Family offices

The structure and function of family offices varies enormously. Whether the purpose of the family office is to optimise family investments, manage property portfolios or look after commercial interests in one or more countries, it is fundamental that it is established and organised properly, run efficiently and effectively and that the principal stakeholders are getting the best advice and obtaining good value from their advisers.  

The private wealth team at Speechlys is one of the largest of any law firm in London and advises several generations of the world’s most successful families.

We have helped to establish a number of significant family offices around the world, using our considerable financial services, real estate and tax capabilities to advise upon and deal with the regulatory and compliance issues which accompany such a project and see it through from its infancy to a fully functioning family office operation.

For more established family offices, we have a great deal of experience in guiding them through the complexities and challenges they and the families they represent face, such as inter-generational succession planning, tax efficient investment structuring and wealth protection through the use of pre-nuptial agreements and corporate and trust structures, providing the comprehensive and integrated international legal service they require.

Some examples of our experience of advising family offices include:

• Major UK family
  Advised on the tax efficient structuring of a single family office to manage c£100m of family wealth, held in offshore trusts sheltering the assets of individual family members based in the UK, France and Luxembourg. We also advised on establishing and structuring a collective investment scheme, a regulated entity to manage the scheme, corporate governance procedures and tax efficient philanthropy procedures.

• Established family office
  Advised on the restructuring of a family office and the extension of its regulatory permission to allow it to offer investment management and investment advisory services to third parties.

• Prominent Saudi family
  Advised on the establishment and restructuring of a multi-family office with assets in excess of £500m operating in a number of countries. This included advice on the tax structuring of the investment management policies and procedures to be adopted in the management of the family’s wealth including the establishment of a number of collective investment schemes.

• Private bank
  Advised a private bank on its offering to the family office market including bespoke investment strategies and policies and the structuring and establishment of private investment vehicles for families and groups of families.

• Substantial UK estate
  Advised a UK family office with extensive agricultural property holdings on the introduction of third party investors including detailed tax structuring, share structuring, rights allocations and protections as well all related corporate and regulatory issues.