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Morgan & Mallet, a luxury household staffing agency, places family assistants with families across the US and worldwide, live-in and live-out.
- 76 applicants on average for each of our family assistant searches in the US, about twice our average in the US
- 100% of our family assistant briefs in the US asked for household admin and errands
- 90% of them also involved the children
- $130,000 the top of the pay in our family assistant ads (New York, 2026)
A family assistant is one person who takes care of the practical side of your family life. They deal with the day-to-day household logistics while also staying on top of your children’s school schedule, doctor appointments, and travel plans.
They also make sure the rest of your staff work well together. They coordinate with the nanny, housekeepers, tutors, and suppliers to work according to one calendar.
Our New York team has seen this role grow over the last two years. More families want one person running the logistics instead of spreading it across a nanny, a housekeeper, and a personal assistant.
This role suits you if you’ve got school-age children and a schedule that takes up most of your day.
When you feel you need an organizer instead of a full-time nanny, a family assistant is usually the role to go for.
Every candidate on your shortlist is interviewed by us and thoroughly reference-checked.
Call +1 (646) 965-2308 and our recruiters in the US can help you decide if this role fits your family and home life.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, ads and applications, 10 US family assistant searches (2024 to 2026) and all 448 of our US searches (2022 to 2026). See how we count.
What does a family assistant do?
Your family assistant takes care of the administrative side of your home so you don’t have to. They also look after the children when the nanny’s off or when the children are older and there’s no nanny.
The duties of a family assistant come under four main groups:
The children: They drive your children to and from school, make sure the dentist appointments and soccer practice don’t clash, and sit with them as they complete their homework.
The house: Household admin is part of the job: managing the bills, suppliers, maintenance, and deliveries. The family assistant keeps the kitchen and bathrooms stocked, checks on the pets, and arranges vet visits.
The parents: They run personal errands for you like gift shopping or organizing family events. They also help with travel plans by booking your flights and helping you pack.
The household staff: Everyone in the house follows the family assistant’s schedule.
The nanny does the handoff at the end of her day, the housekeepers get the cleaning schedule, and the tutors and coaches are booked and paid by the family assistant. They hold the staff together without acting like anybody’s boss.
Our own actual briefs for clients have the same mix. Every family assistant brief we have worked on in the US since 2024 asked for household admin and errands, and 90% also involved the children.
| In the brief | Share |
|---|---|
| Household admin and errands | 100% |
| Help with the children | 90% |
| Meals cooked | 70% |
| Travel booked or a person to travel with the family | 60% |
70% wanted meals cooked, and 60% needed someone to book travel or travel with the family. One family in Newport were very clear about the split in the brief.
It was 50% with the children, 30% for the principal and 20% for the family.
Ask our recruiters and they’ll tell you that the real test is a bad day. For example, both kids are sick, the parents are stuck at the office, and the groceries never showed up.
How the family assistant deals with that is what is important.
On a bad day, the job is whatever needs doing. Our co-founder Laurine Mallet, a former nanny, says this is the attitude to look for.
“[Be] really flexible with your duties. ‘Okay, I’ve got these duties in my contract, but if you would like me to do something else, I can.’ … Should I help?
“How can I help you? … Because when you work in a team in a household, you can’t stay focused on your own duties.”
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, 10 US family assistant searches, 2024 to 2026. See how we count.
Nanny, family assistant, personal assistant, or house manager: which do you need?
A nanny is the primary caretaker for your children. She spends the day with them, making their meals, sitting with them for school work, and doing bath and bedtime.
When the children are home and awake, the nanny is always with them.
The family assistant organizes the family life around the children. They look after the paperwork and planning for the household and take over childcare when needed.
They also coordinate the day’s plans with the tutors, coaches, and nanny so there’s no confusion.
A personal assistant runs your personal and often professional life. This role needs someone with strong organizational skills to manage the principal’s schedule, act as their point of contact, and manage their finances.
The house manager, also called a household manager, oversees your property’s daily operations and the other staff too.
Vendor management, maintenance and repair, household budgets and inventories in one home or more are done by the house manager.
Which one you need comes down to how your week goes. Children under five staying at home most of the day need a nanny. School-age children with a busy family calendar need a family assistant.
For one busy adult with not much family logistics, the personal assistant is perfect for this. And when you have several homes and staff to run, a house manager helps.
We’ve seen over the years that families tend to hire a mix of the first two roles. A nanny-family assistant handles the admin and errands during school hours and then switches to hands-on childcare until bedtime.
Most of our own searches for our clients are like this. 70% of our family assistant jobs in the US were under a shared title, such as Nanny/Family Assistant or Family Assistant/Babysitter.
A Cape Cod family we recruited for in 2025 had the day like this: household management, errands and meal prep from 8 to 3, then childcare, driving to activities and homework in the afternoons and evenings.
The nanny-housekeeper is the other common hybrid role, where childcare mixes with the house’s upkeep.
It’s common for families to need two of these roles rather than one person who can do all four. If your week demands full-time childcare and full-time admin support, then hiring two people is best.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job ads and briefs, 10 US family assistant searches, 2024 to 2026. See how we count.
What is a family assistant called? Household assistant, house assistant, and family PA
The same role goes by family assistant, household assistant, house assistant, and family personal assistant (family PA). Job listings often use them interchangeably while the duties under each name remain nearly identical.
- Family assistant
- Household assistant
- House assistant
- Family personal assistant (family PA)
- Nanny-family assistant
Each role has a slight shift in focus. The household assistant leans more toward the home’s admin, so deliveries, repair jobs, and inventory management are the center of the job.
A family personal assistant leans toward the parents, handling their schedule and daily tasks.
Our own job ads mix the names too. In the US we have advertised the role as Nanny/Family Assistant, Family Assistant/Personal Assistant and Family Assistant/Childcare.
Some agencies use “nanny-family assistant” to describe the hybrid version of the role, but we use “family assistant” for all of them.
A household personal assistant is the same job with no childcare duties, which you can learn more about on our personal assistant page.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job ad titles, US, 2024 to 2026. See how we count.
When do families hire a family assistant?
The usual realization that a family assistant is needed is when the youngest child starts school.
Once the children are at school for most of the day, the work for a full-time nanny becomes a lot less, while the family logistics could double.
Parents often look for someone who can help with the school calendar, activities, and paperwork that comes along with growing children.
Families come to us for other moments as well:
- Two working parents are juggling three or more children on different schedules.
- A second or third home needs someone to do the opening and closing of the property while coordinating with the staff.
- There’s a nanny and a housekeeper but no house manager, so both hires report directly to the parents even during a busy workday.
- The personal assistant can no longer keep up with school forms and pediatric appointments along with the principal’s business.
Sometimes the right person for the new job is already in the house. A nanny who’s been with you for five years knows your children, their routines, and how your family likes things to be done.
The common mistake is giving admin work to the childcare role with no change in the contract or salary. Another mistake is pushing your nanny into a job she may not want.
If done right, the shift from nanny to family assistant means a new title, a clear list of duties, and a raise.
For some nannies, childcare is a profession in its own right. They’re trained and are passionate about working with children. Offering the role of a family assistant is a good start, but take the nanny’s answer seriously.
Laurine Mallet gives families the same advice whenever a trusted employee takes on more.
“Give them more and more missions, duties, showing them … that [you] trust the personal assistant. It can be also [to increase his or] her salary, giving more advantages … it can be maybe much more holidays or a bonus.”
The demand for the role is nationwide, but most of our requests come from high-net-worth (HNW) families in New York, Greenwich, Miami, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
How much does a family assistant cost?
Family assistants in the US earn between $60,000 and $110,000 gross per year in the households we recruit for. Our own ads went up to $130,000 for a New York role in 2026 (table below).
This range sits between the nanny and the personal assistant salary because the role draws from both.
The pay climbs with the size of the role. The salary gets pushed higher if there’s more than one home, regular travel, responsibility for other staff, or heavy driving in a city like New York or Los Angeles.
Our own job ads show the same thing. Hourly roles were advertised at $30 to $45 an hour, and salaried roles at $70,000 to $130,000 a year.
| Search | Year | Advertised pay |
|---|---|---|
| Nanny and family assistant, Newport | 2024 | $40 to $45 an hour |
| Live-out family assistant, Pasadena, CA (four days a week) | 2025 | $75,000 to $80,000 a year |
| Family assistant and babysitter, Newport | 2025 | $35 to $45 an hour |
| Live-in nanny and family assistant, Cape Cod, MA | 2025 | $40 an hour, with a private flat |
| Live-in nanny and family assistant, Prince George’s County, MD | 2025 | $70,000 a year |
| Family assistant with childcare, Toluca Lake, CA | 2026 | $30 to $40 an hour (up to $45 with strong cooking) |
| Family assistant and nanny, Tribeca, New York | 2026 | $110,000 to $130,000 a year |
A live-in family assistant earns a lower cash salary, but the accommodation and meals come with the role.
You should also budget additional payments as an employer. That includes household employment taxes under IRS Publication 926, health insurance, a phone, and mileage if the family assistant uses their own car.
In our family assistant briefs in the US, 40% were live-out and 30% were live-in. The other 30% left it open.
The cost of hiring a personal assistant is more than that of a family assistant. Our personal assistant salary page gives you the complete breakdown for the role.
You can also visit our nanny hiring page to compare a family assistant’s pay with a nanny’s.
Some families come to us after other agencies couldn’t fill a childcare role. Morgan Richez says the reason is usually the pay on offer.
“Almost the time is because of the salary. … They offer [a] very bad salary and they’re looking for a top nanny. … Before [we] say no, we explain why and we give some tips and advice.”
Source: Morgan & Mallet job ads (pay as advertised) and briefs, 10 US family assistant searches, 2024 to 2026. See how we count.
How to hire a family assistant
The role works around your schedule, so that’s where you should start.
- Write down a typical week before writing the job description. Note every pick-up, activity, appointment, and errand along with the time each one usually takes. This gives you a rough outline for the job description and also lets you know if it’s best for you to hire two people.
- Decide on the share of childcare honestly. A family assistant stepping in for a nanny’s day off is different from taking care of the children for four hours every afternoon.
- Clarify whether the role is live-in or live-out and if it involves heavy travel or driving. Those decide which candidates apply and the pay of the role.
- Interview for their admin skills and warmth with children separately. Our co-founder, Morgan Richez, advises clients to weigh the interview evenly, half on what the candidate can do and half on how it feels to be around them.
- Run a paid trial week that includes school days and admin tasks like rebooking a canceled appointment. Here, you see their skills in action and whether your children warm up to them.
- Take references from past employers or house managers to verify their experience and get an idea of a candidate’s work ethic.
- Put everything in the contract. Go over the hours, driving, travel, confidentiality, and exactly which childcare duties are in their hands.
A common mistake when self-hiring is picking someone who is perfect at half the job. Some candidates manage your calendar perfectly but they just don’t work well with your children.
Others may be wonderful with the kids but let the admin work pile up.
Make a decision early on whether the person needs to drive. In our family assistant briefs in the US, 40% needed a driver and 40% included school runs.
For the admin half of the interview, ask where the candidate learned to organize. Co-founder Laurine Mallet looks for a corporate background first.
“If someone worked as executive assistant, that’s a big plus for the administrative tasks. … It’s a lot about organization also, because it’s really structured.
“When you work for a company, … you need to respect the timing, priorities, the agenda.”
Step six is the one families find hardest alone. Former employers of private households are cautious about talking to someone they do not know. A family assistant agency makes those calls for you.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, 10 US family assistant searches, 2024 to 2026. See how we count.
Two sets of references: how we vet family assistants
A family assistant does two kinds of work, and most people learn them in separate jobs. When we vet for your family assistant, we make sure the candidate passes on both sides.
Our 90-minute candidate interviews get split into two. One block covers childcare and the other covers how the candidate can run a home.
On the childcare side, we ask about the ages, school systems, and routines of the children the candidate has looked after.
We also see how they handle it when your child’s demands clash with your own or when they get sick unexpectedly.
By presenting scenarios like turning a messy week into a working schedule, we also see how the candidate prioritizes and protects your family’s routine.
Then our recruiters call at least two past employers. At times, we also call the past house manager to see how the candidate worked alongside other staff members.
Those calls find resumes that don’t make much sense.
Jonathan de Vanderbilt, a recruiter in our New York office, has heard it from former employers more than once.
“Sometimes, yes, … the resumes are inflated or AI generated. So when I speak with them, they’re like, ’What? No, … that’s not what she was doing. She was only here for two months and we let her go.’”
For every role, we verify documents and run identity checks. We also check the criminal background history in the country of the role and the candidate’s origin country. Criminal background checks follow the rules of your state and city.
Luxury family assistant roles come with access to your family’s private life, which is why discretion matters more than anything else. We skip candidates who speak too freely about the families from previous roles.
Where a family wants one, we arrange for NDAs and have them signed before the role starts.
Families mention it with us early on. 50% of our family assistant briefs in the US asked for confidentiality or an NDA.
About 25% of applicants are accepted into our network of 50,300+ vetted candidates. No profile reaches you until the references have been called and background has been checked. Eric Rios, our recruiter and operations manager, runs our background checks himself.
You won’t be short of applicants for your role.
Our family assistant searches in the US have had 76 applicants each on average, about twice our average search in the US, so the work we do is in narrowing the field down.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs and applications, US family assistant searches and 448 US searches, 2022 to 2026; candidate network, October 2026. See how we count.
Where we place family assistants
Searching for “family assistant near me” is the right first step. The job is hands-on every day, so the person has to live close enough to handle your errands without a long commute of their own.
- Tribeca, New York
- Los Angeles, Pasadena and Toluca Lake
- Miami Beach
- Newport
- Cape Cod
- Prince George’s County, Maryland
New York is our busiest market. Most families also have a house in Greenwich or the Hamptons, so one person usually covers both. Miami and Palm Beach work in the same way for snowbird families splitting the year.
Our recent family assistant searches in the US were in Tribeca, Los Angeles, Pasadena, Toluca Lake, Miami Beach, Newport, Cape Cod and Prince George’s County in Maryland.
With our global recruitment team spread across offices worldwide, our recruiters also do relocation work. One client moving from Dubai to Los Angeles asked for a family assistant to support her and her 11-year-old daughter through the move.
The role covered the drive to school, light housekeeping, and travel support during long-haul flights.
We also place family assistants in San Francisco and the Bay Area, Dallas, Houston, and Austin, and in second homes in Aspen and Las Vegas.
That’s why our recruiters start close to your home. Co-founder Morgan Richez explains.
“When we’re talking about recruitment, it’s better to search first of all in the local area. … It’s a long process [to relocate someone].
“You never know what’s happen[ing]. … So I prefer to do my main focus in the same city.”
Source: Morgan & Mallet job ads, 10 US family assistant searches, 2024 to 2026. See how we count.
Why families choose Morgan & Mallet for this role
Laurine Mallet began her career as a nanny in London before co-founding Morgan & Mallet. Over a decade of placing nannies, personal assistants, and family assistants means she knows how to hire for them.
A couple in Pasadena came to us for a live-out family assistant for four days a week. Outside of the usual list of duties, they wanted someone who knew their way around technology. Tech-savviness in the household was a requirement.
A family in Tribeca asked for the same thing in 2026, someone at ease with Google calendars and smart-home technology. 20% of our family assistant briefs in the US asked for tech skills.
We’re seeing this more and more in the family assistant role.
Asked where the assistant role is heading, Laurine Mallet put technology first.
“This will evolve over the years. So especially with technology, obviously, the personal assistant will need to be very well informed, increasingly informed, about technological advancement, to be as responsive as possible, proactive as possible.”
Our success rate on nanny and butler searches is 96%, and we run family assistant searches the same way.
Once you call us, our recruiter asks you about the people in your house, the existing staff, and how your week runs. We then search through our database and send you a shortlist of candidates to interview.
We check in after ten days, so if a problem comes up, we can help fix it. If the first hire still doesn’t click with your family’s routine, we provide a free three-month replacement guarantee.
You can read more about the Morgan & Mallet agency story in our about us page.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, 10 US family assistant searches, 2024 to 2026. See how we count.
Frequently asked questions
Call us on +1 (646) 965-2308 or tell us about your home and a recruiter will get back to you.
What is a family assistant?
A family assistant is one person who takes care of the administrative side of your family life. They manage your children’s schedules, including school hours and activities, and provide hands-on childcare when needed.
They also take care of household errands, travel prep, and other household staff. The role is usually live-out, though live-in roles are common in households with multiple properties.
What are the responsibilities of a family assistant?
A family assistant’s duties cover the children’s school pick-ups and drop-offs, their appointments, and extracurricular activities. The household bills, admin, stocking, delivery arrangements, and pets also fall to the family assistant.
They coordinate with other staff like nannies, housekeepers, and tutors to make sure everyone is on the same schedule. The exact mix of the childcare and admin in the role depends on your family.
What is the difference between a nanny and a family assistant?
A nanny is the primary caretaker of your children and spends the day with them. A family assistant organizes the family’s life around the children, but childcare is only covered when needed rather than it being the main job.
Families with children under five usually need a nanny. Families with school-age children and a crowded calendar usually need a family assistant.
What is a family assistant called?
The same role goes by family assistant, household assistant, house assistant, and family personal assistant.
Job listings use these names interchangeably. “Household assistant” leans toward home admin, “family personal assistant” leans toward schedule management for parents, and “nanny-family assistant” describes the hybrid role that splits the week between childcare and organization.
How much does a family assistant cost?
Family assistants in the US earn $60,000 to $110,000 gross annually in the households we recruit for. Top of that range goes to roles involving several homes, travel, staff management, or heavy driving.
Live-in roles pay a lower cash salary with accommodation and meals on top. Household employment taxes, health insurance, and phone bills are additional costs when you’re the employer.
Do family assistants drive, and do they live in?
Most family assistants drive, since school pick-ups and errands are usually part of the role. That’s why we check for driving records in any role that involves transportation. Live-in and live-out roles are both common.
Live-out is the norm for single-home roles, and live-in suits families with more than one property or heavy travel. We also place part-time family assistants who work around school hours.
Call us on +1 (646) 965-2308 or tell us about your home and a recruiter will get back to you.
Are you a family assistant looking for a private household role? Browse our current open positions here.
New York
office address
260 Madison Avenue, 8th floor, 10016, New York, NY - United States
phone
+1 (646)965-2308
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed
Miami
office address
1555 NE 121st Street, Suite 104, North Miami, FL 33161, United States
phone
+1 305 710 3380
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed
Los Angeles
office address
895 Dove St, Newport Beach, CA 92660, United States
phone
+1 305 710 3380
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed