Hire an Executive Assistant
for Your Private Life or Family Office
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Morgan & Mallet, a luxury household staffing agency, finds and places executive assistants for principals, founders, investors, and family offices.
About one in four applicants makes it through our vetting. That’s part of why 96% of our searches end in a placement.
We recruit private executive assistants, the ones who answer to you or your family office directly and manage both your business and personal life.
Searches we carry out are confidential as a rule. No candidate needs to know your name until we find the right executive assistant for you.
Call our U.S. offices at +1 (646) 965-2308 and tell us what the role involves today.
Candidates with PA, EA or chief of staff experience
Applications per assistant role
Of assistant briefs ask for confidentiality
Typical minimum experience in the brief
Morgan & Mallet recruitment data, 2022 to 2026, and candidate database, June 2026 (all markets).
Corporate EA, private EA, or executive personal assistant: which do you need?
Which of the three you need comes down to two questions: who employs them, and how much of your private life does the role involve?
Employed by a company
A corporate executive assistant
A corporate executive assistant is employed by the company to support an executive inside it. They do the internal scheduling and manage the day-to-day of the executive within working hours. The hours and pay are set by the company and they’re recruited by corporate staffing agencies.
What we recruit
A private executive assistant
The private executive assistant is the single point of contact for business and private life, and is directly employed by you or your family office. Your afternoon deal meetings and dinner reservations are all handled by one person.
An executive personal assistant, sometimes shortened to executive PA, is a hybrid title for when managing your private life is the bigger part of the role.
They watch your family calendar, track your personal spending, and manage your homes, picking up business tasks as they come in. If the job doesn’t deal with your business at all, what you need is a personal assistant.
The chief of staff works above all these positions, managing operations, budgets, and other staff across your household.
Hiring an executive assistant who answers to your company and is on its payroll is a job for a corporate staffing firm. For someone who reports directly to you or your family office, or as an executive assistant to a founder, Morgan & Mallet is the right agency and this page is the right place.
If you’re still not sure about the role, our executive assistant recruiters will let you know if we can make the placement from the first call.
How to hire an executive assistant for a principal or family office
Executive assistant recruitment for a principal or family office goes in five steps and takes four to eight weeks.
A confidential consultation
First we talk to your family office, or your current assistant, about what the role is like. This tells us whether we can find your hire or whether you’d need a corporate staffing agency.
We ask about the scope of the role, expectations from the business and private side, travel involved, and other staff the executive assistant works alongside.
Building a shortlist
Your recruiter then searches through our database for candidates who can meet your expectations for the role.
They give you a shortlist of three to five strong candidates from our pool of over 200,000 professional candidates. We keep your name off the brief until the shortlist stage if you prefer it that way.
Interviews and trial periods
For a role that ties in with the family office, we note how the candidate moves through a set of interviews. Jonathan de Vanderbilt, our New York recruiter, coordinates each interview.
Each shortlisted candidate moves through the interviews with your family assistant, then the estate manager or chief of staff, and then you.
A paid trial shows you how the candidate works during a real day of your calendar and how they handle it.
Jonathan says: “Here in the US we deal with family offices, so more of the family assistants will want to pre-screen candidates first.”
Offer and contract guidance
Getting the salary wrong turns away strong candidates for the role. That’s why we tell you what the current market pays for the role and quote salaries gross.
For the contract, we can help you with the trial period, notice period, and confidentiality clauses. We can also connect you to employment lawyers in your state so your contract is watertight from the offer stage.
After-placement support
Your recruiter checks in after 10 days and is available to solve any issues that might come up. Every placement has a three-month replacement guarantee. If you feel the fit is wrong, we’ll find you someone new at no extra cost.
Every executive assistant we place has already worked privately for a principal or family office. When a family office owns the search, your recruiter reports to whoever is running it.
Executive assistant staffing agency, executive assistant service, or virtual assistant: what's the difference?
The difference is who employs the assistant and where they work. An executive assistant staffing agency recruits for a company, a service will rent you a remote assistant, a virtual assistant is a freelancer, and a private executive assistant is your own employee.
Corporate executive assistant staffing agency
A corporate executive assistant staffing agency recruits executive assistants for companies. These are often temp-to-perm roles so the business can try the new hire for a few months before making the role permanent. The executive assistant supports an executive at work and the company is the employer.
Remote executive assistant service
A remote executive assistant service is a subscription-based service. The provider assigns you an assistant who works remotely and is paid by the hour or by projects. The remote executive assistant splits their week across several clients.
Virtual assistant
A virtual assistant is a freelance role you hire directly for a fixed list of tasks. They’re not on your payroll and there is no employment relationship as it is contract work. You pay them by the hour or based on their deliverables.
Private executive assistant
A private executive assistant is placed through a confidential search. They are your employee, working either in-person or hybrid. The role, the hours, and the pay are all decided by you.
A remote assistant subscription service is best for founders who only need someone to manage their calendar and inbox. For task-based work that’s not part of your private life, a virtual assistant works well.
Through our placements, we often find private executive assistants working remotely for one or two days a week.
The rest of the job happens in person: at your home, office, while traveling. That’s the part a subscription service or virtual assistant can’t match.
What does an executive assistant to a principal actually do?
An executive assistant for a principal runs the working side of their life, including their calendar, emails, meetings, projects, and anything that goes to a board or an investor. In private roles, they run a good part of your personal life too, being the point of contact between you, your family office, and your household staff.
Business side: They control your calendar, scheduling your day’s meetings based on what’s worth your time, what can be taken by someone else, and what gets a polite no. Travel itinerary including flight and hotel bookings can also be left up to them. They become your point of correspondence, drafting emails in your own voice and sending routine ones on time.
Private side: An executive assistant looks after your family calendar, so school pickups, soccer games, recitals, and birthdays don’t clash with your work schedule. They keep the contacts for everyone who services your home, and call them in when something needs fixing. During dinner parties hosted at your home, caterers, florists, valet, guest list, and the schedule are run by your private executive assistant.
Family office coordination: A family office executive assistant works alongside your family office manager, sending a monthly breakdown of your expenses. Anything above an agreed amount gets an approval from your family office before it’s booked. The number is set by you from the start so your executive assistant knows when to book the jet and when to ask first.
Household coordination: The executive assistant keeps your day and the house’s day aligned. They tell your house manager your arrival time and guest count, and pass on the day’s plans to the security and chauffeur in advance. When a client calls about staffing their Hamptons house for the summer, it’s always the assistant on the phone. They turn the “same as last year” phrase into the exact number of housekeepers and butlers the house needs.
House manager is the most common other role in the work history of the assistants in our network, which is why many of them already know how a house runs.
Your private executive assistant coordinates with your bookkeeper and lifestyle manager, leaving the work in their hands and making sure it’s delivered on time.
We’ve found that across all parts of the role, executive assistants are using AI tools more to help them do their job more efficiently. In our interviews we ask about this and how they make use of AI. It’s becoming an essential part of the role.
What principals put in the executive assistant brief
From 2022 to date, we have worked on 177 executive assistant and personal assistant briefs, and these are the requirements that get written into the brief most often.
In our searches in the US, confidentiality or an NDA is asked for in 93% of briefs, and most ask for at least five years of experience.
| What the brief asks for | Share of searches |
|---|---|
| Travel with or for the principal | 86% |
| Diary and calendar management | 77% |
| Evening, weekend or flexible hours | 75% |
| Confidentiality, discretion or an NDA | 72% |
| Travel bookings and itineraries | 67% |
| Working alongside other household staff | 59% |
| Invoices, budgets, expenses or accounts | 54% |
| Events and entertaining | 51% |
| A second language | 38% |
| Business or investment affairs alongside private life | 31% |
| More than one home | 25% |
| A family office named in the brief | 16% |
Morgan & Mallet recruitment data, 2022 to 2026. Based on 177 executive assistant, personal assistant, chief of staff and private office searches across all markets, 28 of them in the U.S.
How we vet executive assistants
for private roles
Executive assistant resumes we get are some of the most polished documents in household staffing, as it should be since this is a role for someone who drafts for a living.
A refined resume makes it even more important to check with previous employers to see if what is written is true. For that reason, every candidate must give at least two strong references.
“I speak with at least three or four of their previous employers to make sure that yes, they were there. I also get critical details like the dates, job responsibilities, and reason for leaving,” says Jonathan de Vanderbilt.
We contact each reference by phone, checking if the resume matches the job they did.
Sometimes it doesn’t. We’ve had former employers stop us mid-call to say no, that’s not what they were doing.
Working directly for you pulls a candidate into your private life. Their discretion has to go deeper than it would in a corporate role, says Laurine Mallet, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet.
Assistant roles are some of the most contested searches we do. A normal role gets more than 100 applications, more than twice the average for our household roles.
Our database has 3,585 candidates who have worked as personal assistants, executive assistants, chiefs of staff or private secretaries from 42 nationalities (Morgan & Mallet recruitment data, 2022 to 2026; candidate database, June 2026).
As part of the vetting process, we also check the candidate’s career history through a 90-minute interview.
We designed the interview to test a candidate’s temperament along with their skills. This way we can see how they behave as an executive assistant under day-to-day pressure.
Next we screen the candidate’s identity and criminal history. If the executive assistant role involves signing authority or a card in your name, we get financial and credit references as well.
All of these checks happen before the profile reaches you. That’s why only about one in four applicants passes through our checks.
Structured
interview
Applicants
accepted
References checked
by phone
Replacement
guarantee
How much does it cost to
hire an executive assistant?
Typical salary · per year
2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report
The annual executive assistant salary is $120,000 to $250,000+ in the U.S., according to Morgan & Mallet’s 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report.
The highest-paid executive assistants work for ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) principals and family offices, with some roles even reaching $300,000.
The range for this role is much higher than the average of its corporate counterparts as published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is because a private executive assistant has a wider scope, longer hours, heavy travel, and more confidentiality. We’ve seen how paying below market rate isn’t a good idea.
According to the same annual report, privacy agreements add another 15 to 20% to the base pay across all household roles. For an executive assistant position, it’s an unavoidable cost as this person sees your work and family calendar, your finances, and your private correspondence.
The US pays executive assistants more than any other market we recruit in.
On top of the salary, the total cost of hiring an executive assistant also includes payroll taxes, bonuses, expenses, travel, and executive assistant agency fees.
Where we place executive assistants
We place executive assistants in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Houston, and Dallas.
Our New York office has two to three searches a month from private equity firms and hedge funds. We get requests from finance and family office principals in Manhattan and Greenwich. In Miami and Palm Beach, it’s from founders who’ve moved south.
Our London, Geneva, and Dubai offices fill these roles for principals who keep a home in Europe or the Gulf. Morgan Richez, our co-founder, says that most executive assistant requests abroad come to our Dubai office with five requests a month.
Whenever you need to fill the role, one recruiter manages the whole search for you. Even when the job involves crossing borders, the same recruiter handles the visa and local contract.
8 U.S. cities
Plus our London, Geneva and Dubai offices for principals with homes abroad
- New York
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- San Francisco
- Boston
- Chicago
- Houston
- Dallas
Why principals and family offices choose Morgan & Mallet
Morgan & Mallet has staffed the private side of UHNW homes since 2015. We place executive assistants, personal assistants, and chiefs of staff for principals and family offices across the U.S. and worldwide.
The role sounds corporate on paper, but the work reaches into the privacy of your home. During his time as a butler for wealthy London homes, Morgan Richez, Morgan & Mallet’s co-founder, saw that the staff who lasted were the ones who learned their principal by heart.
We run each search confidentially, the brief going out into the market without being attached to your name. Our vetting process finds top candidates who are qualified for the duties with a personality that fits the role. That’s how we get our 96% successful placement rate.
Our company story started with two people who worked in private households before placing staff in them. You can learn more about our founders on our about us page.
“You need a human behind the entrepreneur. You need to know your boss, their habits, what they like and what they don’t like.”
Morgan Richez
Co-Founder, Morgan & Mallet
Contact our New York office
New York, United States
260 Madison Ave, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10016
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best way to hire an executive assistant for a principal?
The best way is a confidential search through an agency that places private and family office executive assistants rather than corporate ones. Clearly defining the business and private halves of the role before putting out the job description attracts the right candidates. You get a shortlist of three to five people, then run a paid trial with your top candidate. The trial day shows you how the candidate works in a way a third interview doesn’t.
How much does it cost to hire an executive assistant?
A private executive assistant to a principal or family office earns $120,000 to $250,000+ gross per year in the U.S., according to Morgan & Mallet’s 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report. On top of the base salary, the cost includes payroll taxes, workers’ compensation, health insurance, travel costs, and agency placement fees.
What is the difference between an executive assistant and a personal assistant?
An executive assistant runs the professional side of a principal’s life and, in private roles, much of the personal side as well. The personal assistant primarily takes care of the private admin, household, and family logistics. These roles often overlap at the UHNW level, which is why many principals hire an executive personal assistant under a single hybrid role.
Do you place executive assistants for family offices?
Yes, family office executive assistants are one of the most common searches we run. They report to the family office manager, a chief of staff, or the principal directly. These roles are more structured than private ones, including financial paperwork and regular contact with lawyers and accountants. Most of these searches are run by the office rather than the principal, so we work to your reporting line and your timeline.
Can a private executive assistant work remotely?
Partly, as more private executive assistant roles now include one or two remote days, and strong candidates expect it. A completely remote role is rare as the job depends on being physically present for travel, meetings, the house, and the family. For a genuinely remote role, a virtual assistant or remote executive assistant service would be a better fit and cost less.
How quickly can you place an executive assistant?
Most searches take about four to eight weeks from the first call to the placement. Roles involving heavy travel, a second language, or a signed NDA can take longer, as the vetting is deeper and the pool is smaller.
If you’re an executive assistant interested in working for a private or family office, you can browse through our current open positions here.