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What will the Biden tax plan mean for wealthy business families?

January 13, 2021

The 2020 election did not result in the massive blue wave that many predicted, but there are definitely still blue ripples reaching shore—especially now that Democrats won both Senate seats in the Georgia runoff elections.

With the Democrats controlling the White House and now both houses of Congress, there are certainly changes in tax policy and other areas that ultra-wealthy families should expect and watch closely.

Why the pure single family office could become ultra-exclusive

December 7, 2020

The acquisition of the $2.8 billion London-based family office Sandaire by Schroders did not come as a shock to some family office principals who say they anticipate further consolidation as financial institutions seek inroads into the $5.9 trillion family office space and family office principals near retirement age.

However, those principals acknowledged that the very wealthiest of families would always want their own financial services managed directly and discreetly inhouse, regardless of mounting business costs and uncertain investment returns.

Should you sell the ancestral family estate?

November 19, 2020

Why would a family who at one time owned up to 50,000 acres sell a house that has been in the family for 40 generations? This is what Will Garton-Jones, owner of the Llanfendigaid Estate in Wales has chosen to do, but it is not a decision that he will have taken lightly.

Accessing emerging transition opportunities in private markets

November 10, 2020

In the midst of a coronavirus pandemic, investors have been exposed to the reality that the global economy can be brought to a halt by a large-scale unpredicted event. A comparison can be drawn with climate change, now widely recognised as a large systemic risk that will affect the global economy, and one which may affect investment portfolios in ways we can’t yet fully imagine or predict.

Private markets—an opportunity to support the transition to a low-carbon and climate resilient world, whilst providing financial rewards

Inheritance tax planning ideas for family business, property and land owners

October 29, 2020

There are a number of inheritance tax-saving strategies available, but apart from giving away cash, what are ultra-wealthy individuals and families doing to mitigate their exposure to IHT?

Surrey has been labelled Britain’s inheritance tax capital by a national newspaper, the county southwest of London where the average UK inheritance tax (IHT) bill is £234,000 ($303,000).

With property prices in Surrey and across the UK continuing to rise, and the tax-free threshold (known as the ‘nil rate band’) of £325,000 ($421,000) frozen, family business owners could be forgiven for thinking that IHT is a fact of life.

General lifetime planning opportunities

Orwellian or All's Well? The UK tax authority’s new powers and family offices

October 7, 2020

HM Revenue & Customs’ powers to obtain information from financial institutions are set to increase, with the requirement for taxpayer or tribunal approval to be removed. Although not yet in force, the legislation is at an advanced stage and will be of interest to family offices.

What the new powers mean

Are English Courts still the venue of choice for family offices?

June 9, 2020

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the main challenge posed to the dominance of the English legal system appeared to be Brexit. A flurry of English language courts opened in European cities, touting for business that would otherwise come to the English High Court. We know that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so is it any surprise that litigants—including ultra-wealthy clients—still choose the English Courts to resolve their disputes?

The appeal of English Courts

View From the Gulf: Succession planning urgent in the age of the coronavirus

May 11, 2020

Tests faced by wealthy family businesses in the Gulf are usually related to a stock market crash, loss of an investment or, at worst, the sudden death of the family patriarch. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought about a new and unprecedented challenge.

When the outbreak was announced the immediate concern for wealthy families, or private clients as we refer to, was the health and safety of the family patriarch since they were now of an advanced age which placed them in the vulnerable and high-risk category.

Coronavirus crisis: Impacts and implications for emerging markets

April 20, 2020

After the first wave of the Covid-19 outbreak in China and East Asia, and the second wave in Western Europe and North America, a third wave now looks to be building in several Emerging Markets (EM) and frontier countries, says Amundi Asset Management. EM and frontier countries may be able to benefit from the experiences and best practices then put in place in countries affected by the pandemic earlier. However, most of them do not have well-equipped health systems and lack the resources to deal with a health emergency vs developed countries. Covid-19 will have very significant negative effects on the economic outlooks for EM, mostly leading to recessions.

Jonathan Ruffer on how investors can navigate the coronavirus crisis

April 1, 2020

When the elements speak, elemental forces are unleashed, and it is important, in the middle of this storm, to capture the right tone of voice. Any false attempt to give reassurance, to boast about early success, to bury oneself in clichés, is unhelpful—even worse, it is historic: by the time these words are read, events will have unfolded which make them, as the CD music reviews have it, ‘Of historic interest only’. We are a long way from terra firma; at the time of writing, it’s a case of ‘so far, so good’. If this were a tennis match, all we could say is that we’ve had a decent first set.