Fiduciary services for private wealth structures.
We hold four principal offices within private wealth structures: trustee, protector, executor and manager.
Our fiduciary services are designed to support the long-term administration and governance of private wealth structures across multiple jurisdictions. Each appointment is considered individually, taking into account the governing documents, applicable law, the jurisdictions involved and the specific responsibilities of the office.
Where required or appropriate, we work alongside qualified local fiduciaries, licensed institutions and other authorised professionals to ensure that each role is carried out within the relevant legal and regulatory framework.
Trustee and Co-Trustee Services
As trustee, including as co-trustee alongside a family member, institution or professional fiduciary, we hold legal title to trust assets and administer them in accordance with the instrument, the governing law and the settlor’s expressed intent.
Discretionary decisions are documented, reasoned and recorded at the time they are taken.
Trustee appointments are accepted only where permitted by applicable law and consistent with our regulatory obligations. Where appropriate, we act jointly with qualified local fiduciaries or other authorised professionals.
Protector, Enforcer, Appointer and Related Offices
As protector, and in related offices such as enforcer, appointer, consent holder or fiduciary agent, we hold powers of consent, veto, appointment, removal, approval or oversight.
These are frequently among the most consequential offices in a structure and the least well administered. They require a holder who is genuinely independent, genuinely available and genuinely documented.
We accept such appointments only on that basis.
Executor, Personal Representative and Succession-Related Roles
Where permitted by applicable law and accepted by us, we may serve as executor, personal representative, administrator or in another succession-related capacity.
In that role, we carry out the terms of the will, secure and inventory estate assets, coordinate probate or succession proceedings with qualified local counsel, satisfy estate obligations, maintain records and oversee distributions to beneficiaries.
We do not provide probate representation, legal advice or tax advice. Those matters remain with qualified advisers in the relevant jurisdiction.
Manager, Director, Officer and Authorised Signatory Roles
As part of our corporate governance services, we may serve as manager, director, officer or authorised signatory of entities forming part of a private wealth structure.
In those roles, we oversee corporate governance, resolutions, statutory filings, registers, record-keeping and the ordinary administration of the underlying entities.
Such appointments are accepted only where permitted by applicable law and, where appropriate, in coordination with authorised local professionals.
Trust Administration
Day-to-day administration of trusts, foundations and similar private wealth structures, including:
- maintenance of trust registers, foundation records, minute books and statutory records;
- preparation and execution of trustee, protector, council, board and member resolutions;
- distribution processing, beneficiary correspondence and supporting documentation;
- coordination of annual accounts with the family’s accountants;
- liaison with banks, custodians and investment managers on account and mandate matters;
- monitoring of filing, reporting and renewal deadlines across the jurisdictions involved;
- maintenance of governance calendars and document workflows;
- secure retention and storage of the structure’s records.
Administration is where a structure proves itself. Our objective is that any file we hold could withstand review by a court, a regulator or a successor fiduciary.
Family Office Support — Single and Multi-Family
Support for single-family offices, for multi-family offices, and for families whose affairs have outgrown informal arrangements.
For multi-family offices, we act as an outsourced fiduciary and governance function, holding the offices the office itself cannot or prefers not to hold, and carrying the administrative burden across the client families it serves.
Services may include:
- consolidated oversight of entities within a family’s structure;
- corporate secretarial support across multiple jurisdictions;
- coordination between the family’s counsel, accountants, bankers, custodians and managers;
- governance calendars, resolution cycles and document workflows;
- assistance in preparing family governance materials and succession documentation for review by the family’s own advisers.
We do not act as investment adviser, broker-dealer, asset manager, legal adviser or tax adviser. Those functions remain with the family’s qualified advisers.
Cross-Border Administration and Coordination
Families connected to more than one country normally face a recurring problem: each adviser is expert in a single jurisdiction, and no one owns the seams between them.
We work as the coordinating point across those seams, convening the family’s counsel in each relevant country, ensuring that the assumptions made in one jurisdiction are tested in the others, and translating the resulting decisions into administrable form.
Typical contexts include families whose residence and assets sit in different countries; wealth that straddles common law and civil law systems; relocation and change of residence; the arrival of a new generation in a jurisdiction the structure was not designed for; and the reorganisation of legacy structures that no longer reflect the family’s circumstances.
Advice is delivered by qualified counsel in each jurisdiction. Our role is to ensure that it is coordinated across all of them and carried into effect.
Corporate & Governance Services
Formation, maintenance and governance of holding and special-purpose entities within private wealth structures.
Services may include:
- entity formation and ongoing corporate maintenance;
- registered office and registered agent coordination;
- director, manager, officer and authorised signatory services;
- board, manager, member and shareholder resolutions;
- annual filings and statutory registers;
- beneficial ownership and economic substance reporting support;
- orderly dissolution and unwinding of redundant entities.
Corporate and governance services are provided only where permitted by applicable law. Where a local licence, registration or authorised provider is required, we work with the appropriate local professional or institution.
Wealth Preservation
Preservation is an administrative outcome before it is a legal one. Our contribution is continuity: an office that remains in place across generations, records that survive the people who created them, and a succession plan for the fiduciary offices themselves.
Services may include:
- succession of fiduciary offices and appointment of successors;
- executorship and coordination of the succession process on death;
- documentation of the settlor’s intent and letters of wishes, maintained and refreshed over time;
- structural review on a defined cycle, with the family’s counsel;
- preparation for the transition of authority to the next generation.
No structure, arrangement or engagement can guarantee any particular legal, tax, regulatory, succession, privacy, confidentiality, asset-protection or investment outcome.