Structures, estate documents, and succession.
Structures, wills, insurance, and shareholdings are typically created one at a time, years apart, by different professionals. We review them together and identify where they now conflict.
Most estate difficulties arise from documents that were never revisited—sound when drafted, and no longer describing the family they were written for.
We are not accountants or lawyers and do not replace them. Our work sits between them: assembling the current position, testing it against the family’s intentions, and framing the decisions that require professional execution.
The output is a short written summary: what is in place, what conflicts, what is exposed, and a recommended order of action.
The components of the work.
Scoped to the family’s situation; few mandates require all of it at once.
Structural review
Holding companies, trusts, partnerships, and personal holdings mapped in one diagram, with ownership and control shown as they actually are.
Estate & succession
Wills, powers of attorney, shareholders’ agreements, and beneficiary designations reviewed together for consistency and unintended outcomes.
Tax-aware coordination
We set out the tax questions and put them to the family’s accountants with the necessary context, rather than leaving the family to relay them.
Liquidity & insurance
Testing whether the estate could meet its obligations without a forced sale, and whether existing policies still serve their original purpose.
When this applies.
Circumstances families describe when this is the right starting point.
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The will predates a marriage, a divorce, a birth, or the sale of the business.
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A shareholders’ agreement and the estate plan have never been read side by side.
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A significant tax liability would crystallise on death with no liquidity to meet it.
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Trusts exist, but no one is certain what they hold or when they wind up.
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Insurance was purchased for a reason that no longer applies.
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Children are involved in the business to different degrees, and fairness has not been defined.
The sequence.
Consistent across mandates, varying in depth and pace.
Understand
We establish what the capital is for, who depends on it, what has already been decided, and which questions are unresolved. No recommendations are made at this stage.
Frame
We assemble the position in one place: assets, structures, obligations, and the tax and estate mechanics already in effect, presented as a single balance sheet.
Design
We propose an investment policy and planning approach in plain language, setting out the intended role of each holding, the principal risks, the total cost, and the trade-offs being accepted.
Steward
We implement, report, and review on a set schedule, with an out-of-cycle review triggered by material changes in the family’s circumstances.
Commonly combined with
Arrange a first conversation.
About an hour, at no cost and without obligation: your circumstances, what the capital is for, and whether our services are a fit.