Consulting to Wealth Management/Family Offices/Hedge Fund/Banking Strategy

Question

Hello,

I would love to hear from anyone who has exited from MBB to WM/Family Office/HF/Banking strategy roles. Teams that tend to work more of the strategy and operational side of assets (post M&A, integrations, etc). I feel this is an exit that is not really talked about much- many folks speak about PE, VC on the finance side or Corp Dev/Startups/Industry. So it'd be great to hear of any stories (either of you or folks you know) that actually made the switch to Wealth Management/Family Offices/Hedge Fund/Banking Strategy. Especially as an early career move.

Im wondering about learning and transferable skills, exit opportunities it gives you, etc.

From my perspective, it can give you a good operating/strategy experience that can actually translate well to any Operator roles in the future (think COO, CEO). Unsure if I am right in this sense though.

Answer 1

hey there :)

You’re right that this exit isn’t discussed as much as PE/VC, but I’ve seen it a few times. The pattern is usually people who worked on banking/AM/WM projects at MBB and then leveraged those contacts. Family offices and hedge funds are less structured in their hiring, often relationship-driven, but they do value the strategy + ops toolkit from consulting. The roles can be very interesting because you get broad exposure: investment decisions, post-deal integration, operating model design, succession planning, even digital transformation. It’s less about financial modeling (that’s PE/IB) and more about structuring and execution.

Skill-wise, you bring problem solving, stakeholder mgmt, and cross-functional project experience, which map directly. Exit opportunities are more niche, but they can lead to COO/CEO tracks (esp. in smaller firms or portfolio companies), senior roles in WM/AM, or back to industry. The key downside is the market is small and a bit opportunistic, so you need strong networking.

If you want, I can also share how to best position yourself for these moves.

best, Alessa :)

Answer 2

Hi there,

There are quite a lot of consultants who focus on FS practice to go banking strategy after exit. That's common.

However, much fewer examples of consultants going into WM/Family Office/HF. The skillsets and work are quite different from consulting. If these are what you'd like to do, I think it is more realistic to go via other routes that are more finance focuses instead.

Best,

Emily

Answer 3

A TON of consultants leave consulting to work for (commercial) banks. That's one of the major client industries, so a lot of exit opportunities there. For the other roles you mentioned, not as much, as they are not as closely related.