FB News

Veteran advisers offer family office planning for ultra-wealthy families

By James Beech

A trio of family office veterans have launched a new advisory service to help ultra-wealthy families and individuals achieve their long-term wealth management goals, including the setting-up of family offices.

Former lawyers and bankers Adam Wethered (pictured) and William Drake founded their multi-family office Lord North Street in 2000 then sold it to the family-owned international investment office Sandaire in 2014. Wethered and Drake departed the merged firm to form Owl Private Office with broker Andrew Wimble in 2016.

The Owl partners announced this week their new “overarching” and “conflict-free” advisory service to find the wealth objectives, strategies and structures for families and endowments before specialist professional advisers and asset managers were appointed.

Wethered said while previously families and trustees may have relied upon all-embracing and generalised advice from law firms and their wealth managers, there had been a move towards specialisation. This specialisation was caused by the need for deep expertise in most areas of law, tax and wealth management, encouraged by the increasing regulation of professional advice.

However, many families did not have the time to examine and pursue their complex requirements, he said.

“In our experience there is now a gaping absence in the very high-end wealth advisory journey. We will step into this role by providing overarching advice that brings together the appropriate specialists and helps the family and advisory team think through, from a personal and practical perspective, the critical and fundamental issues which span several professional disciplines.”

Wethered said unlike Lord North Street, Owl will not manage the money, but will work with a client's lawyers and other specialist advisers to find the best structure, strategy and value for money from the investment industry for its clientele of UK and international families and endowments. The service was paid by the project, not as a percentage of a client's wealth.

“Owl's service helps clients define their financial objectives and matching strategic asset allocation, choose and appoint fund managers and custodians, and negotiate the terms and transition arrangements on the client's behalf,” Wethered said.

“Owl also monitors performance and will ensure managers provide proper risk and return reporting.”

Top Stories