Personal

Family office & family business

Ownership of assets

Wealthy families often posses many classes of private assets such as great estates, yachts, aircraft, horses, art and other luxury property with special requirements. They are both important investments and passions to be enjoyed. How to own these is a crucial question, as an effective arrangement will ensure tax exposure and risk to the family members are kept to a minimum, while at the same time allowing these belongings to be enjoyed to the full.

Sometimes we advise using trusts, sometimes companies and sometimes complex combinations of the two, both onshore and offshore. Our philosophy is that ‘one size fits all' solutions do not work in the context of family offices. Like the structure of the family office itself, the structures through which assets are owned need to be tailored to the specific circumstances and requirements of the family and its members.

Recent work

  • Creating a unit trust structure as an effective way of holding a substantial UK landholding.
  • Devising and establishing a diverse and global structure to hold a variety of assets, including American and European homes, a yacht and several private aircraft, as part of a restructuring for an international family office.
  • Organizing ownership, qualification and financing for aircraft being acquired by a Latin American family, to be registered in Brazil.
  • Advising on the legal structure for an equine boarding and training facility, including review of boarding, sales, breeding and training agreements.
  • Acquiring aircraft for a US rock star.
  • Structuring, negotiating and closing acquisitions of multiple domestic and international great estates and sporting venues in order to assist in the formation of a "club" providing shared ownership of outstanding properties to its members.

 

© Withers 2007 - 2008