | $190,000 | $47,500 | 8 / 10 | 16 | 35% |
| Background verification adds 4 to 6 weeks on top of the sourcing timeline. For the full breakdown on executive protection recruitment, including cost comparisons with contract EP, see the dedicated page. | |||||
| Estate Manager, single property | $185,000 | $46,000 | 7 / 10 | 23 | 26% |
| One of the longer searches despite moderate scarcity, because principal personality fit is the primary selection criterion and it takes time to assess accurately. | |||||
| Retained | Contingency | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | The firm is engaged exclusively on your search and paid in installments regardless of outcome. The fee reflects a commitment from both sides: you commit budget, the firm commits its best resources and full attention. | The firm is paid only when a placement is made. No upfront commitment. The trade-off is that contingency firms typically work several searches at once and cannot dedicate the same exclusivity and depth to yours. |
| When it fits | Scarcity score above 6, searches requiring NDA-protected outreach, which is most family office searches, a passive candidate pool that requires direct approach, and any search where the cost of getting the hire wrong exceeds the cost of the search fee. | Scarcity scores below 6, a partially active rather than entirely passive candidate pool, and searches where confidentiality requirements are manageable without full NDA-controlled outreach. |
| Fee at Talent Gurus | 25% of first-year base compensation, billed in four equal installments: at engagement, at shortlist presentation, on the candidate's start date, and at the three-month mark. | 30% of first-year base compensation, payable when someone starts. |
| As a rule we will not work a search alongside another firm, so both models are exclusive and both run exactly the same way. What changes is when you pay. | ||
Our percentage applies to first-year base salary only. Most search firms calculate their fee on total first-year compensation, including bonus and equity. It is worth confirming which one a competing quote refers to, because on a role with a significant bonus the same headline percentage can mean a very different invoice.
A corporate CFO search at a $1B revenue company and a family office CFO search at a $1B AUM office look similar on paper. The fee percentage may even be the same. The search economics are completely different.
| Driver | Why it adds cost |
|---|---|
| Narrower candidate pool | Corporate searches draw from a larger pool. Family office CFOs need a specific combination of technical expertise and principal relationship skills that narrows the pool significantly. Family office searches take 40% to 80% longer than equivalent corporate searches for this reason. |
| Confidentiality | Every candidate approach requires NDA documentation, careful disclosure management, and often an intermediary step before the principal's identity is revealed. This adds process time that does not exist in corporate search. |
| Principal-led decision making | In corporate search a hiring committee decides. In family office search the principal decides, often after extended personal interaction with finalists. The gap between shortlist presentation and offer runs 4 to 8 weeks against 1 to 2 weeks in corporate. |
| Higher counter-offer rates | Family office professionals are typically well-compensated, deeply embedded, and trusted by their principals. Counter-offer rates across senior family office roles run 25% to 57%, against 10% to 20% in corporate. Every counter-offer that succeeds adds weeks and requires re-engaging the pipeline. The scarcity and counter-offer data behind these figures comes from rouka, which tracks these metrics across 1,478 roles in the UHNW market. |
A properly structured retained search fee covers the full scope of a professional search engagement. At Talent Gurus, the fee includes:
| Included | What it means |
|---|---|
| A rouka intelligence brief within 48 hours of engagement | Complexity score, P25 to P90 compensation benchmarks for the specific role and AUM tier, candidate pool sizing, scarcity rating, counter-offer probability, and sourcing strategy. |
| Full candidate sourcing | Direct outreach, professional networks, and trusted referrals. Not job postings. Not database scraping. Direct, confidential, NDA-protected outreach to passive candidates. |
| Professional assessments for every candidate presented | Career background, compensation context, cultural fit evaluation, and reference intelligence. |
| Offer structuring support | Compensation benchmarking against rouka data to ensure the offer is competitive. Guidance on signing bonus, benefits, and package structure. |
| Replacement guarantee | If the hire does not work out within the guarantee period, we restart the search at no additional fee. |
| Not included | How it works |
|---|---|
| Background checks and employment verification | Anything beyond standard reference calls is handled by specialized third-party firms and billed separately if required. For executive protection and security searches, extended background verification including government clearance checks is standard and should be budgeted separately. |
| Relocation, signing bonuses, and candidate travel | Interview travel and relocation costs are the client's responsibility and are not included in the search fee. |
| What to ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Ask for data, not just process | Any firm can describe their methodology. Ask them to show you the scarcity score for the role, the expected time to fill, and the counter-offer probability. If they cannot provide this, they are estimating from experience rather than measuring from data. |
| Compare fee structures against search difficulty | A 25% fee for a CIO search with a scarcity score of 9.5 and a 26-week timeline is a different proposition than a 25% fee for a CFO search with a scarcity score of 6 and a 10-week timeline. The percentage is the same. The work is not. Understanding how long a family office search actually takes helps you evaluate whether a fee is reasonable. |
| Ask about replacement guarantees | Most firms offer 90 days. Some offer 6 months. The guarantee terms tell you how confident the firm is in their process. |
| Ask for references from family office placements specifically | A firm that places corporate CFOs may not have the relationships or the cultural screening capability to place a family office CFO successfully. The context matters more than the title. For a deeper framework on evaluating firms, see our guide on how to choose the right family office headhunter. |
Retained fees typically run 25% to 33% of first-year base compensation. For a family office CIO at P50 of $425,000, the fee ranges from $106,000 to $140,000. Talent Gurus charges 25% retained and 30% contingency.
The industry standard for retained family office search is 25% to 33% of first-year base compensation. Contingency searches run 25% to 35%. The percentage varies by firm and search complexity.
Installments paid before placement are typically non-refundable because they compensate for work already performed. However, most retained firms offer a replacement guarantee: if the hire does not work out within the guarantee period, the search is restarted at no additional fee.
A retained fee covers intelligence briefing, candidate sourcing, professional assessments, offer structuring support, and a replacement guarantee. Background checks and relocation costs are typically billed separately.
Every guide on this site is built from the same dataset we price live searches with. No case studies, no client names. The work is the reference.
©2026 Talent Gurus Inc. All rights reserved.