What a lifestyle manager actually does

The title sounds vague because the job is wide. A lifestyle manager is the person who holds a family’s year in one calendar and makes sure that nothing in it collides, lapses or arrives cold. Here is what one week of it looks like, drawn from several members and none of them.

Monday

The week starts with the calendar. The eldest has a tournament in Geneva on the twenty-fourth; the gala in Monaco is the same night; the boat is due out of the yard on the twenty-third. Three things that would have collided on the day are resolved on Monday morning: a driver for Geneva, the gala moved to the Saturday table, the captain told to plan on the twenty-fifth. The member is sent one message and answers yes.

Tuesday

The Palma house. The pool company wants to replace a pump; the manager gets a second quote, approves the cheaper one and puts the bill in the monthly report. The housekeeper’s contract renews next month; it is drafted, sent and signed. The house is opened on the twelfth for the family’s arrival, so the manager books the cleaning, the gardener, the food order from the file and the flowers.

Wednesday

Travel. The standing profile says aisle seats, a car with a child seat, the hotel in Zurich with the corner suite. The trip in three weeks is booked without a question being asked. A member’s parent needs a flight home from Nice at short notice; it is done in twenty minutes with a driver at both ends.

Thursday

Renewals. The car’s registration, the boat’s insurance, two passports that expire within the year, a club membership, the shotgun certificate. None of them is urgent and all of them would have been in six months. The manager keeps a list of a hundred and twelve such things and works it every week.

Friday

The report. One page: what was done, what was spent, what is coming. It is sent on Friday afternoon and read in five minutes. The weekly check-in on Monday is five minutes on the phone, and most weeks there is nothing to add.

The weekend

The desk is staffed and the manager is not, unless the file says otherwise. A named deputy who knows the family covers the weekend; if the boat’s engine fails off Sardinia on a Saturday the deputy has the yard’s number and the charter contract and the member’s preference about whether to be woken.