Oplu recruits executive and administrative support for Private and Family Offices. These are high-trust hires where judgement, boundaries, and calm delivery under pressure matter more than job titles.
A single misrouted email, a loose conversation, or unclear diary authority creates exposure. We run discreet, controlled searches. Often these are replacement hires, so confidentiality and staged disclosure are built into the process, not treated as a courtesy.
In private offices, CVs converge quickly. What decides outcomes is operating style and how the person behaves when three things collide at once.
Oplu places Executive Assistants, Personal Assistants, Family Office Assistants, and Chiefs of Staff who safeguard time, information flow, and decision cadence in high-trust private settings. We scope by decision flow and privacy exposure, not job titles.
Roles in this category
This is not a seniority ladder. It is a choice between four centres of gravity.
Hire an EA when the priority is executive workflow, diary control, senior stakeholders, and controlled communication. The EA protects the principal's time and information flow.
See: Executive Assistant recruitment
Hire a PA when the priority is lifestyle logistics, travel, personal administration, and household coordination. The PA protects continuity across the principal's private life.
See: Personal Assistant recruitment
Hire a Family Office Assistant when the priority is admin cadence, documentation hygiene, meeting packs, renewals, and coordination across advisers and entities.
See: Family Office Assistant recruitment
Hire a Chief of Staff when priorities, advisers, and workstreams need coordination through one operating lead with real access and defined authority.
See: Chief of Staff recruitment
Hire a Private PA when the principal is building at speed, has no family office or household team, and needs personal support from scratch. The candidate must thrive with ambiguity and build systems alongside daily logistics.
See: Private PA for Founders recruitment
| Role | Focus | Typical mandate | Key difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Executive Assistant | Executive workflow, diary, stakeholders | Principal's professional rhythm | Gatekeeps time and information |
| Personal Assistant | Lifestyle, travel, household coordination | Principal's personal continuity | Manages the private sphere |
| Family Office Assistant | Admin cadence, documentation, coordination | Office-wide follow-through | Serves the office, not one person |
| Chief of Staff | Delivery, decision cadence, cross-stakeholder | Operating rhythm across workstreams | Needs authority to close decisions |
| Private PA for Founders | Personal logistics, travel, admin, vendors | Founder's private continuity | Builds infrastructure from scratch |
Splitting EA and PA responsibilities often improves boundaries, but adds handovers and increases the cost of coverage. In a family office, the diary often becomes the information gate, so scope is a privacy decision as much as an admin one.
A PA or EA who has grown with a principal from the early days often ends up in a Chief of Staff seat by default. They are loyal, trusted, and know everything. But a seasoned EA is not a Chief of Staff. The skills are different. When the office outgrows informal coordination, the gap becomes visible fast.
Senior support staff salaries in UHNW environments decouple from market rates over time. A PA who has spent five years with a principal, knows every preference, holds every relationship, and manages a complex private life is worth far more to that employer than the open market would pay. This creates a dislocation: the candidate earns well above market but knows a move would likely mean a significant drop until they prove their value again. Unlike corporate career paths, there is no predictable ladder. Salary follows contribution, proximity, and trust, not tenure or title.
Before briefing, define:
If two people can instruct without coordinating, the hire will fail. It is never the candidate's fault.
The best hires we have placed are the ones the principal stopped thinking about. Not because they disappeared, but because nothing fell through.
We scope these hires by separating office execution, household operations, and lifestyle support. Then we define authority, coverage, and confidentiality in each lane.
We assess behaviour in practical scenarios, not just credentials. We test diary and inbox triage under conflicting demands, travel disruption response, sensitive information handling, and vendor pressure. Referencing is handled discreetly and in the right sequence, validating judgement calls and boundary handling, not just tasks performed.
An EA focuses on executive workflow, diary strategy, and stakeholder management. A PA focuses on lifestyle logistics, personal administration, and household coordination. Scope often overlaps in family offices, which is why we define lanes and boundaries before searching
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