For all the disruption remote work brought to corporate America, companies are still willing to spend to relocate top executives.
Danbury-based Cartus Corp. is betting that remains true.
The corporate relocation company, which handles domestic and international employee transfers, recently launched Cartus Concierge, a premium service aimed at executives and other high-level employees whose relocations may involve far more than a moving truck and a temporary apartment.
That can mean coordinating the sale of a multimillion-dollar home, helping families identify schools, providing immigration support and cross-cultural coaching, arranging specialized pet transport, or handling valuable belongings like artwork or wine collections.
Behind the scenes, Cartus acts as the central coordinator, managing outside vendors ranging from specialty movers to destination service providers. Cartus assigns a consultant to serve as the employee’s main point of contact throughout the move.
Cartus President and CEO Matt Tebbe said the company launched the service in response to corporations’ continued efforts to attract and retain top executives.
“There is a broader war for talent right now,” he said in a recent interview. “Everybody’s trying to differentiate themselves, so this is an area where a company can really make sure that they’re treating their employees at the highest level.”
A different era
The new product launch comes as corporate relocation patterns continue to evolve post-pandemic.
Cartus’ 2026 global mobility survey found companies are divided on whether relocation activity is growing or shrinking. Thirty-five percent of respondents said mobility volume increased over the past two years, while 34% reported declines and 31% said activity was stable.
Rising costs remain a top challenge, even as 57% of respondents reported return-to-office mandates.
Tebbe said traditional relocations dropped sharply during the pandemic as companies froze hiring and expansion plans, before rebounding in 2022 as delayed moves resumed.
Since mid-2023, however, overall move volumes have softened again, he said.
But companies haven’t stopped moving employees altogether. Instead, many have become more selective, reserving the most generous relocation support for senior leadership and other critical hires.
“The senior-most executives, for the most part, seem to be immune from that,” Tebbe said, referring to the broader pullback in relocation activity.
According to Cartus’ survey, 61% of companies said they offer dedicated relocation advisors or VIP service teams for executives, while 52% provide customized relocation packages. More than a third offer premium housing support, and 28% help with school searches or education allowances.
Part of that demand is being driven by employers who want senior leaders back in person, Tebbe said.
“You can’t always get that outcome through Zoom meetings, and you need the person there interacting with the local company division population,” he said.
Cartus has worked with companies requiring employees to return full time, including helping workers relocate closer to corporate offices after previously being allowed to move elsewhere, Tebbe said.
Michael Jackson, vice president of public policy and research at the Worldwide Employee Relocation Council, said executive relocations have remained a priority even as companies become more cost-conscious and refine relocation policies in response to rising shipping, housing and immigration costs.
More than 500,000 employees relocate annually through formal corporate mobility programs, he said. Executive relocations account for about 16.3% of those moves, but companies remain willing to pay for them because leadership vacancies can be costly.
“The business loss associated with a delayed project, or not having a key leader in place when you need them, could far outweigh the cost of the move itself,” Jackson said.
Cartus said a competitive advantage is its parent company, Compass International Holdings, which gives it access to residential brokerage brands that can help relocating executives buy or sell homes as part of a move.
Competitors in the corporate relocation space include Altair Global, SIRVA Worldwide Relocation & Moving Services, and Graebel Companies Inc.
Working from home
Ironically, Cartus itself has embraced a remote-first model, even as many of its clients increasingly seek to bring top executives back in person.
Cartus’ shift came in response to the pandemic and predated Tebbe’s appointment as CEO in July 2023, he said.
Long associated with a major Danbury headquarters campus that once housed about 1,700 employees, Cartus in late 2022 vacated that property for a smaller office in the city that can accommodate several hundred workers for meetings and collaboration.
Tebbe himself works remotely from the Atlanta area, but said Connecticut remains a significant employment base for the company.
“Cartus actually still has hundreds of employees in the broader Connecticut area,” Tebbe said.
Still, he said many Cartus clients do not share that remote-first approach and are willing to pay top dollar to get their executives where they want them.
“Because something works for Cartus doesn’t mean that it’s going to work for ExxonMobil or Nike or Starbucks or any of these other companies,” he said.
