What it’s really like to be a concierge to the 0.01 per cent

LA RobinsonMon, May 11, 2026 at 2:00 PM UTC

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Amelia Hutchinson, owner of Discreet Recruitment, works for two of the top 10 richest families in the world - Lorne Campbell

Picture it: you come into some wealth. Something in the realm of, oh, £200 million or so. How do you spend it? Blowout holidays, elite tutors for the children, private chauffeurs or a yacht moored in Monaco? Money, money, money, must be funny… you know the tune.

That’s where 30-year-old Amelia Hutchinson, fixer to the ultra-rich, comes in. She’s distinctly poised to help you figure out how, where and with whom to spend it. “I work with two of the top 10 richest families in the world,” she says, sitting down in a South Kensington café, surrounded by the type of immaculately manicured white townhouses her clients inhabit.

Wearing a tailored blazer with jeans and trainers, she’s polished, casual, soft-spoken and sensible; not the person you’d immediately expect to have just chartered a private jet for a dog, requested by its impulsively lonely owner holidaying in France. But that’s the point: choosing to name her business Discreet Recruitment when she founded it 10 years ago, Hutchinson understood the adage that “real wealth whispers, it doesn’t shout”.

Hutchinson’s recent assignment? Charter a private jet for a dog, requested by its lonely owner holidaying in France - Joe McBride/The Image Bank RF

“We’ve worked with overnight millionaires, Middle Eastern royalty and ultra-high-net-worth families and, to be honest, I don’t always know how they became wealthy. I’ve learnt to not ask too many questions,” she cautions. Over the last decade, Hutchinson has built a proverbial little black book – in reality, it’s more like a heaving WhatsApp contacts list – by leveraging the network she started whilst attending boarding school at Pocklington in East Yorkshire, and then later while studying at Oxford Brookes University.

“It’s a jigsaw puzzle of fitting the right people together,” she says, explaining how her business works. “We started as a recruitment company and we’ve expanded. The biggest thing within the ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) industry is trust, so once you’ve done one thing well, they will come back for more. We never know what we’ll get asked.”

From initially recruiting Norland nannies, personal assistants and private tutors for her high-flying clients, to now catering to said clients’ more outlandish whims as a full-service concierge, Hutchinson says, “‘no’ is never an answer that you give”. Think of her as a girl Friday to the 0.01 per cent. To do so, she must “live on [her] phone”. “I’m so run down, I’m so tired, but I love it at the same time,” she confesses. “You never know what you’re going to get.” Though she doesn’t personally fulfil all of the requests (“I outsource the jobs, but I use people that I trust”), she certainly has oversight. And she’s seen a lot.

Hutchinson: ‘Old money is so stingy’ - Lorne Campbell/Guzelian

“We had to hire three nannies in a day once for a family coming over from the UAE. But not just any nannies – they had to speak French and be Montessori trained.” Then there was the young tech entrepreneur that decided he had to have an éclair tower for his birthday that evening, but no single patisserie had enough available to do it. “I was running around London trying to find enough éclairs and put it all together myself,” she recalls. Ludicrous requests, Hutchinson says, are “just one of those things you become numb to”.

Of course, there’s also the perennial ticket and access requests for tent-pole social season events like Ascot, Goodwood and Wimbledon, and for the international clients looking to set up a more permanent base in the UK, security is also a rapidly growing business. “Close protection is something we’re seeing more interest in. Chief product officers, security drivers, residential security – particularly in London.” Hutchinson states it’s down to a desire to protect their high-value homes, but that her clients are also “becoming more conscious of security and uncertainty”. Horror stories of the “Rolex rippers” following affluent-appearing people and mugging them in the streets of the capital no doubt contribute to their anxieties.

One of the popular requests Hutchinson gets is access for tent-pole social season events like Ascot - Mark Kerrison

Then there’s the bedrock of the organisation: “[Foreign wealth] will pay six figures, for tutors to get [their children] into the best schools – Eton and such. I work with a private school concierge,” she says. “They take on clients from abroad who want their children to come to boarding school in Britain; they’ll look after the students, prep them and get them ready for the entrance exams.” The amount of cash foreign wealth is willing to splash on turning a son into an “English gentleman”, as one family notably wrote on a now-viral ad for a tutor paying £180,000 per annum, is remarkable.

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This country’s soft power is one of its most lucrative assets: according to Universities UK, international students boost the economy by £41.9 billion a year. And though the concept of “British-ness” is not something that can be bought, foreign money certainly tries.

By contrast, English generational wealth is not so carefree with its cash. Hutchinson puts it bluntly: “Old money is so stingy.”

British generational wealth accounts for less than 10 per cent of her client list: “They’ll just do all of these [household] things themselves. We’ve had [adult] children who want to hire support for their parents, but they won’t accept any help,” she says. And when they do, they’re gunning for a bargain: “Someone recently approached us that wanted to hire one person to do the housekeeping, cooking and driving for £50,000 per year,” she says, her eyes widening. That’s like combining the roles of Downton Abbey’s Carson, Branson and Mrs Patmore into one. The Earl of Grantham wouldn’t dream of it; but things just aren’t what they used to be for Britain’s titled elite.

However, unlike in the days of Downton Abbey, some families look for a jack-of-all-trades housekeeper who can handle a wide range of tasks - Rory Mulvey

Hutchinson says a typical driver role goes for £60,000-£80,000 per annum, and for the hybrid role of housekeeper-chef, £90,000 is standard. But it’s the nannies that take the cake. “They’re often making six figures; I wish I’d known how well paid these ultra-high-net-worth staff roles were. I would have become a nanny,” she says, only half joking. As for her cut of the deal, Hutchinson keeps certain clients on retainer if they have complex needs, whereas others are on a case-by-case basis. “Our average placement fee is between £15,000 and £20,000, which is a cut of the candidate’s salaries,” she explains. Historically her business has placed about 10 candidates in roles per year. But having recently turned the business into a full-time operation alongside her business partner, Kathrine Sullivan McCann, who has 25 years of experience in household recruitment, she says she expects to generate yearly revenue beyond the current £200,000.

When it comes to tricky clients, however, none top those that work in the tech sector. “We’ve had personal assistants who’ve had to remind their clients to eat, or physically put the food in front of them,” she says.

“We turn down things that aren’t ethical – say someone goes on holiday and wants things they’re not going to get, or to hire people that shouldn’t be hired.” Illegal drugs or sex workers, I ask? Hutchinson, at pains not to lose a grip on that iron-clad discretion, gives me a nod. “That is the only time I say no,” she says.

When it comes to perfectly legal requests, however, health and wellness are the biggest lifestyle trends in the UHNW stratosphere. “It’s huge,” Hutchinson declares. “We’re getting bombarded by requests for nutritional chefs that will travel around the world, or personal nutritionists that will measure [clients’] blood levels and create custom workouts and meal plans,” she says. Bryan Johnson, the 48-year-old Californian tech billionaire who’s made headlines for spending millions in the pursuit of living forever, has clearly influenced his mega-rich peers. “Biohacking has become big in the past year.”

Despite Labour’s tax raids on the ultra rich, Hutchinson rests assured that her clients won’t disappear – for now at least - Lorne Campbell/Guzelian

Hutchinson certainly stands to make a respectable profit with her plans for Discreet Recruitment, but is she worried that, thanks to Labour’s tax raids on the super-rich, billionaires could become an endangered species in the UK? She says her business has already seen the effects. “Last year, there weren’t a lot of ultra-high-net-worth individuals in London,” she says. “Lots [of clients] went to the UAE, the south of France and Switzerland. But not London.”

So could we be saying goodbye to the folks who think nothing of chartering a private jet for their pampered pooch or nibbling caviar at Richard Caring’s high-end clubs? Hutchinson is doubtlessly among those who hope not, believing that the disappearance of UHNW people would make the capital all the poorer in many ways. After all, what are the glitzy streets of London without a few theatrics?

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Money”