Industry Responds to Morgan Stanley + Botoff Compensation Report
A data-driven look at how investment-focused family offices are aligning compensation with talent and performance.
“Our aim is to bring clarity and benchmarking rigor to one of the most important - and often opaque - issues family offices face: how to compensate investment talent appropriately.”
With recent media coverage from CNBC Inside Wealth, Financial Times, InvestmentNews, The Globe and Mail, and Morgan Stanley itself, the 2025 Single Family Office Compensation Report is sparking conversation across the wealth management and advisory landscape.
Created in partnership between Morgan Stanley and Botoff Consulting, the report focuses on investment-centric family offices and reveals insights based on data from firms with over $750 billion in combined AUM.
“We’re pleased to see the industry engaging with this report in such a meaningful way,” said Trish Botoff, Founder and CEO of Botoff Consulting. “Our aim is to bring clarity and benchmarking rigor to one of the most important—and often opaque—issues family offices face: how to compensate investment talent appropriately.”
While the report covers compensation across 23 key roles, a few findings are already fueling industry dialogue:
For the first time since we began collecting data on the use of LTI plans in 2015, co-investment opportunity (57%) surpassed deferred incentive compensation (56%) as the most prevalent plan type.
76% of firms with an LTI provide some type of upside opportunity sharing to plan participants versus static awards.
Executive compensation remains correlated with size, scope, and complexity of the family office, most closely tied to AUM and organizational strategy.
Family members are more likely to hold the positions of CEO and CIO in investment-focused firms than in family offices overall. Respondents reported 53% versus 27% for CEO and 13% versus 6% for CIO.
These trends are shaping compensation conversations for both family offices and the institutions that serve them. The demand for detailed, segmented data is at an all-time high—and this report delivers.
“Compensation strategy is increasingly being used as a strategic alignment tool,” said Hunter Guice, Principal Consultant at Botoff. “And having detailed, role-specific benchmarks enables organizations to design plans that actually reflect market practices.”
Botoff continues to lead in producing custom, accurate, and segmented compensation data—delivered with context and rigor. As the industry’s complexity grows, so does the need for precision—and that’s where we excel.
Note: This co-published report with Morgan Stanley was based on survey data from 2024. Our 2025 Compensation Report for Family Offices, Family Investment Firms, and Private Trust Companies will be available in the fall of 2025. Please fill out the form below to join our mailing list to be notified of report releases and future Botoff Consulting surveys.
