Hire a Private Personal Assistant
for Your Family or Family Office
Last updated:
Morgan & Mallet, a luxury household staffing agency, places private personal assistants for high-net-worth individuals and family offices across the US. We’ve been doing this for over ten years, with offices in New York, Los Angeles and Miami.
When you run a business and a family at the same time, a private personal assistant is usually the first hire that makes everything else work. Finding the right one is the hard part.
PA is one of the top five roles we fill, and 80 to 90% of our private PA clients are entrepreneurs and founders.
When you call us, we’ll have three to five candidates ready to meet you within two to three weeks. We have built a database of some of the very best candidates in the industry.
They have all been through a 90-minute interview with us, and we have checked their references from their previous roles. Criminal background checks follow the rules of your state and city.
We also handle contracts, payroll setup, and the legal side, so you don’t have to deal with that on your own.
Get in touch to hire a personal assistant.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, US personal assistant searches, May 2024 to March 2026, and our co-founder Morgan Richez on our private PA clients. How we count
Why hire using a personal assistant agency?
Hiring a PA yourself can be a gamble. You might get hundreds of applications. Most won’t have private household experience.
Our own numbers show that is true. Our personal assistant searches for clients in the US since 2024 had 107 applicants each on average, more than twice the 49 we have in all our US household searches.
Worldwide, the PA roles we recruit for have more applications than any other role, about 112 a search. Our Household Staff Industry Report has the full ranking.
The ones who look good on paper might have no idea how to actually help organize your life when they start doing the job.
| Decision | Share | Applications |
|---|---|---|
| Accepted | 16% | 1,737 |
| Turned down | 84% | 9,189 |
Of the PA applications our recruiters have reviewed, they accepted just 16%.
The best private PAs are rarely job hunting. They’re already working for someone and they’ll only move for something better.
That’s why we headhunt alongside every search. A job ad on its own won’t reach the people you actually want.
The screening alone is a full-time job, and most households don’t have the time or the experience to do it well.
Morgan Richez, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet:
“Household staff recruitment is the most important recruitment compared to even your company, because the people will live with you and will enter in your private life.
“You need to enjoy the personality. That’s why clients love people with discretion.”
Repeat business is important for us and shows our clients have been happy with their staff. 11% of our US PA searches came from families returning for another household PA from us.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, US personal assistant searches, with 1,924 applicants, May 2024 to March 2026, and all 341 of our US household searches, May 2022 to June 2026; our candidate database, PA applications reviewed since March 2020 (1,737 accepted, 9,189 turned down); and our Household Staff Industry Report. How we count
What Type of Personal Assistant Do You Need?
Private PA
A private PA runs your personal admin. Scheduling, email, travel, errands, household purchases and paying bills.
They work from your home, your office, or a mix of both.
Also most of our private PA placements are full-time and live-out.
Live-in roles do come up, usually for families in remote areas or with large estates where having someone on-site around the clock makes more sense.
Live-in work was just 6% of our PA searches for our clients in the US. That was just one Long Island family who also needed help on their yacht.
Family Office PA
A family office PA works inside a family office, usually reporting to an estate manager or chief of staff.
They deal with personal admin and financial paperwork over different properties and members of the family.
Ideally you need someone in this role who’s good with budgets and comfortable working with lawyers and accountants.
In our PA briefs in the US, 17% mentioned a family office, either as experience the family wanted or as the family office staff the PA would work with.
And 11% wanted the PA to report to a chief of staff.
It’s more structured than a typical private PA role.
There is often an extra round of interviews when a family office is involved, and that makes sense to us. Everyone needs to be happy.
“Usually when we introduce the first candidate, we will organize the first interview with the family office director or the PA, and the second step, we will do the meeting with the employer.
“We are the first filter, but they are the second filter,” says co-founder Morgan Richez.
Traveling PA
A traveling PA goes where you go.
If you split time between homes in different states or countries, they travel with you and keep things running at each one.
44% of our briefs in the US had the PA traveling with the people they work for, and 39% included trips abroad. A third wanted the PA to hold a valid passport.
Some of our billionaire clients have four or five PAs, each covering a different region.
The trips aren’t always planned weeks ahead though.
Co-founder Laurine Mallet gives an example:
“Let’s say he would like to travel with his family this weekend.
“So it will be in two days, and he’s going to tell the personal assistant, can you organize the trip for this weekend?
“I would like to go to, let’s say, Rome, in Italy, and we are four, so you need to manage everything, and I trust you to find the [right] hotel and to organize the [right] activities.”
Celebrity PA
A celebrity PA works for a high-profile person and everything is confidential.
NDAs before the first interview are expected. They handle media exposure, public schedules, and personal admin while staying completely in the background.
In Los Angeles, 77% of Morgan & Mallet’s PA placements need to have NDAs, according to our 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report.
Temporary and Seasonal PA
A temporary PA covers a specific period. A move, or a renovation, or staying at a second property.
We place PAs on short-term contracts, part-time or full-time, with the option to convert to permanent if the fit is right.
One of our 2024 household PA searches in Los Angeles was for just one summer. It was a PA and governess to travel with a teenager to Paris and London, with flights and housing paid.
It got 250 applicants, more than any other PA search we carried out in the US that year.
Household PA
A household personal assistant (sometimes called a house assistant) runs the personal side of your home life.
They can manage the calendar, travel, errands, home admin, and other household related tasks, for one principal or one family.
In fully staffed homes the household PA is often the link between the butler, nanny, and housekeeper, keeping plans running so nothing gets missed.
That role that is a go-between is common in our searches. In 61% of them, the PA joined a home that already had staff, whether a housekeeper, a butler or even a chief of staff.
When the PA runs that team, regular meetings help.
“If one of her duties is to manage also the household staff, which is completely possible, she will need to have a weekly meeting with the team every Friday, or once a month, depending on the client’s needs,” Laurine says.
Personal Secretary
A personal secretary does the desk or administration work for one principal.
They look after the calendar, inbox, travel, and confidential paperwork, usually Monday to Friday from an office or home office.
The difference between a personal secretary and a PA is how mobile they are.
A secretary would normally manage your admin from behind a desk, while a PA can be more hands-on with the errands, the household, and everything in between. Normal employers are founders, CEOs, lawyers, and heads of family offices.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, US personal assistant searches, May 2024 to March 2026, and our 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report. How we count
What does a personal assistant do?
A personal assistant takes the running of your days off your hands. They manage the calendar, the travel, the errands and the paperwork. In our PA briefs, this is how often families listed each task:
| Task | Share of briefs |
|---|---|
| Calendar and appointments | 89% |
| Errands and shopping | 89% |
| Booking travel | 83% |
| Emails, calls and letters | 72% |
| Dealing with suppliers and contractors | 67% |
| Dinners, parties and events | 56% |
| Bills, budgets and expense reports | 39% |
Some did much more than admin. A family in Miami Beach we recruited for wanted its household PA to manage a pool build and a remodel while they traveled, and a PA in Dallas was needed to keep the principal’s private plane stocked up as part of their job.
Morgan Richez sums up why families hire one:
“The personal assistant, this is a must-have when you get very rich, because you need someone who will manage your booking, for the hotel, for the restaurant, for your traveling.
“And these kind of people are very busy, so they need someone who can help with this matter.”
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, US personal assistant searches, with 1,924 applicants, May 2024 to March 2026. How we count
How much does a personal assistant cost in the US?
In the private households we recruit for, a personal assistant earns $80,000 to $250,000 a year, according to Morgan & Mallet’s 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report.
Our US job briefs are inside that range, apart from one four-day-a-week job in Pasadena. These are the yearly salaries we advertised for personal assistants:
| The job | Year | Pay in our ad | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| PA to a real estate executive, Tucson | 2024 | $100,000 to $125,000, plus a bonus and benefits | |
| PA, house manager and yacht stewardess in one, Long Island | 2024 | $90,000 to $100,000, with a car and live-in housing | |
| Live-out family assistant, four days a week, Pasadena | 2025 | $75,000 to $80,000 | |
| PA reporting to a chief of staff, Lexington, Kentucky | 2025 | $85,000 to $95,000, or $110,000 to $115,000 with the yearly bonus | |
| Personal assistant, Miami | 2025 | $95,000 to $120,000, plus health insurance, paid vacation and a bonus | |
| Personal assistant, Manhattan | 2025 | $100,000 to $140,000, plus paid time off and health insurance | |
| Senior personal assistant, Dallas | 2026 | $100,000 to $130,000 |
The highest base salary we’ve advertised for a US PA so far is $140,000.
What makes the salary higher?
Languages are a big one. Bilingual or trilingual PAs have higher salaries in every market we work in.
Between them, the 2,283 people with PA experience in our database speak 35 languages; English, French and Spanish are top of the list.
In our US briefs, though, a second language was only ever a plus, listed in 17% of searches.
Travel makes salary costs go up too.
“We got many cases for a traveling nanny or even a traveling PA.
“Of course if you need to travel between Paris, New York and Riyadh, you need to increase [the salary], because you pay for the flexibility, and the private life for the domestic workers is going to be reduced,” explains Morgan.
Live-in roles pay less base salary but include accommodation and meals.
As an employer you’ll also need to cover payroll taxes (FICA) and workers’ comp.
In practice, 28% of our PA searches for clients in the US offered benefits on top of pay, like health insurance, a 401(k), paid vacation or a bonus.
Executive assistants doing both corporate and private work are at the higher end, around $120,000 to $250,000.
Source: our 2025/26 Household Staff Salaries Annual Report; the pay in our US personal assistant job ads, May 2024 to March 2026; and our candidate database, October 2026. How we count
How do I find a good personal assistant?
When you work with our personal assistant agency, we start with a detailed call. We ask you things about your household, your routine, properties, expectations, and what you actually need your PA to do every day.
One client might want someone texting them a plan at 7am. Another doesn’t want to hear from their PA unless something’s gone wrong.
These things are really important to know from the start so we can find the right person.
Stephanie Berton, recruiter at Morgan & Mallet:
“I need to understand exactly what you need. So please, give me as much information as you can. Too much is fine, I’ll filter it and go through it.”
Then we search our network and headhunt at the same time. We advertise every role too, because the right person might not be in our system yet.
Every candidate does a 90-minute interview with us. We want to know what they’d do in certain situations if things went wrong for example. Just to get a feel for how they work.
Or we might ask how they’d handle overhearing something they shouldn’t have.
Can they switch between scheduling software without being taught? That kind of thing.
Laurine explains what else we look for:
“When we interview a personal assistant, we need to understand their ability with their emotion. So it can be like the self-control, which is really important.
“It’s staying in one’s place, not taking things personally, which is really important.”
Experience is a big part of that check.
Among our PA briefs in the US that had a minimum level of experience, five years was there more than any other figure, and one family from Dallas wanted 10 to 12 years.
Your own interviews are as important as the ones we do.
As Laurine puts it:
“When we place a personal assistant, it’s a lot about the intimacy of the client.
“So actually there are like maybe two or three interviews before employing the candidate, and also when they double check the references. So we do it, but they can also do it on their side.
“So it’s like the client is completely sure the personal assistant matches with his needs and also his mindset.”
We call old employers and go through the last few years of work history, and run criminal background checks.
For high-profile placements, candidates sometimes sign NDAs before they even know who the principal is.
NDA use in private households has gone up a lot since 2020, mostly because of social media.
We will present to you three to five candidates. We set up interviews and paid trial days if needed so you can see how each person actually works before you make a decision.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, US personal assistant searches, May 2024 to March 2026. How we count
Should a personal assistant work from home?
This comes up in almost every PA search now.
Morgan Richez:
“The personal assistant job, you need to offer at least one or two days home office. If you say Monday to Friday in the office, people won’t accept this anymore.”
Not many job ads say this yet, but it’s on the increase. Remote or home office days appeared in just 17% of our PA job briefs in the US.
Flexibility is expected on the other side as well, as 39% of our briefs asked for some evening or weekend work.
Most strong candidates expect some remote flexibility. Build it into the role and you’ll get better applicants. If you do only want someone full-time and in-person the search could take longer.
There’s a trust part attached to this as well.
Employers worry about staff working from home, especially early on.
One or two days is the compromise most households get to. Full remote is rare in private PA roles and most principals don’t want it.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, US personal assistant searches, May 2024 to March 2026. How we count
What should I look for when hiring a personal assistant?
Organizational skills and discretion are non-negotiable. They’re obviously just part of the job.
We understand what makes a discreet candidate. Morgan, our co-founder, worked for high-profile clients himself when he worked as household staff.
He says:
“When (my principal) used to talk to me, of course we had nice conversations, but I was not too curious. I didn’t ask too many questions. It’s very important to stay in your place.
“You can talk to someone, but it’s not good to be too curious – to think, ‘Now he trusts me, he’s a friend, I can do what I want.’ No. He’s still my boss. I need to respect him.”
Practical skills are very important too. 61% of our PA briefs for clients in the US mentioned a driver’s license, and some families wanted the PA to have a car of their own.
But apart from that, it depends on your household.
Some roles need someone bilingual. Others need someone comfortable with technology and scheduling platforms.
If your household PA is managing other staff or coordinating suppliers, they need to be confident making decisions on their own.
A good PA also tells you the truth. As Morgan says:
“The role of the PA is to be frank with the owner, with the principal. So she has to be honest and transparent and to explain to the owner.
“When the PA doesn’t explain the reality to the principal, the relationship is not good.”
The first three months are really important. If you catch things early, they can be fixed.
We check in with you and your PA after 10 days, and then regularly through those first three months.
90-day replacement guarantee. If it doesn’t work out, we find someone new at no extra cost.
We also help with contracts, payroll setup, and employment law. We can connect you with lawyers in New York, California, Florida, and every other state where you’re hiring.
If you’re in New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut or one of the other states with a domestic worker bill of rights, you’ll need to know about these laws.
They set rules on working hours, overtime, and rest periods that don’t apply in every state.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, US personal assistant searches, May 2024 to March 2026. How we count
What is the difference between a PA and an executive assistant?
A personal assistant manages your personal and professional life. Things like hotels, restaurants, travel, calendar, household purchases, family logistics. The role revolves around you.
For Laurine, the difference between the two jobs can be privacy.
“The personal assistant, they manage much more the private life of their boss than an executive assistant.
“The executive assistant, they’re going to manage many things for the executive department of a company, so it’s really professional, while for an individual it’s much more about the lifestyle, holidays, his family or her family also.”
An executive assistant supports a CEO or senior executive. But at UHNW level, the EA can deal with personal tasks too, which is why companies contact us even though we specialize in private households.
Some families advertise this hybrid as an executive personal assistant, which would be more business admin support, employed privately by the principal rather than a company.
A chief of staff is a senior role that combines PA, house manager, and family office type roles. They work across multiple properties, manage other staff, and deal with budgets.
Salaries go up to $300,000 in the private households we recruit for, according to Morgan & Mallet’s 2025/26 Annual Report.
We place all three. If you’re not sure which one you need, we’ll work that out on the first call you have with us.
Does a personal assistant need to sign an NDA?
Usually, yes. Nine in ten of our US personal assistant briefs (89%) asked for confidentiality. We have our own NDA, and a family can also ask for one written for them.
In the US it often starts before anyone is hired.
“We got so many clients, especially in the US, who ask us first of all for the recruiter to sign the NDA, but the staff has to sign the NDA as well.
“And it’s happened a lot, especially for ultra [high net worth] billionaires. Every time it’s like this. This is part of the process,” says Morgan.
The PA is often the one who keeps on top of that. In a 2025 search in Manhattan, the PA had to work with the family’s residential security staff before arrivals and departures.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, US personal assistant searches, May 2024 to March 2026. How we count
Can you hire a part-time personal assistant?
Yes, though it’s the exception. Most of our PA searches in the US are full-time, but 17% were for a shorter week, and each was set up differently:
- A retired principal in New York wanted up to 20 hours a week, with some evenings and weekends, at $30 to $45 an hour.
- A household in Newport Beach offered 25 to 30 flexible hours or a full 40, at $30 to $35 an hour, with part of the week worked from home.
- A couple in Pasadena wanted a live-out family assistant to work four days a week for them, 32 hours including one weekend day.
Fewer hours didn’t put people off though. The New York job received 171 applicants, well above our usual response for a PA search in the United States.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs and applicants, US personal assistant searches, May 2024 to March 2026. How we count
What other household staff might I need?
If you’re building a household team, you might also need a house manager to look after everything that happens day to day and staff management.
A butler for formal service and guest management, or an estate manager for property maintenance and managing everything over different homes.
Some households also bring in a lifestyle manager to take on travel, wellness and personal projects, which leaves the PA free for the admin.
Childcare for household PAs does enter the mix sometimes.
A third of our PA briefs included some childcare, from school runs to homework, and two Newport Beach families wanted a PA who also looked after the children, at $35 to $45 an hour.
If your children need more care than that, think about whether to hire a nanny too.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, US personal assistant searches, May 2024 to March 2026. How we count
Where can you hire a personal assistant in the US?
Morgan & Mallet places private personal assistants in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, Washington, DC, and anywhere else you might have a home.
California is where we run the most PA searches, 39% of them since 2024, and New York is next with 17%.
- California 39%
- New York 17%
- Florida
- Texas
- Georgia
- Kentucky
- Arizona
In New York, most clients are entrepreneurs and founders who need one person running everything in their work and family life, from the Upper East Side to Tribeca.
In Los Angeles, demand comes from entertainment and tech families in Beverly Hills, Bel Air, and Malibu.
In Miami, it’s areas like Coral Gables and Brickell, often for families who move between Florida and the Northeast.
We also place household personal assistants in the Hamptons, Greenwich, Aspen, and Palm Beach, where the right person could need to live-in or relocate.
Since 2024 our searches for PAs have been in seven states. California, New York, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Kentucky and Arizona. In California they went from Newport Beach up to San Francisco, and in Texas we searched in Dallas.
The big cities still get the most applicants. Our searches for PAs in New York City, Los Angeles and the Miami area averaged 159 applicants each, compared with 81 everywhere else.
Morgan sees the same split from the candidate side:
“If we’re talking about the PA position, chauffeur position, estate manager position, we’ve got a very strong database. We got so many applicants, which is good.
“As recruiters, we’ve got the choice to find the right candidate. The difficulty comes when it comes to the localization. If we’re talking about Miami, that’s fine. If we’re talking about the middle of the US, this is another story.”
We cover the entire US, and work internationally from offices in London, Paris, Geneva, Monaco, and Dubai.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, 18 US personal assistant searches with 1,924 applicants, May 2024 to March 2026. How we count
Frequently Asked Questions
Call us on +1 (646) 965-2308 or tell us what you need and a PA recruiter will get back to you.
How long does it take to hire a PA?
Two to six weeks depending on the role. Celebrity and UHNW placements can take longer because vetting is more involved and confidentiality slows things down.
What's the difference between permanent and temporary PA hire?
Permanent PAs become long-term members of your household. Temporary PAs cover specific periods like a move, a renovation, or parental leave. We place both, and temporary placements can convert to permanent if the fit works.
Nearly all our PA jobs in the United States have been permanent, that’s 94% since 2024.
What if I need staff in other countries too?
Same recruiter handles everything. Morgan & Mallet has offices in London, Paris, Geneva, Monaco, and Dubai.
For a US job, start on the visa early if your PA is coming from abroad. 39% of our PA searches in the US asked for people already allowed to work in the country.
Can the same PA work across multiple properties?
Yes. A lot of our PAs travel with the principal or manage things across two or three homes.
In 22% of our PA briefs in the US the family had more than one home, such as a New York family with houses in Southampton and Palm Beach.
Do you place Personal assistants outside of major cities?
Yes. The Hamptons, Greenwich, Aspen, Palm Beach, anywhere our clients have homes.
Our recent US searches include Braselton in Georgia, Lexington in Kentucky and Tucson in Arizona.
Can AI replace a personal assistant?
For basic admin, some families do use AI tools. We’ve had about 20% fewer PA requests in parts of Europe, and our co-founder Laurine thinks AI could be part of the reason.
But anything that needs judgment, discretion, or real relationships with suppliers and service providers still needs a person.
Source: Morgan & Mallet job briefs, US personal assistant searches, May 2024 to March 2026. How we count
Call us on +1 (646) 965-2308 or tell us what you need and a PA recruiter will get back to you.
New York
office address
260 Madison Avenue, 8th floor, 10016, New York, NY - United States
phone
+1 917-843-5691
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