The mandate

A family office is a job, not a building.

Strip away the offices and the staff and a family office is four obligations somebody has to carry. Below the conventional threshold nobody carries them — so they fall to whoever in the family has the least time.

The situation

By the time a family reaches this band, the complexity has already arrived.

An operating business, or a recent exit. Property in more than one country. A portfolio at one bank and a pension at another. A mortgage against an asset held in a different name. Children who are old enough to inherit and not yet old enough to be told. Possibly a second residence, and the tax questions that follow it.

None of that is unusual. What is unusual is having somewhere it is all written down. In most families of this size the complete picture exists in one person's memory, alongside the running of the business — and it is reconstructed, badly, at exactly the wrong moment.

The instinct is to fix this by hiring another specialist. But the family already has specialists: a bank, an accountant, probably a lawyer. Each is competent and each sees a fragment. Nobody is engaged to see the whole, and nobody is paid by the family alone.

What the work is

Four disciplines, one mandate.

I

Consolidated oversight

Everything the family owns and owes, in one statement: bank and brokerage accounts, the operating company, real estate, pensions, private holdings, loans and guarantees. Maintained continuously, reconciled at least quarterly, and written so it can be read without a translator.

II

Governance and decision-making

Who is entitled to decide what, and how a decision gets made when the family disagrees. In practice: a clear shareholding and control map, a written mandate for each adviser, signing authorities, and a standing rhythm of meetings that survives a bad year.

III

Succession and continuity

What happens on death, incapacity, divorce or exit — tested, not assumed. Wills across every jurisdiction involved, holding structures, foundations where they earn their keep, shareholder and buy-sell arrangements, and the preparation of the next generation before they need it.

IV

Investment review

Independent scrutiny of what is proposed to the family: fees and their real drag, liquidity and lock-ups, concentration against everything else held, counterparty and jurisdiction risk, and the plain question of whether the family understands what it is buying.

Boundaries

What we do, and what we deliberately do not.

The value of an independent office comes from what it refuses to do. These boundaries are the reason our advice can be trusted, so they are stated on the website rather than buried in an engagement letter.

We do

  • Hold the consolidated picture and keep it current.
  • Chair the family's decisions and record them.
  • Design and implement the structures the plan requires.
  • Engage, brief and supervise lawyers, tax advisers and auditors.
  • Review investment proposals and say plainly what we think.
  • Sit on the family's side of the table in negotiations.
  • Prepare the next generation to inherit responsibly.

We do not

  • Take custody of assets or operate accounts.
  • Manage portfolios on a discretionary basis.
  • Distribute funds, insurance or investment products.
  • Accept commission, retrocession or referral income.
  • Replace the family's bank, auditor or lawyer.
  • Publish client names, case studies or testimonials.

How it is set up

The engagement.

01

Conversation

One hour, no charge and no documents. What the family holds, what worries them, what has already been decided. It ends with an honest answer about whether this practice is the right one.

02

Inventory

Four to six weeks assembling the complete picture — assets, entities, agreements, advisers, obligations — and identifying what is missing, contradictory or out of date. This alone resolves more than families expect.

03

Written mandate

A short document setting out the scope, the boundaries above, who does what, the reporting rhythm and the fixed fee. It is reviewed annually and can be ended at any time.

04

Standing rhythm

Quarterly reporting and a quarterly meeting. An annual review of structures, wills and tax positions. Availability in between, because the decisions that matter rarely wait for the calendar.

Fit

This practice suits a family that recognises most of this.

  • Wealth of roughly €1–10 million, held across more than one asset class or country.
  • An operating business, or the proceeds of one sold in the last few years.
  • A tax or residence position touching more than one jurisdiction.
  • Advisers who each see a fragment and never speak to one another.
  • A succession plan that exists as an intention rather than a document.
  • A wish for one person to hold the whole picture — who is not selling anything.

Below roughly €1 million the honest answer is usually that a good accountant and a well-drafted will are enough, and we will say so. Above €10 million a family can afford to staff this internally; we are happy to help design that and step back.

First step

Start with the inventory, not with a structure.

Almost every family that arrives here expects to be sold a holding company. Almost none of them needs one before the picture is complete.

Arrange a conversation