Here’s the truth we tell every family at Seaside Staffing Company who employs an estate manager: if you’re not conducting annual performance reviews, you’re managing your most important household relationship by accident rather than by design. Year-end is the natural time for these conversations, yet we regularly hear from families who’ve employed the same estate manager for three or four years without ever sitting down for a formal review.
After two decades of placing estate managers in Los Angeles and throughout the country, we’ve observed that the households with the strongest, longest-lasting estate manager relationships are the ones who treat performance reviews as essential rather than optional. These aren’t uncomfortable conversations to be avoided, they’re opportunities to strengthen alignment, address small issues before they become big problems, and ensure that both the family and the estate manager feel valued and understood.
Why Estate Managers Need Different Reviews Than Other Staff
The performance review you’d conduct with a housekeeper or a chef doesn’t work for an estate manager. Estate managers operate at a strategic level, managing entire properties, supervising other staff, handling six-figure budgets, and making decisions that directly affect your property values and quality of life. Their performance review needs to reflect that complexity.
An estate manager’s work is often invisible when it goes well. The property maintenance happens on schedule, the staff operates smoothly, problems get solved before you even know they existed, and your home simply works perfectly. This creates a challenge for reviews: how do you evaluate work that’s designed to be seamless and unnoticed?
We worked with a family in Beverly Hills who realized during their estate manager’s first review that they had no idea how to assess his performance. Their house ran beautifully, but they couldn’t articulate specific accomplishments because everything just worked. We helped them reframe the conversation: instead of looking for visible achievements, they evaluated systems, prevented problems, staff stability, budget management, and their own stress levels compared to before they hired him. The review became much more meaningful.
The Right Timing for Year-End Reviews
December is obvious timing for year-end reviews, but it’s often the wrong choice for estate managers. December is typically the busiest month for household staff, with holiday preparations, increased entertaining, potential property winterization in some climates, and coordination of family travel. Your estate manager is likely working 60-hour weeks in December, and adding a performance review to that workload signals that you don’t understand or respect their workflow.
Better timing is mid-to-late November before the holiday rush intensifies, or early January after things calm down. This allows your estate manager to prepare thoughtfully rather than cramming a self-evaluation between coordinating your holiday party and managing the HVAC replacement that can’t wait.
One family in Bel Air scheduled their estate manager’s review for December 15th, right in the middle of preparations for their annual Christmas party for 100 guests. The estate manager came to the meeting distracted and unable to engage meaningfully because he was mentally tracking vendor arrivals and last-minute party details. The family rescheduled for January 8th, and the conversation was completely different: focused, productive, and valuable for both sides.
Creating the Framework Before the Meeting
A productive review requires preparation from both parties. At minimum two weeks before the scheduled review, provide your estate manager with a self-evaluation form or framework that guides them to reflect on the year. This shouldn’t be a corporate HR template, it should be customized to estate management work.
Key areas to address in an estate manager self-evaluation include: property maintenance and capital improvements completed, budget management and cost savings achieved, staff management and any staffing changes, systems implemented or improved, challenges encountered and how they were resolved, vendor relationships and negotiations, emergency situations handled, and goals for the coming year.
Your estate manager should also have the opportunity to evaluate the employment relationship itself. Are they getting the support, resources, and authority they need to do their job well? Are there areas where clearer communication or decision-making processes would help? What would make them more effective in their role?
We helped a family in the Hollywood Hills create a review framework for their estate manager that included specific categories relevant to their multi-property portfolio: performance metrics for their primary residence, their mountain property, and their beach house, plus overall portfolio management. This structure helped their estate manager organize his accomplishments by property and demonstrate the complexity of managing three distinct locations simultaneously.
The Metrics That Actually Matter
Estate manager performance often involves qualitative outcomes rather than simple metrics, but there are some measurable indicators worth tracking. Look at budget variance: did property maintenance come in under, on, or over budget, and were overages justified and communicated? Look at staff retention: is turnover in other household positions stable or constant? Look at emergency response: when problems arose, how quickly were they identified and resolved?
Also consider your own quality of life. Are you thinking about property management less than before you hired your estate manager? Can you travel without worrying about what’s happening at home? Do you trust that bills are paid, maintenance is scheduled, and problems are handled? These subjective measures matter enormously because they reflect the core value an estate manager provides: peace of mind.
One family in Pacific Palisades realized during their estate manager’s review that they hadn’t thought about their home’s systems once in the entire year. Their pool, HVAC, security, landscaping, and all other property elements simply worked without them ever receiving a crisis call. That absence of stress was itself a key performance indicator, even though it’s not something you’d put on a spreadsheet.
The Compensation Conversation
Year-end reviews and compensation discussions are connected but shouldn’t be combined into a single conversation. The performance review should happen first, allowing both parties to discuss the year’s work, accomplishments, and areas for growth without the distraction of salary negotiations. Then, ideally a week or two later, have a separate conversation about compensation for the coming year.
That said, your estate manager is absolutely thinking about compensation during the review, and pretending otherwise creates awkwardness. It’s appropriate to acknowledge at the end of the performance review that you’ll be scheduling a follow-up conversation about compensation and that their performance this year will inform those discussions.
What should estate manager compensation increases look like? Cost-of-living adjustments in major markets typically range from 3 to 5 percent annually. Performance-based increases for estate managers who’ve exceeded expectations range from 5 to 10 percent. Significant increases of 15 percent or more usually accompany expanded responsibilities, additional properties added to their portfolio, or truly exceptional performance during challenging circumstances.
We worked with a family in Los Angeles whose estate manager had navigated them through a major remodel of their primary residence while they lived in the property, coordinated a cross-country move of their adult child, and managed the sale of an investment property, all while maintaining normal property operations. Their review acknowledged this exceptional year, and their compensation conversation resulted in a 12 percent increase plus a year-end bonus of two months’ salary.
Addressing Performance Issues Honestly
If your estate manager’s performance has been less than satisfactory this year, the review is still important, perhaps more important. However, performance issues significant enough to affect compensation or job security shouldn’t be surprises revealed for the first time in an annual review. If you haven’t provided feedback throughout the year, that’s a management failure on your part as much as a performance issue on theirs.
That said, if there have been ongoing concerns, the year-end review is an opportunity to document them clearly, discuss whether sufficient improvement has occurred, and establish clear expectations and timelines for the coming year. This might sound like: “We discussed in March that vendor management needed to be more proactive, and while I’ve seen some improvement, I’m still receiving surprise repair bills that should have been anticipated. For this coming year, I need monthly property condition reports that identify potential issues before they become emergencies.”
The key is specificity. Vague feedback like “communication could be better” doesn’t give your estate manager actionable information. Specific feedback like “I need weekly email updates on any property issues, scheduled maintenance, and upcoming expenditures over 1,000 dollars” creates clear expectations.
One family we worked with had grown frustrated with their estate manager’s vendor management but had never clearly articulated their expectations. During the review, they realized they wanted their estate manager to get three bids for any project over 5,000 dollars, but they’d never actually stated that requirement. Once they made the expectation explicit, performance improved immediately because the estate manager finally understood what success looked like.
The Los Angeles Context for Estate Manager Reviews
Los Angeles estate managers face unique challenges that should be acknowledged in performance reviews. Managing properties in earthquake territory means different maintenance priorities than other regions. The intense fire season requires specific preparation and response protocols. Water restrictions and drought conditions affect landscaping and irrigation management. The entertainment industry presence means many estate managers work with high-profile families requiring exceptional discretion.
Your estate manager’s performance review should acknowledge these regional factors. Did they prepare the property appropriately before fire season? Were earthquake emergency supplies maintained and updated? Was water usage reduced while maintaining property aesthetics during drought restrictions? These Los Angeles-specific competencies deserve recognition.
We placed an estate manager with a family in the Hollywood Hills whose property required significant fire mitigation work. During his review, the family specifically acknowledged his proactive approach to creating defensible space, coordinating with fire department inspections, and implementing a comprehensive evacuation plan. This recognition of region-specific expertise made the estate manager feel truly valued for skills that might not be relevant in other markets.
Goal Setting for the Coming Year
The most valuable part of many estate manager reviews is the forward-looking conversation about goals and priorities for the coming year. This is your opportunity to align on what matters most, where to focus energy and resources, and what success will look like twelve months from now.
These goals should include both property-specific objectives and professional development for the estate manager. Property goals might include completing a kitchen renovation, implementing a new property management software system, reducing utility costs by a specific percentage, or improving staff retention. Professional development goals might include attending industry conferences, obtaining specific certifications, or developing new skills in areas like project management or financial planning.
One family in Santa Monica used this goal-setting conversation to align with their estate manager on a major solar installation project planned for the coming year. They discussed budget parameters, timeline expectations, the estate manager’s role in vendor selection and project oversight, and how success would be measured. Having this conversation in January meant that when the project kicked off in March, everyone was already aligned on expectations and decision-making authority.
The Review Meeting Itself
The actual performance review meeting should be scheduled for at least 90 minutes in a private, comfortable setting without interruptions. This isn’t a conversation to have while walking the property or squeezing in between other meetings. Your estate manager should feel that this conversation has your full attention and that their work over the past year deserves serious consideration.
Start by asking your estate manager to walk through their self-evaluation, highlighting what they’re most proud of from the past year and where they see opportunities for improvement. Listen more than you talk during this portion. You’ll learn a lot about how your estate manager thinks about their work, what they value, and where they might need more support or clearer direction.
Then share your own assessment, focusing first on strengths and accomplishments before addressing any areas of concern. If there are gaps between how your estate manager views their performance and how you view it, explore those gaps with curiosity rather than judgment. Sometimes these gaps reveal communication issues or different understandings of priorities rather than actual performance problems.
Close the meeting by summarizing key takeaways, confirming goals for the coming year, and establishing when you’ll have the compensation conversation. Thank your estate manager genuinely for their work, and be specific about impact. “Thank you for everything you do” is nice but generic. “Thank you for how you handled the plumbing emergency in July while we were traveling – knowing you had it under control allowed us to actually enjoy our vacation” is meaningful and specific.
After the Review: Documentation and Follow-Through
Within a week of the review meeting, send your Los Angeles estate manager a written summary of what was discussed, agreed-upon goals for the coming year, any areas identified for improvement, and next steps including timing for the compensation conversation. This documentation protects both of you and ensures you’re aligned on what was discussed.
Then actually follow through on what was discussed. If you committed to implementing new communication systems, do it. If you agreed to give your estate manager more autonomy in certain decisions, respect that. If you identified resources or support they need, provide them. Estate managers notice whether their employers follow through on commitments, and it affects trust and engagement significantly.
One family in Beverly Hills did their estate manager’s review in November, agreed to upgrade to professional property management software, and then never mentioned it again. By March, their estate manager was updating his resume because the unfulfilled commitment signaled to him that the family didn’t actually value his input or professional development. They were shocked when he gave notice, having completely forgotten about the conversation.
When Reviews Transform Relationships
Done well, annual performance reviews strengthen the relationship between families and their estate managers. They create space for honest communication, ensure alignment on priorities, acknowledge accomplishments that might otherwise go unrecognized, and demonstrate that you view estate management as a profession deserving of structured feedback and development.
The families who conduct thoughtful, regular reviews tend to retain their estate managers for many years, while families who skip reviews often experience higher turnover and perpetual misalignment. The hour or two invested in a quality review pays dividends throughout the coming year in improved performance, stronger relationship, and better outcomes.
Your estate manager is managing what’s likely your largest financial asset and creating the environment where your family lives. That deserves at least as much structured attention as you give to reviewing your investment portfolio or your business performance. Make the time, do it thoughtfully, and watch the relationship and performance both improve.
