Our Private Office team helps families:
- Create an overarching vision rather than having individual expectations and goals
- Facilitate inclusive decision making rather than only having unilateral decisions
- Enable proactive planning rather than being overly focused on one aspect of family life or always being reactive
- Establish a family council, which formalises family members coming together at agreed time periods to discuss key issues relating to wealth that may impact the family – with a clear decision-making process
- Recognise, address and manage conflict rather than ‘brushing it under the carpet’
- Set up ownership structures to support strong family governance rather than being restricted by reactive organic growth and historic family politics
We assist our clients to identify what good family governance means for them and build a strategy to support this, which will last the tests of time. We help our clients balance the interests of the family with those of the family business and portfolio of wealth. In other words, a balance between the creation, protection and consumption of wealth that meets the needs and values of each individual family.
Good family governance is often supported by the adoption of a Family Protocol, sometimes referred to as a Charter or Constitution. This sets out the family’s overarching vision and values, and articulates the policies and principles that the family agrees to live by and on which decision making will be made. It acts as a reference point for both family members and their network of professional advisers.
Developing a robust Family Protocol requires time and effort, whether starting from scratch or bringing an existing agreement up to date to reflect modern challenges and the views of the next generation. A Family Protocol might seek to bring together multiple generations around a set of core principles, or it might be the articulation of what a wealth founder sees for the future. Either way, the process of creating a Family Protocol will be as valuable as the document itself, especially where its lifecycle is extended into the future through regular review and adjustment.
Through JTC’s five-tier process, we support our UHNW families to develop a Family Protocol that reflects their situation. Working closely with clients’ professional advisers, we ensure that the protocol is underpinned by a robust legal, regulatory and reporting foundation. This creates a solid framework for good family governance and helps protect both the family wealth and the long-term interests of future generations.
Creating a Family Protocol is just one tool to support good family governance. As well as helping clients identify the values and principles on which they wish to manage and interact with their wealth, we work with clients’ advisers to design, establish and administer appropriate structures that will underpin, protect and operate the family wealth in a way that directly supports the family’s values, vision and policies by which they want to live.
