Governance & Succession
Supporting client families in succession planning and family governance is core to our service offering. It is an integral part of almost everything we do and is a crucial consideration in major decisions.
Family legacy for future generations
Indeed it is well known that inherited wealth can sometimes have a detrimental impact on the lives of individuals and families, if the succession is not managed appropriately.
That is why helping you pass on an enduring financial and family legacy to future generations is probably the most defining feature of our approach to intergenerational wealth management.
Managing risk through effective governance
Using all our practical experience, in combination with our technical and legal expertise, we help our client families establish a clear governance strategy wherever possible. In our experience most successful families have defined the purposes and objectives of their wealth in some detail; they have established clear criteria against which major decisions should be judged and they have put in place formal governance and communication processes.
However, there is much more to succession planning than developing a family constitution and governance framework. It is so often about achieving a meeting of minds, as one generation comes to terms with the fact that the successor generation may have a different outlook, different ambitions and different skills. These factors may have a deep impact on investment decisions both before and during the handover.
Developing a succession plan
Where this is the preferred and appropriate approach, we help families develop formal succession plans, governance and decision-making frameworks. However, many clients, especially founding entrepreneurs, prefer a more informal and flexible plan for a gradual handover.
On occasions, this transfer can involve significant changes in investment strategy, with the transition managed over a period of several years. During this time we frequently act as a facilitator between the generations.
Operating family governance
We not only help to develop family governance, we provide the framework, resources, systems and experience to ensure the governance is effectively and harmoniously implemented to the benefit of all family members.
We often act as trustees, providing sophisticated reporting against objectives and we arrange and facilitate family meetings.
Preparing the next generation
We usually seek to engage with the next generation as early as appropriate, to help them become familiar with their circumstances and responsibilities.
We run programmes to help them explore the opportunities and challenges which lie ahead and we can sometimes play a useful role in opening up the dialogue between the two generations.