Aside from one southern California participant, all of these EAs are located in the San Francisco Bay Area. The average salary of this group is $108,615, and ranges from $65,000 to $180,000.

Oversight of multiple properties and the staff at those properties is an Estate Manager's core responsibility. The Estate Managers in this benchmark each manage from 1 to 12 staff and oversee 1 to 7 properties.

I asked realtor Latife Hayson about the market in California's wine country. Latife is a respected expert in the sale and acquisition of luxury homes, estates, vineyards and wineries in Napa and Sonoma.

The results of the PA portion of my 2015 benchmarking survey are in! On the numbers alone, I think many would say being a Personal Assistant is a dream job.

I recently interviewed Sinead Noonan, an Executive Assistant who's worked with CEOs, Presidents, Founders and Managing Directors in multiple industries. Sinead began by telling me about the misconception that anyone can be an EA, that it's just a basic clerical administrative run of the mill job.

Patrick Tremo is an Estate Manager I placed 2.5 years ago. In this Q and A, Patrick explains the secret to his success; tells me what he does in an average week; and describes his most challenging project ever.

Surprise is the reaction I get most often when I describe how I got started in the private service industry. Most of us have interesting stories about making this a career – you can’t just choose it as a college major (yet) – so the getting started story is actually one of my favorite questions to ask candidates during an interview... what road led you to become a Personal Assistant, an Estate Manager, a Private Chef, etc?