There is an evolution taking place within private staffing, reflecting a wider change in both the clients seeking support and the type of assistance they require.
The traditional Private PA has long been the trusted individual working quietly behind the scenes of a busy private life. Today, that position is developing into something broader, more personal and increasingly hands-on: the Lifestyle PA. At Shire & Wold Staffing, we work with clients seeking private household staffing at the very highest level.
A Lifestyle PA is not simply a Personal Assistant working from a private residence. Nor are they solely a House Manager, Executive Assistant or private concierge, although the role may borrow elements from each.
They are the person who brings organisation, structure and calm to an increasingly complex personal life.
At Shire & Wold Staffing, we are seeing interest from a new wave of clients: entrepreneurs, founders and highly performing individuals who have reached a significant level of professional success, but whose private lives have become increasingly difficult to manage alongside it.
Many already have a small bank of help at home. There may be a nanny supporting the children and a housekeeper looking after the property. Yet there is still a crucial gap: nobody is taking ownership of the family’s wider personal administration, forward planning and everyday logistics.
This is the space being filled by the new Lifestyle PA.
A Lifestyle PA supports the organisation and delivery of an individual’s private life.
Unlike an Executive Assistant, whose focus will generally be the client’s business activities, a Lifestyle PA takes responsibility for the personal details competing for that individual’s time and attention. This role is distinct from a House Manager, although the two may work closely together.
Depending on the household, their responsibilities might include:
For some clients, the Lifestyle PA will primarily be a highly organised personal administrator. For others, they will become a trusted right hand who understands the family’s preferences, anticipates future needs and keeps an otherwise demanding life moving smoothly.
Professional success often brings greater freedom, but it can also create a surprising amount of personal administration.
As businesses grow, so do diaries, travel demands, social commitments and professional networks. There may be several properties, a busy family schedule and an expanding number of people requiring access to the principal’s time.
Many successful individuals have built strong teams within their businesses. They understand the value of professional delegation, yet continue trying to manage every detail of their private lives themselves.
A founder may have a Chief of Staff, Executive Assistant or operations team supporting the company, but still be personally booking the family holiday, rearranging a child’s appointment, ordering birthday presents and trying to remember when an important household policy needs renewing.
Each task may appear small. Collectively, they create a significant cognitive and administrative burden.
The Lifestyle PA fills the space between the professional office and the traditional household team.
The first emerging Lifestyle PA client is the high-flyer: the entrepreneur, founder, creative, senior executive or high-performing professional whose business or career has reached a new level.
These clients may not consider themselves part of the traditional private-household world. They may not have a large country estate or an extensive domestic team. Often, they have built their success themselves and remain closely involved in every aspect of their business.
At home, they may employ a nanny and a housekeeper, but their lifestyle has developed beyond the support those roles are designed to provide.
Their challenge is no longer simply maintaining the home or arranging childcare. It is managing the volume of decisions, commitments and unfinished tasks surrounding an exceptionally busy working life.
They need someone who can take a message such as, “We would like to go away during half term,” and carry it through from initial research to confirmed travel, accommodation, transfers, restaurant reservations, children’s activities and a clear itinerary.
They need someone who understands that true support is not simply producing a long list of options. It is reducing the number of decisions the client has to make.
For this client, a Lifestyle PA is not an extravagance. They are a practical investment in time, focus and quality of life.
One recent Shire & Wold search involved a successful founder of a growing technology business employing approximately 50 people.
While the founder had built a substantial team around the business, life at home had also become increasingly busy. The family had young children and already employed a nanny and a housekeeper. Historically, virtual PAs had helped with elements of their personal administration and lifestyle management.
However, as both the business and the family’s needs developed, remote assistance was no longer enough.
The family needed someone physically present who could understand how the household operated, take ownership of its wider organisation and provide proactive, practical support.
The Lifestyle PA was appointed to oversee the family’s personal administration and day-to-day lifestyle management while supporting the mother with the practical coordination of the household.
The remit included:
This appointment did not replace the nanny or housekeeper. Instead, it introduced someone who could oversee the moving parts, support the existing team and ensure the family’s private life received the same level of organisation as the founder’s business.
It is a strong example of the modern Lifestyle PA: a trusted, hands-on individual who provides structure, anticipates pressure points and takes ownership of the details surrounding a busy family life.
The second emerging client profile is the successful neurodivergent individual who requires greater organisational support within their private life.
As our understanding of neurodiversity grows, more people are recognising that challenges with organisation, prioritisation, time management, planning or task completion are not necessarily signs of carelessness or a lack of capability.
An individual can be highly intelligent, creative and commercially successful while finding elements of everyday personal administration disproportionately difficult or overwhelming.
Many entrepreneurs and high-performing individuals thrive when generating ideas, solving complex problems or working at pace. However, the same person may struggle with diary management, household paperwork, appointments, packing, personal correspondence or completing tasks involving several administrative steps.
Their professional success can sometimes mask these challenges. A business team may provide structure throughout the working day, while their private life remains largely unsupported.
This can leave the individual or their partner carrying a considerable mental load at home.
A well-matched Lifestyle PA can provide calm, consistent and non-judgemental support. They can build systems around the client’s preferred way of working, break larger tasks into manageable actions, provide timely prompts and ensure important personal matters do not become lost beneath more immediate demands.
This should never be about controlling the client or removing their independence. It is about understanding how they work best and creating a private-life infrastructure that allows them to flourish.
Another recent search involved a young neurodivergent woman living in central London who needed support managing the practical demands of her day-to-day life.
She was capable, independent and successful, but had accumulated a significant backlog of personal administration. Her to-do list stretched back almost three years, with appointments to arrange, paperwork to resolve, belongings to organise, decisions to make and tasks that had repeatedly been pushed aside.
Alongside the visible list was what she described as her “2am internal inbox”: the stream of thoughts, reminders and unfinished tasks that would surface during the night, creating a sense of constant mental noise.
She did not need a corporate PA, nor was she looking for a carer or clinical support. She needed a trusted Lifestyle PA who could help her capture, organise and work through everything competing for her attention.
The Lifestyle PA’s remit included:
The objective was not to take control of the client’s life. It was to give her a trusted operational partner who could help convert thoughts and intentions into completed actions.
This case demonstrates an important new area for the Lifestyle PA. Neurodivergent individuals may be exceptionally capable in their professional or creative pursuits while still finding planning, prioritisation and task completion overwhelming.
The right Lifestyle PA can help clear both the physical to-do list and the mental “inbox”, creating more space for the client to focus, rest and enjoy their life.
Every neurodivergent person is different, so a Lifestyle PA must begin by understanding the individual rather than making assumptions based on a diagnosis.
Helpful support may include:
The strongest Lifestyle PAs combine organisation with emotional intelligence. They do not arrive with a rigid system and expect the client to adapt to it. They observe, listen and create a structure that genuinely works for the individual.
A Lifestyle PA is not employed as a nanny or housekeeper, but that does not mean they operate at a distance from the practical needs of the household.
The nature of the position requires flexibility. A Lifestyle PA may be responsible for arranging temporary childcare or housekeeping cover when a member of staff is absent, coordinating agencies and managing the resulting changes to the family’s schedule.
There may also be occasions when they are expected to step in themselves.
If a nanny is delayed, a Lifestyle PA might supervise the children briefly until alternative cover arrives. If a housekeeper is unexpectedly unavailable before guests visit, they may help prepare the home, organise refreshments or ensure the immediate priorities are addressed.
They might collect a child, accept an important delivery, prepare a guest bedroom, walk the dog or complete a household errand when nobody else is available.
For this new generation of clients, the Lifestyle PA is often valued precisely because they are willing to be hands-on and do not approach the household with a rigid “that is not my job” attitude.
Their first responsibility will usually be to find and coordinate the appropriate solution. However, when plans change or immediate support is required, an exceptional Lifestyle PA is prepared to bridge the gap.
The important distinction is that these responsibilities should be occasional rather than their routine workload. A Lifestyle PA is not there to replace a nanny, housekeeper or other household professional permanently.
If they are regularly undertaking childcare, cleaning or domestic duties, the household may need additional staff or a differently defined hybrid position.
The strongest Lifestyle PAs combine flexibility with sound judgement. They recognise when to arrange specialist cover, when to step in personally and when a recurring request indicates that the household’s staffing structure needs to be reviewed.
The evolving scope of the Lifestyle PA is reflected in current London salaries.
While remuneration depends on experience and the exact requirements of the household, an experienced Lifestyle PA or senior Private PA in London can command between £80,000 and £100,000 gross per annum.
Recent advertised London roles support this level of salary:
These are not traditional diary-management positions. At this salary level, clients are generally looking for someone who can take significant ownership of their private life.
Responsibilities typically include multiple properties, international travel, household budgets, staff management, family logistics, sensitive personal administration and availability when unexpected situations arise.
For particularly demanding roles, salaries may exceed £100,000. This is more likely where the PA supports a high-profile principal, travels internationally, manages several residences, oversees a substantial household team or works across both the principal’s professional and private life.
A position incorporating strategic projects, extensive financial responsibility or oversight of an entire private office may also begin to move towards a Private Chief of Staff remit.
As a guide, Shire & Wold Staffing would expect a senior London Lifestyle PA position to sit within the £80,000 to £100,000 range, with each role benchmarked individually according to its hours, complexity, flexibility and responsibilities. We also place senior EA and PA roles within family offices, where remuneration at this level is equally reflected.
The best Lifestyle PAs are naturally organised, but organisation alone is not enough.
They also require:
Trust is fundamental. A Lifestyle PA may have access to personal diaries, family information, financial administration, medical appointments and the most private aspects of a client’s life.
The right personality and cultural fit are therefore just as important as professional experience.
If your business life is well supported but your personal life still feels reactive, a Lifestyle PA may be the missing appointment within your team.
You may benefit from this support if:
At Shire & Wold Staffing, we understand that no two Lifestyle PA positions are the same.
Before beginning a search, we work closely with the client to understand where the pressure points sit, how the household currently operates, what level of hands-on assistance is expected and what successful support would genuinely look like.
The right Lifestyle PA does much more than manage a diary. They reduce friction, create structure, solve problems and give successful individuals the space to enjoy the life they have worked so hard to build. To discuss recruiting a Lifestyle PA for your household or private office, contact Shire & Wold Staffing
