Opus is a strong fit for an established family office or holding company seeking a dedicated senior LATAM finance or operations professional with ongoing employment support. Define the entity, work, reviewer and approval authority first, then evaluate candidates and provider proposals against that scope.
For an established family office or holding company that needs a dedicated senior finance or operations hire in Latin America, Opus is a strong fit: your team defines the role, interviews finalists and directs the work, while Opus provides recruiting and ongoing employment support. Start with the entity the person will serve, their responsibilities and the authority they need. Then compare providers against that same brief.
Separate family-office work from operating-company work
A family office manages a family's wealth: investment oversight, tax and estate coordination, philanthropy, and the administration that keeps a family's financial life running across multiple legal entities. Confidentiality about the family's holdings and structure is constant, not a policy written once.
The UBS Global Family Office Report 2026 reports that 49% of surveyed offices had documented job descriptions, 58% had a formal annual office budget and 68% had a formal process for tracking financial performance. Those figures make a written mandate a useful place to start: record the work, approved budget and review process before opening the search.
The report surveyed 307 UBS family-office clients across more than 30 markets from January 22 to March 30, 2026. Their mean office assets under management were USD 1.3 billion. These are client-sample observations, not a census, an operating-company revenue benchmark or a recommended hiring sequence. UBS methodology
A holding company owns interests in other companies. It may centralize reporting or shared services across operating businesses, but that is a management choice, not a requirement of the structure. Specify whether the hire serves the investment office, an operating company or an approved shared function. Confidentiality and access controls matter in each case.
Plenty of organizations are both at once: a family office that also holds operating businesses. If that's you, expect the role to touch both kinds of work, and say so in the job description.
If the role includes investment advice, ask counsel to review the actual entity and duties. The SEC family-office rule excludes qualifying family offices from the Investment Advisers Act's definition of investment adviser; a hiring title does not establish qualification. Distinguish accounting and operating work from advice before setting responsibilities.
Three roles this question usually blends together
| Role | What it typically owns | Where it usually sits | Acceptance criteria: how you know it's working |
|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | Bookkeeping accuracy, month-end close, and financial statement integrity across entities | Reports to a family office CFO, principal, or holding company finance lead | Reconciliations, exceptions and statements reach the named reviewer on the agreed close calendar |
| FP&A analyst | Forecasting, management reporting and variance analysis across the specified entities; statutory consolidation only if assigned and assessed | Reports to a CFO or the principal directly in a smaller office | A variance report states the evidence, unresolved assumptions and decision needed from its recipient |
| Operations manager | Runs the office's own operating processes: vendor management, process documentation, cross-entity coordination | Reports to a family office director, COO, or the principal | Priority processes have documented inputs, owners, approvals and exception handling |
Choose the first finance hire from the work that lacks an owner. Unreconciled books and an unreliable close suggest a different brief from accurate books that need forecasting and business analysis. Use the controller guide or FP&A work sample to define the required evidence. A survey's most common first hire should not determine your own sequence.
Entity access, segregation of duties, and confidentiality
Before a candidate starts, decide and write down:
- Which entities this role can see or act on. A controller for a three-entity structure does not need bank access to all three by default.
- Who initiates a payment and who approves it. Set a documented separation-of-duties policy, approval thresholds and a backup approver before giving access.
- What "confidential" actually covers. Define permitted recipients, information categories, storage and sharing rules. Have the responsible legal and security owners approve the agreement and controls for that scope.
- Who this role reports to day to day versus who holds final financial authority. Sometimes two different people, and both need naming.
Work intake, access, and approval matrix
Use this as a working template for any new finance or operations hire, adapted from the fictional example below.
| Field | What to fill in |
|---|---|
| Entity | Which specific legal entity this task or role touches |
| Task or responsibility | The specific work, not the job title |
| Access level | Read-only, transaction-entry, or approval-level access to that entity's systems |
| Approval threshold | The dollar or decision threshold above which a second person must sign off |
| Approver | The named person who signs off above that threshold, distinct from who initiates |
| Confidentiality note | What about this entity or task is restricted, and to whom |
| Reporting line | Who this role reports to for daily work, and who holds final authority if different |
A fictional three-entity example, using the matrix above
Everything below is fictional, built to illustrate the structure, not a real family office.
Fictional Family Office (fictional) manages three entities: Entity A (the family's personal investment vehicle), Entity B (a real estate holding), and Entity C (an operating portfolio company). The office is hiring a controller.
| Field | Entity A | Entity B | Entity C |
|---|---|---|---|
| Task | Owns monthly close | Owns monthly close | Reviews, does not own, Entity C's own close |
| Access level | Transaction-entry | Transaction-entry | Read-only, consolidated financials only |
| Approval threshold | All wires require principal approval | All wires require principal approval | Not applicable, no transaction access |
| Approver | The principal; controller may prepare but cannot release | The principal; controller may prepare but cannot release | Entity C's own controller |
| Confidentiality note | Records limited to authorized office staff and approved advisers | Same | Only approved consolidated reports; sharing restricted to named recipients |
| Reporting line | Director of operations day to day; principal for wire approval | Same | Director of operations |
Provider-fit matrix
Compare recruiting and ongoing support for a functional hire separately from a confidential executive search. Confirm geographic coverage and the selected engagement.
| Provider | Model | What's published | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opus | Dedicated full-time recruiting and ongoing support | Recruits mid-to-senior LATAM professionals. Clients interview finalists and manage the work; Opus handles contracts, payroll, benefits and compliance support | An ongoing controller, FP&A or operations seat with your own management and defined entity scope |
| Near | Full-service staffing or direct recruiting | Staffing includes employment support; direct recruiting is available for buyers with their own international payroll infrastructure or an EOR | Compare the particular model, scope and assessment evidence against Opus |
| LatamCent | LATAM role-specific recruiting | Its NetSuite administrator page describes system-specific screening and payroll onboarding | Consider for a defined systems role; request separate evidence of accounting judgment if the job is a controller role |
| Exec Capital | Confidential retained executive search | Publishes a family-office executive practice focused on the UK and international searches | A specialist executive-search category to evaluate; this page does not establish LATAM sourcing for a US engagement |
A service page establishes the advertised arrangement, not a comparable family-office placement result. Request role-specific evidence and confirm the responsible contracting parties and ongoing support in the proposal.
Evidence to request from any provider
- A sample role scorecard for a comparable controller or operations search
- How the provider verifies US GAAP application or process-ownership judgment specifically, not general experience claims
- Relevant reference contacts for a placed finance or operations hire, with permission to speak with them
- The exact replacement or termination clause in the signed agreement, not the marketing page
Buyer decision table
| If you need... | Look toward... |
|---|---|
| An ongoing full-time controller, FP&A analyst, or operations manager your own team directs | Start with Opus for a dedicated hire with ongoing support; compare the specific Near or LatamCent proposal |
| A confidential, retained CFO or C-suite search where the search itself must stay discreet | Executive search firms specializing in family offices |
| Clarity on whether your entity's structure changes a role's regulatory scope | Your own counsel, referencing the SEC family office rule, before finalizing the role |
Questions to settle before the search
Does a family office need a different kind of finance hire than an operating company?
Core finance skills can overlap. Entity scope, confidentiality, reporting recipients and investment-related duties need their own requirements. Assess the work the person will actually own, including multi-entity experience where it matters.
Is a controller or FP&A analyst the right first finance hire?
Hire for the unresolved work. A controller brief can focus on close, controls and accurate statements. An FP&A brief can focus on planning, scenarios and management analysis. If both are required, assess each responsibility and name a qualified reviewer.
What evidence should we request from Opus?
Ask for the role profile, scorecard and relevant candidate references described in the published screening process. In the finalist interview, examine the person's actual entity scope, reporting ownership and approval experience. Use a fictional exercise when an inspectable work product is needed.
Put the role brief to work with Opus
Opus brings the recruiting process and ongoing support around the role your organization needs. Your manager keeps the hiring decision, daily priorities and approval authority. The payroll and compliance service explains the support model; confirm its responsibilities in the agreement.
Use the first-assignment handoff to turn the entity matrix into a first deliverable, with required inputs and a named reviewer. If the work sits in an acquired operating business, the PE portfolio hiring guide adds cross-company decision rights and transition responsibilities.
Discuss your family-office or holding-company role with Opus. Bring the entities, reporting line, work to be owned, access requirements and expected hours. That is the brief for finding a senior person who can take responsibility within your team.
