Family Investment Companies
Setting up family investment companies requires a specialist cross-disciplinary legal team with extensive private client and corporate expertise to ensure the right structures are put in place. Our team will work with you and your tax advisers to ensure the company is created to effectively protect and manage your wealth for the next generation.
Introduction to family investment companies
A family investment company can be a tax-efficient and practical way to manage the succession of your assets. You should think of it as a long-term estate planning strategy – at least seven years for inheritance tax purposes but more likely 15 to 20 years.
As the name suggests, a family investment company involves setting up a company and funding that company, either by loans or subscribing for shares (and often a mixture of both). Often as the founder of the company, you will remain as a director, controlling the day to day management of the company. You create different classes of shares and can allocate these to different family members or family trusts. Each share class can have different rights and the shareholders can benefit in different ways, allowing you to tailor your approach to suit your family. Bespoke articles of association and shareholders’ agreements can provide further asset protection and control as required.
What we do
We will start by establishing the fundamentals of your situation to confirm that a family investment company is the right route for you to take. If suitable, we will tailor the corporate structure and funding arrangements to suit your needs and objectives.
Your matter will be principally handled by our private client team and you will have a single point of contact throughout. However, a family investment company also requires the input of corporate legal experts and we will draw on the services of our corporate team as required. We will also liaise closely with your accountant or financial advisor, who in many cases will have been the person who referred you to us.
Once the family investment company has been established, we will stay in regular contact and advise you if there are any changes in the legal or tax landscape that could affect the purpose of your arrangements.
Our clients
A family investment company is often suitable for those with a history of running companies, whose priorities are to retain control over the use of the company assets but pass on wealth to the next generation. They can be very effect if you have children or grandchildren who are not yet ready to manage significant wealth themselves, but who you would like to be able to benefit and who may become more involved in the running of the company in the future.
Services from our Private Client team
Our Private Wealth sector
Clients who have built a significant assets base may face a complex legal and tax landscape. Our experts, who cover a range of legal disciplines, are on hand to provide specialist legal guidance and support to help individuals, their families, trustees and family offices.
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