Family Office

Managing your family affairs and business interests

For many families, identifying the need to have family office support is quite difficult. We recognise that individual family members often take on the responsibility of co-ordinating everything, trying to keep relevant parties within the family and external advisers updated so that ‘things don’t get missed’ and pulling together all the important facets of managing wealth for the family.

At a time where we are increasingly seeing more onerous tax compliance and legal obligations, that is quite a burden. It is therefore no surprise that more families are turning to family offices to help them.

How can a family office help me?

A family office supporting your family can have many benefits.

Increased confidentiality, confidence and assurance

High-net worth families wish to maintain confidentiality for a variety of reasons, and we understand the importance of that. Keeping your legal and tax affairs managed by a single professional office helps streamline matters, giving more control and protection over information. In turn, this builds a relationship of trust where honest conversations about key concerns can safely take place.

Time efficiencies

We often hear the phrase “with wealth comes the responsibility of managing wealth.”  That burden should not be underestimated and is often felt most by the wealth creator in the family, on whom the responsibility for managing the family’s legal and tax affairs also often falls. There is no underestimating how time intensive this can be and using a professional family office for management of this frees up precious time, ensuring nothing is missed.

Accountability and a team dedicated to you

Relationships are key to success. We recognise the importance of ensuring that each family has a strong working relationship with the relevant members of our Family Office team. At Meridian, our Family Office service is Partner-led meaning a dedicated Partner who fully understands your affairs is actively up to date with the work for your family. It is not unusual for the Partner in the team to be a family’s first point of contact. This ensures you have a direct working relationship with an experienced legal and tax Partner, co-ordinating the advice and assistance required.

Understanding the bigger picture

Having personal and historical knowledge of a family’s affairs means that a bespoke, tailored service can be provided. At Meridian we work with you to “know the whole picture”. For some families, this may simply be ensuring that legal and tax compliance is in hand and that existing family trusts, Wills and tax affairs are in good order.

For others, that means actively planning and managing succession and tax planning, working with multiple generations of the family at one time.

Our experienced Family Office can deliver the right resource and service, at the right time, responsive to significant changes in life events, ranging from the sale of a business, to providing technical advice on the formation of charities (including grant making charities) in support of your family’s philanthropic efforts.

Legal and tax advice

Our specialist Family Office team can provide a comprehensive approach to all the legal and tax challenges high net worth families might face, working with individuals and their wider families to achieve their objectives both in the UK and internationally.

We recognise that every family is different and the level of professional support they require will largely depend on the complexity of their business and investment activity including the residence and domicile status of different members of the family, personal circumstances, the existing trust or wealth entities already in place, future plans, and the resource already in place to assist with this.

Estate and succession planning

We enjoy getting to know the families we work with, developing estate and succession planning strategies to best suit individual needs and enabling wealth to be passed to future generations, protecting them from third party claims.

We take time to understand a family’s current and future objectives, allowing a clear strategy to be put in place to preserve the family’s wealth and ensuring that it is regularly reviewed in accordance with your wishes, family circumstances and the current legal and tax landscape.

We can meet with future generations of a family to educate them on a family’s overall objectives, preparing a ‘family charter’ to record the objectives and obligations of the wider family and the role they play in managing the family’s wealth for the future.

Our expertise also includes:

• Advice on estate planning options to use any tax reliefs and the legal structures available to help preserve the family’s wealth
• Advice on creating and managing trusts both in the UK and internationally
• Reviewing existing trusts or other structures, advising on their tax position and their ongoing role for your family’s estate planning
• Advice on the establishment and structuring of family investment companies to hold wealth for the benefit of your family.

Family Wills and Lasting Powers of Attorney

Wills are important to ensure tax efficiencies and wealth preservation in the event of death. For high net and ultra-high net worth families, there are other things to consider when making a Will, including issues around privacy. Once a Will is submitted to the Court for the issue of the Grant of Probate, anyone can apply for a copy of it and so privacy on the face of the Will can be very important and we can ensure that appropriate measures are in place.

We are experienced in facilitating conversations within families to ensure that Wills are in keeping with the general objectives of the family, that they dovetail with separate Wills you may have dealing with assets in other jurisdictions or, if intended to be international Wills, that they are appropriately drafted. Alongside Wills, our team will ensure all basic planning and safeguarding aspects are in place such as Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) ensuring that, in the event of incapacity of a family member, or difficulty in dealing with their affairs, there are appropriately appointed attorneys in place who can manage the process and financial/business interests which can have wider ramifications where family wealth is concerned.

Tax efficient planning

Sensible tax planning to mitigate your family’s tax exposure and to help plan for future generations is a central and integral part of our Family Office service.

Our team includes tax specialists who advise individuals, companies, trusts and other entities on areas including:

• Tax strategies for your personal wealth and business interests
• Planning to help mitigate exposure to inheritance tax (IHT)
• Tax saving measures before the sale of a business and general pre-sale tax advice
• Business restructuring
• Taxation of existing trusts, both in the UK and internationally.

For some families, simply saving tax is not their main objective and therefore we take a more holistic view of tax planning needs, considering other practicalities and the wider wishes of the family.

Tax compliance

Personal tax compliance for you, your family and your trusts

We help families with personal tax compliance ranging from preparing and submitting annual self-assessment tax returns to 60-day reporting on the disposal of residential property. We also can review payments on accounts and prepare specific tax computations to help with planning or forecasting.

Our highly qualified team has extensive experience of working with the UK tax authorities and can navigate any disputes or tax investigations a family might be facing.

Creation and administration of a trust

Trusts can play an important role in your family’s estate, tax, and succession planning and are a popular vehicle for managing family wealth.

We can create trusts to hold wealth and advise on trusts for specific purposes, such as buying or holding property, paying grandchildren’s school fees, receiving shares or business interests qualifying for business relief (formally BPR), for general asset protection or for charitable purposes.

Our advice on the tax and legal implications of establishing a trust is clear and pragmatic. We consider the ongoing tax and legal consequences of a trust including any necessary restructuring of your trust structures and whether the family trust remains a sensible, cost-efficient part of wider estate planning. We also have the necessary expertise to advise on offshore trust structures and the specific tax issues that arise from these for UK beneficiaries.

The administration involved in a trust is extensive and our Family Office team is qualified to help with ongoing tax compliance including preparing annual accounts, preparing and submitting the annual self-assessment tax return on behalf of the trustees, registering and maintaining the trust on HMRC’s Trust Registration Service (“TRS”), assisting with beneficiaries’ tax repayment claims or own tax returns, and any inheritance tax (IHT) or capital gains tax (CGT) reporting

Families with international interests

Many families own assets abroad and/or have residence and domicile considerations, impacting personal tax positions and that of the wider family.

We can advise internationally mobile families and individuals on their residence and domicile status and identify any cross-border issues that might arise in lifetime, or on death, such as ensuring that Wills are appropriately drafted or assisting with cross-border estate administration on death.

For those considering emigration from, or to, the UK our team can provide insight and advice on the implications of this including any impacts on structures such as trusts.

With our extensive international experience we can also co-ordinate multi-jurisdictional tax advice to ensure that the consequences of gifts, the establishment of trusts or companies and the distributions from such entities to UK and non-UK resident beneficiaries are properly considered.