Private Wealth

We are widely recognised as one of the leading law firms globally in Private Wealth.

We advise clients on all aspects of Private Wealth, from global asset and investment structuring, through business acquisitions and disposals to creating and running a family office and succession planning. We also have a leading practice advising on trust and family disputes. Across all of these areas, entrepreneurs, trustees, family-controlled businesses and family offices with international footprints and diverse assets seek strategic counsel from us. 

We have significant experience and expertise at the intersection of Private Wealth and Private Capital including Private Wealth investing into or alongside Private Capital funds and Private Capital funds investing into businesses which support the Private Wealth industry.

Our approach when working with individuals, families and family offices is rooted in long-term thinking, with many clients looking decades ahead. We understand the importance of protecting a family’s legacy, identity and continuity, while protecting and enhancing value.

Work highlights include advising:

• a leading US technology investor and entrepreneur on their complex US/UK asset structures in relation to a return to the UK, with a particular focus on the UK tax treatment of their interests in a US-based venture capital business, and coordinating advice from legal and accounting experts in the US and the UK;
• on the development of the holding structure of a family-controlled global conglomerate, with a particular focus on transitioning the structure from one of the static business interests to a broad-based investment platform, to facilitate the long-term strategy of the group and succession planning of underlying shareholders;
• Valderrama Limited, a JV company controlled by SPWOne V Limited, the investment business of Sir Peter Wood, on the proposed acquisition of Dignity plc;
• a family office on the creation of a new investment management group structure and a series of “in-house” investment fund structures through which its family members could invest efficiently;
• an international couple based in the UK with significant investments in multiple asset classes and sectors, ranging from extensive private shareholdings and crypto assets, on the creation of long-term family wealth holding structures while balancing tax considerations in multiple jurisdictions and planning for potential changes of residence;
• a high-profile entrepreneurial family and their family office on their succession planning and family governance arrangements for the family holding structure which includes a global technology business, including the creation of a family council to provide a forum for the first generation to share control of the business;
• a high-profile billionaire as the architects of their global estate planning arrangements which span over ten jurisdictions, covering personally held assets and assets held in structures, coordinating counsel across all jurisdictions to build a cohesive global succession plan; and
• a Gulf family on an appropriate structure to protect assets from claims by offshore family members, including an assessment of the protection offered by offshore “firewall” legislation designed to protect trusts from attacks arising out of family and succession issues.