Citywealth is a wealth and philanthropy media company set up in October 2005. Karen Jones, the founder and Editor has spent many years gathering information about private investment and asset management; managing substantial wealth including charitable and philanthropy monies and issues around this.
She understands that sometimes, even if you have lots of money, you may have worries that are difficult to share. She also understands that sometimes your advisers or managers may be dealing with situations which are beyond their capability, meaning you could need help choosing new professionals to work with. And often even though you have substantial wealth, working out how to begin in the private wealth industry is like trying to scale a fifty foot wall - the challenge is so immense, you just might not bother but if you have more than £5million/$10million it is wise to upgrade from retail. Your entrepreneurial skill makes money but investments (believe it or not at the moment!) are the way to increase your wealth - a commonly known fact among the mega wealthy. And if you are more wealthy then we hope you will become more philanthropic - we can help you have a good experience in this world too. (It isnt quite as easy as handing over some cash).
Times are very difficult and we are not perfect at Citywealth but we do have a substantial information base to share about private wealth and philanthropy and a large, global network of people to check back with to try to help out, which we will happily do so.
We are friendly; don't sell any investments ourselves or take any commissions from anyone. Our opportunity is to connect anyone who needs help with wealth professionals, usually with someone we think is suitable - and we do so with integrity and with personalities considered. We can also help manage that situation if you wish. Beauty parades sound fun, but are filled with jargon and schmoozing. We hope to be a comfort in a trying or unknown situation.
Whether you want to change a philanthropy consultant; have no idea why you need to know what your risk profile is; want to change your private bank; are worried sick by the turmoil; don't know what to do about a trust; want to ask us what the heck you are going to do about a wealth problem; need help picking an adviser or manager for a specific issue (we know what people specialise in); are considering calling someone you can see we are connected with - then we can give you our view for free (we are not regulated by any financial authority nor professional investment advisers or managers - we simply offer a view). We want to make your experience in the private wealth industry more pleasant and we hope more profitable or at least what you expect. It isn't easy to get information in the private wealth industry - it is closed door - simply because the world by its very nature is filled with niche and very private issues.
If you are having problems in the industry we can also help, just let us know and we will try and use our influence with financial authorities to make issues known.
Ultimately we have discovered that the wealth industry is vast and confusing and a gentle hand holding from us, helps you and the professionals in the industry work better. We dont dazzle with brochures filled with volumes of words or spin - its just us making suggestions based on what you say.
We may not be able to help, but if we can we will.
Our heartfelt sympathies go out to those in Palm Beach who have lost money in the Madoff fraud. We understand this is a very distressing time and it will affect your retirement experience and charitable works. If we can help by promoting any charitable works to our readers who are a host of global uhnw individuals and their wealth advisers and managers then please contact us below. In terms of recouping money in this instance, I suspect we will be of no help as it is a major fraud and perhaps one for the criminal courts.
Our speciality is dealing with individuals with more than £5million up to tens and hundreds of millions and billions. We also know about margin calls (when loans get called in and how to manage it); Switzerland, offshore markets, new US tax rules/regimes, family fights and divorce. We also know that you could be considered difficult to deal with and may not have many people who can talk to you in a way that you may need to change or move forward with change.
We can also help with connecting you with our audience of uhnw individuals and their advisors and managers via editorial articles if this helps you gain business. All articles can be quote checked and our editorial policy is collaborative and not designed to embarrass or annoy.
And everything you say to us is confidential unless we agree with you otherwise.
We do not help anyone who wishes to perpetuate any fraud or tax evasion. Tax avoidance is another matter entirely - ensuring you don't pay twice tax on the same investments because of international tax rules.
Karen Jones
Citywealth
http://www.citywealthmag.com/
kjones AT j-p-c.tv
Tel: 020 7495 1697 (London, UK)
Tuesday 16 December 2008
Lost wealth in the economic downturn? Need some help?
“WealthWise”:Courses helping the rich become wise about wealth
“Some of our clients have inherited wealth, others created it. What they all have in common is the need for real insights into different aspects of private wealth ownership, from first principles upward.
Many also recognise that it is important to go beyond the obvious issues of understanding markets or assessing the balance between risk and reward.
WealthWise™ have devised courses that include sessions on how to maximise the usefulness of professionals, cutting through the jargon – and opportunities for delegates to explore their personal lifestyle objectives in one-to-one counselling with our course tutors. We tackle such issues as how to evaluate advisors and build effective relationships with them.
Philanthropy
Another interesting observation is that as wealth owners become older, they progressively divert more and more money into charities, foundations and philanthropic projects – and less and less to the next generation.
Typically, the focus begins with the basics of funding children’s education, medical and housing needs and starting businesses. But beyond that, the donors of wealth want their children to serve real apprenticeships and to develop genuine life skills, without becoming de-motivated from having no necessity to achieve anything.
It therefore becomes important to assist each successive generation to understand the merits and uses of philanthropy in a family wealth context, and how it can bring the whole family together through a shared, worthwhile cause.
Even the youngest can benefit: for clients with a private family foundation, a valuable technique is to create a junior board. This deft touch enables the children to increase their participation and understanding of wealth’s responsibilities – and so value them more.
I believe WealthWise™ is an essential step towards becoming comfortable with wealth ownership. Our purpose is to ensure that the wealth belongs to the individual rather than he or she belonging to it.”
Key Wealth Care is the Jersey-based wealth management group specialising in private client and family office services.
For information
brian.clarke AT key-trust.com
www.key-trust.com
Friday 12 December 2008
Citywealth Wealth Management awards - the Magic Circle Awards Event 2009
Citywealth Magic Circle Awards 2009
Date for diaries: 14th May 2009
Millennium Hotel, Mayfair, London W1
Citywealth publishes Global VIP leaders list selection - release January 2009
Host to be confirmed is once again: Gyles Brandreth
British ballroom theme
For the past four years the Citywealth Magic Circle Awards has brought together the leading intermediaries and advisers in the UHNW space. This year’s awards, held in May 2008, were attended by nearly 350 of the key individuals from over 120 organisations representing the crème of the UHNW advisor group. They included the most influential trustees, lawyers, private bankers, family office executives and accountants who represent the world’s wealthy. The evening was a non stop opportunity for the top level of the wealth management industry to meet and network. 2009 promises the same.
The evening also marks the launch of The Citywealth Leaders List 2009 which will be focussing on those that have had a track record as being the best and most supportive advisers and best financial centres in difficult times. The focus is on those that will be best positioned for the upturn we all hope will come later in 2009. This is the message that clients have been telling us is important to them and the message that leading advisers wish to put across.
To add a bit of glamour, the Citywealth Magic Circle Awards also attracts a smattering of Rich List individuals there to raise awareness of the charitable causes that they support as well as to enjoy the evening’s entertainment. Each year we are delighted to support a major international charity and in May 2009, the charity will be the UN World Tourism Organisation’s foundation Sustainable Development for Eliminating Poverty. Ambassador Madame Young Shim Dho will be attending.
For further information on the Citywealth Magic Circle Awards, please contact: Joe Bell 01483 526445 jbell AT j-p-c.tv
For further information and nominations for the 2009 Leaders List, please contact: Karen Jones Tel: 020 7495 1697 kjones AT j-p-c.tv
Wednesday 8 October 2008
Guernsey and London connection: Rowlands single family office and Blackfish Capital Holdings
Toby Birch, who departed a role as an investment manager in a well known private bank, took up a position with the Rowland family office based in Guernsey on their breathtaking estate at Havilland Hall and also in their London office in Saville Row.
Following Toby’s book, Final Crash (written under name Hugo Boleau), he found many of his views aligned with the Rowlands, particularly Jonathan Rowland one of the five children of David Rowland, who runs the family investment management arm in London, managing the reported £700million fortune, so when a position arose Toby jumped at it. Although Jonathan Rowland does say gently that his outlook isn’t quite as “doom and gloom as the Final Crash book.”
Toby, who has been with the Rowland family office for several months (he joined autumn 2007), has become Executive Director of Blackfish Capital Exodus Fund which has been launched to capture flight money leaving dollar investments with a plan to invest in gold and commodities. “Gold is like an insurance policy that you don’t claim on.” Says Toby. He adds that some are calling the current swing to gold: ‘the gold bug.’
The Exodus Fund named after the land of milk and honey, which is run with co-manager Martyn Konig CEO of Blackfish Capital and who has a CV that includes NM Rothschild, Goldman Sachs and UBS, launched with $20million of Rowland money has a $5bn capacity (soft close at $3bn) with a modest entry level of US$250,000. Target returns are 15% per annum with 8% volatility with fees at 1.5% (management) and a performance fee of 20% (high watermark and equalisation). There is also a joint venture with Investec called the Blackfish Investec Capital Management fund which Toby explains, from the elegant boardroom at the family office is because, “the family have a lot of experience with gold and commodities with silver mines owned by the fund in South America.”
Toby, who also has an Islamic finance qualification, predicts strong flows of money from areas like the Middle East out of the USA and into Europe and sees three areas that will benefit . “They will be precious metals, oil, food and non base metals and non US assets.” He is devoting his time to Bloomberg with Goldman Sachs who are prime broker and custodian, stress testing all their investment strategy.
Jonathan Rowland, has been with the family office for fifteen years and works with his siblings, in different areas of the investment office where Toby is. “We are primarily investment and financiers looking for opportunities globally in equities, debt, direct investment and trading opportunities. And as a secondary area we also look at emerging markets.” He says.
Jonathan, who is down to earth and friendly, says they run a tight ship and keep costs in the family office low. “We bring in experience where we need it but generally keep our head count to around ten.” He says his golden rules for investment include: “If you don’t understand investments don’t do them.” And “moving and adapting quickly to how markets are moving.”
Having known Toby for five years , Jonathan confirms that the Rowlands family view is generally in line with his, so more pessimistic than optimistic which is why the Final Crash book resonated. “We’re always looking at the worse case scenarios and think Toby’s book has a significant place in the world.” He adds a surprising comment about their current policy. “We’ve liquidated everything we have and tightened our belts to take advantage of market opportunities that will arise with the economic instability.”
This is a trend that Jonathan says he is also seeing repeated with other “older and cleverer” families. “Core businesses are being kept, but we are all awaiting the right opportunities now, whether value, miss priced or distressed particularly with institutions running for the hills after credit crunch losses.”
Sovereign funds are something the Rowland family office has dealings with so I ask for his view of them . “I think we’d be in a lot more trouble with out them so on balance they are good. They support the market, move quickly and are a lot smarter than they were thirty years ago.”
The vision for the Blackfish fund Management business is to build a brand owned by the family which Jonathan plans to build into Fleming family office proportions. “With five to ten years we might do that.” He says. “We plan to support people, like Toby, who have interesting strategies to help us build a significant business.”
Of market conditions Jonathan shares the family view. “We are cautious but are starting to see close to the bottom of the market in some sectors. There are already some more interesting valuations for instance with British Land which we may look to buy as well as banking stocks. I think commercial property still has a long way to drop though and residential won’t see confidence back until well into 2009.”
David Rowland, his father, who is reported to have made his first million at twenty three, is still very active in the business and sits as Chairman although he has closed down all his former business operations.
The driver is to build the Rowland family brand rather that just focusing on individual successes.” He adds that as well as his father, he admires people who take risks like entrepreneurs.
Forward motion sees the family office looking at China, South America and the Middle East for investment opportunities but Jonathan says he isn’t jumping on planes all the time. “I need a reason to go somewhere these days and want my trip to pay for itself. I’m not interested in speculative trips.”
And with nearly all his dreams come true at thirty three, is retirement at thirty five an option? I have no plans to retire.” He says. “But I might take a bit of time out for a career break.”
Article re published from Citywealth from February 2008.
©
Art insurance commentary
EG Buhrle art theft, Aon Artscope/Specie & Fine Art Division comment on the recent robbery.
Although the recent heist of a number of paintings from a Swiss gallery ended happily with the return of the paintings, the brash move by thieves to just walk into a gallery and remove pictures left a question mark over the security of many fine art works lodged by private individuals in public spaces. Charles Hamilton Stubber, director of Aon Private Risk Management. give us his view of the implications to ultra high net worths, in question and answer style.
What could happen to paintings in a robbery? Paintings will never be able to be sold or exhibited in the open market. Bearing this in mind, the thieves often realize that financial gain is not an option and the art may reappear in a couple of years’ time. Paintings could be used as collateral for loans, possibly for below market value. The FBI estimates that the stolen art market is USD6bn annually. We are not aware the insurance market has ever paid out any ransom demands in an ‘art-napping’ case. Meanwhile, global law enforcement has become increasingly sophisticated in investigating and recovering stolen artwork. The police have linked into organisations such as the Art Loss Register, Trace and other international databases which has stemmed the flow of stolen art. For example, 2007 saw a police sting operation in Paris recover two Picassos, Maya with Doll and Jacqueline.
What could have been done to prevent this theft? Not much because you wouldn’t want a tragedy. However museums have an obligation to create a happy medium by displaying their masterpieces, rather than keeping them locked in a vault, while constantly reviewing and checking the effectiveness of security measures. Smaller locations tend to be at greater risk because exits are more accessible than in a multi-floored large gallery. This is demonstrated by the fact that it has been reported that the EG Buhrle theft took place in just three minutes.
Lessons learnt for other collectors? If loaning a piece to a museum, the collector must extend their policy for when the art is in transit and in its new location, or negotiate for the museum to arrange adequate cover if transferring the liability. From a museum's perspective, it must regularly review the series of events leading up to a loss to reduce their susceptibility. For example, the series of events could include access, number of personnel, a device on the painting and potential exit routes.
www.aon.co.uk
Monday 6 October 2008
Simon Weil, Head of Individuals at UK law firm, Bircham Dyson Bell plans a Versailles musical event for 2010
Simon Weil, who was recently spotted bidding several thousand pounds for a holiday at an FF&P charitable event for Room to Read, is planning his own charitable extravaganza at Versailles in 2010 with the aim to give proceeds to a charity nominated by the overall sponsor of the event, who is yet to be secured. Simon says of his plan “It will be La Douceur de Vivre, Versailles on Monday 31 May 2010. The event will include a performance of Handel's Acis and Galatea in the Gabriel Theatre, which was built in 1770 for the marriage of Marie Antoinette to the Dauphin, the future Louis XVI. This will be followed by a promenade through the state rooms with dinner and dancing in the Orangerie.” The theatre will be open after a prolonged period of restoration enabling attendees to see it as Marie Antoinette herself saw it in 1770. Eighteenth century dress is encouraged so that everyone attending may experience the chateau as it was before the Revolution. For any information contact Simon on
SimonWeil AT bdb-law.co.uk
Merrill Lynch launch annual world wealth report with Cap Gemini
Number of HNWI’s in the UK up 2% to 495,000 individuals driven by strong GDP growth
The twelfth annual Merrill Lynch Wealth report revealed that green investing has become increasingly popular with total investments in green technology up 41% to US$117bn. Nick Tucker, Market Leader for UK & Ireland, Global Wealth Management at Merrill Lynch commented: “Green investing offers investors lucrative returns and an opportunity to become actively involved in social responsibility. An array of vehicles such as mutual funds, ETFs and other pooled products, or alternative investments are available with notable strength in wind and solar. The Middle East and Europe were the most environmentally attuned HNWI and Ultra-HNWI populations, with participation ranging from around 17 percent to 21 percent in 2007. In comparison, only 5 percent of HNWIs and 7 percent of Ultra-HNWIs in North America allocated part of their portfolio holdings to green investing. Among HNWIs worldwide, approximately half pointed to financial returns as the primary reason for their allocation to green investing.”
Emerging markets made significant contributions to record-level worldwide IPO activity in 2007. More than 1,300 IPOs raised about US$300 billion during the year—and emerging markets captured 7 of the top 10 issues. The BRIC nations exhibited particular strength in the area, accounting for 39 percent of global IPO volume in 2007, up from 32 percent in 2006. Net private capital flows to emerging markets also increased in 2007. China attracted the largest absolute amount of private capital in 2007 at a country level, drawing in about US$55 billion. Emerging Europe was the most popular regional destination, attracting US$276 billion.
Given 2007 performances and taking into consideration recent developments in world markets, the Report suggests that global HNWI wealth will grow to US$59.1 trillion by 2012, advancing at a rate of 7.7 percent per year.
Julius Baer launch new absolute funds
Julius Baer, is promoting its absolute return bond funds range to UK investors. Highlights within the range currently include the following fund:
Julius Baer Absolute Return Emerging Bond Fund. Launch date 31st December 2007. The fund had an absolute return of 2.13% since launch and has outperformed three month USD Libor by 1.01%. Fund size: USD 0.1bn. Target return: three month USD Libor +3-4% per annum. Historical annualised volatility: 1.0-1.5%. Available in USD and EUR hedges share classes.
Wealth party diary
It’s always busy in the London wealth space when it comes to entertaining and never more so than in 2008. The Family Investment Office of Unigestion started off the proper summer party season, as they always do, with their annual cocktail event, which attracted the usual industry bigwigs. Daniel Martineau of Close Summit Trust Company was spotted on a hop over from Geneva; Clive Nicholson, former Managing Partner at Saffery Champness graced the party with his presence and Mike Covell formerly of Goldman Sachs, but now about to launch as a consultant, also made a rare public visit. (Robert Suss has taken over the top job at Goldman Sachs).
FF&P, who count Ian Fleming, the James Bond author, as an early member of the now multi family office, celebrate their James Bond 50th anniversary year and have held a multitude of parties and events which are the brain child of Penny Lovell and aided by the charming Nicola Murphy there. On Wednesday 11th June FF&P held a “Miss Moneypenny event” with Joanna Lumley and Samantha Weinberg (who is also the author Kate Westbrook) reading from her book “The MoneyPenny Diaries”. Matthew Fleming, former cricketer, kicked off introductions with Louise Holmes of Room to Read (www.roomtoread.org) making the appeal for generosity from attendees for the charity auction held afterwards. Room to Read was founded by an ex Microsoft person, John Wood who has many social entrepreneur awards to his name. A Bonhams auctioneer cleverly upped bids and then appealed for just £130 per person to help build a school for children supported by Room to Read. Many put their hands up but Suzanne Reisman, to her credit, was one of the first. Suzanne specialises in US private client law and is based in the UK (www.suzannereisman.com).
Ascot was a fine affair with Baker & McKenzie’s Paul Stibbard and Ashley Crossley hosting two tables at the event. Top hat and tails were the order of the day and their guests included Anthony Valgimigli, Barclays Wealth on the board governing India and Middle Eastern clients; Rose Wong, SG Hambros Bank who delighted the male audience accidently with pictures of herself at a Coutts jewellery ball; Juliet Wedderburn at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth and new arrival Rupert Jacobs of Butterfield Private Office who is a fresh off the ’plane from Bermuda Rothschilds operation and working with Katie Booth Managing Director of the operation. Betting was in earnest led by Ian Grant at BNP Paribas, and although he racked up wins, big losses were the order of the day for the rest of us. The reason cited was bad feng shui with the positioning of our corner table s in the lunch room and a competitive field of Middle Eastern; Irish and Kentucky race horses. (Anthony Valgimigli tips off Kentucky as the place that will be yielding some serious race horses in future). Losses were quickly forgotten though as a full three course lunch was served followed by cream cake after cream cake and champagne, followed by superb white then red wine, desert wine, port, brandy and the launch of the Bollinger Rose new arrival. It was no wonder there were a few dizzy travellers on the way home courtesy of the Baker & McKenzie tour buses. (Whats on tour, stays on tour unless Citywealth Editor is there).
Fortis, sponsored the whole Hurlingham Club tournament providing their private wealth guests with Jo Malone goody bags, branded baseball style caps to protect from the sunshine, Evian mist spray and plenty of Pimms to ensure some dehydration occurred. Citywealth Editor was treated to lunch in the players room, followed by some veteran tennis and some up to date stars. Marat Safin, stole the show with graceful leaps and bounds and although he didn’t win his match, he stole a place in most of the ladies hearts.
Mark Rushton, London and Rick Denton of Guernsey Fortis were hosts and guests were mainly clients of the bank. A lovely day of cream cakes was had and champers and Ian Orton of the Wealthnet was spotted sticking very sensibly to soft drinks.
FF&P held a further party to launch their Suffolk Street offices, the new home of Penny Lovell and her multi family office team at FF&P. With a terrace outside, guests were able to relive an old tradition and smoke Cuban Cohiba cigars while quaffing champagne and eating tasty nibbles.
This week also included the Key Wealth forum which had around fifty guests at The Law Society and a superb full English breakfast on offer. Also last week was the LG Legal press party and Wimbledon with Stanford Eagle who had centre and No 1 court tickets for their guests with client entertaining all day. Goody bags included poncho’s and umbrellas but the weather mostly held. Send your party diary stories into Citywealth Editor. kjones AT citywealthmag.com
www.citywealthmag.com
Citywealth interview: Louise Stoten who ranked in the top twenty women in private wealth in 2008
Louise Stoten, a partner at Payne Hicks Beach, started life in the City in the late 80’s at the tender age of seventeen, working at a private client stock broking firm. Despite learning the business quickly and getting a good grounding in dealing with private client lawyers, she experienced some hard times at first hand. Landing in her job at the time of Black Monday, one of the worse times in the financial history of the City of London, the capital went into a dire recession and eventually her company, unable to sustain their business, closed down. At twenty one she found herself being made redundant.
Not one to miss an opportunity for fun though, she spent her redundancy time wisely, heading off to Italy for the World Cup and coming back only when her redundancy money ran out.
On her return she reviewed the jobs on offer, but the idea of 7am starts on dealing desks didn’t appeal, so she opted for a career change into the law. She had A levels in economics and law and although she says she didn’t realise the magnitude of her decision, she jumped headlong into finding a role to support herself while she studied for her law degree. She applied for paralegal jobs and got some interest but then heard that an assistant had resigned at Beachcroft Stanleys in their private client department working with partner, George Francis, who was previously at Farrers and is an old Etonian, which we both agree was ‘very private client’ in those days. Through a work connection she got an introduction for an interview and with her experience with investments and trusts she says, in her usual honest and open style, she “blagged her way in.” Her studies took a gruelling seven years to complete doing a part time degree and finals in the evenings.
During this time Beachcroft Stanleys were merging with another law firm Wansboroughs who, Louise says, seemed less interested in private client, so the team moved to Payne Hicks Beach in 1997 and they took their clients with them. Following twenty years in the industry, Louise says she now has a wide spectrum of clients that include agricultural and landed estates, onshore and offshore trusts and UHNWi’s and in the last five years, as deals have started to mature, a large influx of private equity and hedge fund money.
Multi generational issues particularly interest Louise. “Some clients preserve their wealth well.” She explains. “I have a couple of clients with big stately homes that are expensive to run, with no natural succession so we’ve looked at merging succession with others in the family. I think splitting family money up is a mistake. It means rather than having one super wealthy family, you suddenly have a handful of less wealthy individuals and what can be achieved with those families reduces. I prefer to keep family money solidly together.”
When dealing with private equity and hedge fund clients, Louise is glad she spent some time working with investments in her early career. “It definitely helps to understand better the areas in which your clients operate, the stresses they are under and to communicate with them on their level as sophisticated investors.”
She explains further. “A family constitution is fine but lawyers should also have an understanding of how to manager money to get a broader picture of clients’ assets and lifestyle.” Clients who have recently acquired wealth, generally have a short term outlook and something she likes to encourage is a thirty to fifty year approach. “Although trusts are a more difficult concept to use now we are looking very seriously at family partnerships, but these may not be flexible enough to work over successive generations.”
Of her client work and trends, private charities are ‘very fashionable’ now. “Everyone wants one.” She says laughing. “It’s a good way to educate young children , especially if they are involved as a charitable trustee. The can learn about investments, tax and meet advisers whilst doing it with money that isn’t theirs.” She mentions one client who has £250million to transfer to a child but will leave a significant proportion to a private charity.
“With the differential between income tax and capital gains tax rates, we are looking closely at OEICs and insurance bonds. Clients with cash from £5million upwards, want to look at solutions with tax wrappers and deferral products. Some may only work if you are planning at some stage; otherwise the deferred tax involved may be large.”
Louise sees a gap in the market for private client lawyers to work with private equity and hedge fund financiers. “The magic circle corporate law firms do the fund works for investors and directors but in many cases there isn’t any ongoing private client support and often the individuals don’t really appreciated their position in a structure and how to plan to extract their profits from it. Many corporate firms don’t have a department to look after day to day individual affairs one they have set up the fund.”
Louise agrees with many in the private wealth sector, that the term family office is vaguely frustrating. “Many private client lawyers acting for a wealthy family would do a lot of the work that a family office might do.” Louise says, “Our work has always revolved around individual clients, offering them a traditional, personal and tailored service. We aren’t transactional , we expect to deal with all of our clients affairs for a long time and hopefully for a number of generations.”
Investment manager selection for clients is also something Louise is involved with but she always advises clients to review their structures and planning first before leaping into investments, which she says sometimes means she locks horns with bankers and investment managers who are eager to sell products. “Most clients don’t really need much of their money, so I ten to plan what we will do with the bulk of their fortune for the next twenty years plus, then look at structures to minimise tax then decide on investment strategy.”
She laments the current trend to hire lawyers in banks. “If you are not very careful they can devalue the lawyer proposition and there may be a prevalent short term investment view which I disagree with. I always look at wealth management over a long time period because clients who have recently acquired wealth rarely appreciated that money, if managed well, has a habit of growing massively and can get out of control without good structuring. Some of the packaged banking products that work now, may not work in a few years time.”
Louise also agrees that clients are getting younger and has a number of thirty something private equity entrepreneurial clients with money coming online as their deals mature. However she likes both old and new money clients and thinks they compliment each other. “Lessons have been learned about how old money has survived and that best practice can now be applied to newer money.” She makes a keen observation. “Old money was once new money and new money usually wants to retain wealth long enough to be old money.”
www.phb.co.uk
Citywealth pearls of wisdom: David Rigg: protecting reputations
David Rigg is the founder of Project Associate, a leading UK consultancy specialising in reputation and crisis management for private individuals. He offers his pearls of wisdom for clients and banks.
“Many high net worth individuals have spent a lifetime far from the public eye, and sensibly so. The have frequently built an enviable reputation amongst their friends, family and business colleagues. Reputation is a precious asset requiring nurture and husbanding often over many years. But it is also a fragile creature and can be destroyed in a day. Profile and reputation do not always make good companions.
I am often asked “I think I need a higher public profile, can you help?” My default answer is - “What on earth for?”
In today’s frenetic media world with its twenty four hour rolling news, populist newspapers and explosive growth of the internet, a high public profile carries with it many hidden risks. Few of us would want every nook and cranny of our lives past and present put under the microscope.
Of course there can be sound reasons for having a higher profile – Richard Branson is a master of the art and has often said he does it because it is much cheaper than advertising and it has helped to build his businesses and create the powerful Virgin brand. Where there is a good business reason then a carefully planned approach is needed to avoid, so far as possible, the pitfalls that await the uninitiated. This is not an area where flying blind is to be advised.
And then there are those who have a profile thrust upon them whether they like it or not. I have acted over the years for some of the world’s richest people, often inheriting great wealth upon the death of a parent or other relative. If the benefactor was in the public eye, then so will be the beneficiary. Even if they were not, other events - family feuds, indiscretions by offspring or attacks by disgruntled ex employees for example – can conspire to bring the beam of the searchlight into play. And that can be an uncomfortable and even frightening experience.
So what to do? The point, as the military would say, is that time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted. In other words planning is key. Working closely with existing advisors, a careful review of the reputational risks needs to be undertaken and then a plan constructed. Every case is different, each person has their own individual requirements and it is certainly not a case of “one size fits all”.
If sufficiently well thought through there is in fact no need for the individual’s life to be ruined or turned into a constant game of cat and mouse with the media. There are strong privacy laws in this country and sensible, reasonable precautions can help clients to avoid many of the obstacles along the route. The secret is to plan, because the day the media calls for your comment it’s too late.
Thoughts for financial organisations dealing with the current economic turmoil
As far as hedge funds are concerned, I believe their past secretive behaviour will make them the fall guys, mainly because they‘ve actively pursued invisibility. You could draw the same parallels with private equity organisations but they have been much better at putting their houses in order and aren't in the same firing line. I believe, hedge fund people will have their secrecy come back to bite them now.
On the overall situation, it is a warning, when people in large numbers are not prudent with client money, it becomes very difficult to separate one private bank from all the other private banks. Every bank will have to live through the pain of majority mistakes now. I advise that private banks keep communication channels, at all levels wide open. Not just press coverage but keeping clients with substantial assets informed of changing situations and reassured: a lot of communication is important. And from a customers point of view with assets and money in a bank, it’s a good time to take some professional advice on the security of the institution holding capital.
Contact: Heidi Mallace for any further information
heidi.mallace AT projectassociatesltd.com
www.projectassociatesltd.com
Brian Clarke, Director of Key Trust Company offers some views on investment for family offices and families in business
Brian Clarke, Director of Key Trust Company and recent winner of the STEP independent trust company of the year, gives Citywealth his views during the current difficult times.
The events which lead to one outcome on Monday can lead to a different outcome on Tuesday. There is now simply too much information for any one individual or a computer to fully comprehend. There are just too many moving parts and our minds are trained to select only the information we need and to filter the rest.
Applying this concept to the market suggests that each investment manager or trader will tend to focus on what they personally consider important and ignore the rest. Two old (but none the worse for that) investment philosophies are: The random walk theory, which says that everything that can be known is already factored into the price, therefore the move in tomorrow’s price will be random.
The other theory is that while it pays to follow a trend, when following the herd, accept that you are walking in the droppings.
Because decision makers work with fundamentals, technical signals, and numerous financial variables to meet the supply and demand requirements of their firm, they have to select those elements that are relevant to them. They focus on those elements that are specific to their decision-making, filtering out other variables as either being too small or too fleeting. Result: they do not work with the real market but with a mental model of the market.
In a year when the filtered-out issues suddenly become dominant, this can have a disastrous effect on investment policy. Banks, commodities, oil all have significant valuation changes beyond any average trend line.
At our annual meetings with family clients, we are always talking about the entire global spread of investments and how important it is to ensure a balance.
The elements we strive to include are real estate, art collectables that can be enjoyed, land, cash, equities and holdings for long term income. As an independent company, we are perfectly placed to introduce the best managers for each asset sector.
In these volatile times, I believe, having a secure, broad and inclusive spread of assets gives a good foundation for stress-free living.
www.key-trust.com
Private bank Lombard Odier and the Institute of Family Business find the golden thread to integrate children into a family business
Generating emotional ownership is the golden thread identified by Lombard Odier, a seven generation family business, and The Institute of Family Business, to help children successfully join established businesses and promote more longevity. The report throws to the rocks perhaps, the idea that family businesses rarely survive past two or three generations of ownership.
In a forty eight page report, emotional ownership, which includes introducing children at six years old into various areas of the business, with activities around the dinner table, is cited as key.
The report goes on to explain that emotional ownership is defined as a sense of closeness and belonging to the family business: something that penetrates below the surface of the mind into the identity of the person.
And the more the business actively involves a family member to raise his or her EO, the more inclined they will be to give service and to be involved.
The survey included six hundred families in sixty seven countries and offers hands on advice for implementation of their findings. Steps include: Absence of suffocation from older family members and an understanding that joining the family business means it doesn’t have to be for life.
Merrill Lynch and Capgemini release third Asia Pacific Wealth report
The wealth of Asia-Pacific’s high net worth individuals (HNWIs ) increased 12.5 percent in 2007 to US$9.5 trillion.
The number of HNWIs in the region grew by 8.7 percent to 2.8 million and the number of ultra high net worth individuals (Ultra-HNWIs ) jumped 16.4 percent to 20,400.
Asia Pacific accounted for 27.8 percent of the world’s HNWI population in 2007 and Ultra-HNWIs accounted for 26.3 percent of the region’s HNWI wealth.
Boodle Hatfield strengthens private client team with appointment of Karen Marks from LG
Private client law firm Boodle Hatfield has hired Karen Marks, who was a partner in the tax and private capital team at LG. Karen, who joined Boodle Hatfield on 18 August as a partner, brings expertise in international tax and trust planning and acts for trustees and beneficiaries of offshore structures. She advises clients seeking to leave or take up residence in the UK.
Karen commented on her new role. “It is great to be at Boodle Hatfield working with Sue Laing and her department. I was offered a wonderful opportunity to build on my offshore tax and trust expertise and help develop the department further.”
http://www.boodlehatfield.com/
Pearls of wisdom from wealth advisory experts
Josh Rubenstein, Joint Managing Partner New York, Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
"My one wise phrase? The ancient Greeks use to say, "Don't worry, you have your whole future behind you." Their view of time was physical, because you cannot see the future, and you cannot see behind you. The fundamentals have not changed much. If you stick with them, everything will work out all right. As my hiking instructor used to say, "Trust your boots."
UHNW New York former hedge fund analyst (anonymous quote)
“Despite the best efforts of the world’s central banks, there will be a big economic slowdown and real credit losses will be quite large, although I imagine less than what’s built into loan and bond prices today. Prices recently reflect forced liquidation of the assets and not their true actuarial value, or anything close to it. As to whether there will be more ‘runs’ on financial institutions: I don’t know, we shall have to wait and see. I don’t think the stock market has an awful lot of upside either, but I also don’t think it’s going to crash.”
Karen Marks, Partner, Boodle Hatfield
“Words of wisdom for the private wealth market - in the current climate? Hold on tight, it's going to be a bumpy ride!”
These snippets first appeared in newsletter published by www.citywealthmag.com
Thursday 31 July 2008
Citywealth events coming up in Monaco and London 2008/09 - watch video footage of the recent rich list and their advisers event
Citywealth events - sponsorship information - connect to the global wealth market and rich list individuals
Dates for diaries
Monaco 8th October 2008 year two event - expected numbers 200 from mainland European countries (Luxembourg, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Germany etc). Awards judges include: Daniel Martineau, Close Summit Trust Company, Switzerland; Etienne D’Arenberg, Mirabaud & Cie, Switzerland; George Francis, Payne Hicks Beach, UK.
London 14th May 2009 year four event - expected numbers 350 (global attendees from USA, India, Japan, Switzerland, Italy, UK, offshore etc )
Overview
Citywealth is a brand of Jones Publishing, a company that launched in October 2005 when founder and Chairman Karen Jones, who holds 100% of the shares, saw an opportunity to recognise and bring together the global industry of professional advisers and managers with their rich list clients and major philanthropists and charities. Citywealth recognises the best of breed individuals via leaders lists and facilitates ultra high net worth client referral to this elite group with its events whilst also promoting major philanthropic causes. Invites are paid for but are by invitation only to recognised Citywealth leaders and prominent global rich list individuals and charity founders. The leaders lists published bi annually reveals “Rolls Royce” advisers and managers in the industry and a place on the list has become much coveted. The leaders lists also highlight articles from rich list individuals, family offices, philanthropists and social entrepreneurs to help connect the wealth and charitable worlds – all of which help bring money online into the global wealth industry and help clients have a good experience to increase their share of wallet; spend on products and desire to have foundations.
Citywealth events have become known for their consistent high quality of attendee with testimonials abounding and the events selling themselves. Attendees include the biggest names in the global sector ranging from accountants to lawyers, bankers, investment and asset managers , trustees, super rich clients, major philanthropists and charities. This group deal with or are the wealthiest private and charitable clients in the world. The rich list clients are also all nearly 100% new money entrepreneurs, majority involved with high finance, technology and telecoms.
Citywealth also has a regular newsletter featuring articles on the individuals in the space.
Citywealth Chairman Karen Jones, a female entrepreneur, has also become a frequent ultra high net worth client introducer as she has gained trust and respect for her own achievements with the super rich via her interviews and dealings with philanthropy efforts.
See our recent event on our video on our website www.citywealthmag.com
Citywealth sponsorship document
Opportunity 1
Overall Monaco sponsorship – reaching Pan European intermediaries/Euro rich list individuals/global philanthropists
(Does not include drinks reception)
Monaco 2008 overall sponsorship £35,000
Includes:
Two tables at front of room (Value £9,000)
5 minute talking slot to European wealth advisers and managers from more than eleven countries
Branding at the event on screens and stand
Advert in Citywealth newsletter for 6 months (£10k value)
Sponsorship of leaders list booklet with Inside front cover and outside back cover advertising on published material (programme and leaders list booklet approx 30 page size)
Brochures on seats/goody bags or gifts on tables
Give major award to winner on stage like global philanthropist of year or accountant of year. First choice given to overall sponsor. (Value £10k)
Photography
Logo’s given to leaders list individuals with sponsor logo embedded (subject to winners agreement)
Further Monaco opportunities – please ask for information – all prices plus VAT if applicable
Drinks reception - £15,000 includes a table/branding
Individual award sponsorship of any category like “family office of the year” and table for £13,000
Table ‘sponsor’ inviting leaders list guests (subject to editorial authorisation) £4,500
Individual ticket (subject to editorial authorisation) £450
Advertising in programme or leaders list £2,995 + vat per page
See our recent event on our video on our website www.citywealthmag.com
Citywealth sponsorship document
Opportunity 2
Overall London sponsorship – reaching UK intermediaries/global rich list individuals/global philanthropists
(Does not include drinks reception)
London 2009 overall sponsorship £75,000
Includes:
Three tables at front of room (£18k value)
5 minute talking slot to global wealth advisers and managers from more than fifteen countries
Branding at the event on screens and stand/run a corporate video
Advert in Citywealth newsletter for 6 months (£10k value)
Sponsorship of Leaders list booklet with inside front cover and outside back cover advertising on publishing material (£10k value)
Brochures on seats/goody bags or gifts on tables
Give three major awards prizes to winners (£30k value)
Photography
Logo’s given to leaders list individuals with sponsor logo embedded (subject to winners agreement)
Further London opportunities – please ask for information – all prices plus VAT if applicable
Drinks reception - £25,000 includes table worth £5,995
Table sponsor inviting leaders list guests (subject to editorial authorisation) £5,995
Ticket (subject to editorial authorisation) £595
Advertising in programme or leaders list £2,995 + vat per page
See our recent event on our video on our website www.citywealthmag.com
Combined Monaco/London event deal £100 k – built in savings of £46k
(Does not include drinks reception)
Opportunity 1 and 2 combined in this deal and extra BONUS offer:
Ten Alps film crew interview lead person/s at sponsor company for web distribution by Citywealth and on sponsors own website. London interview. 5 minute slot. (Value £20k)
Three mailings to our VIP attendee’s list via a third party mailing house. (Value £6k)
Six page interview with sponsor quote checked to appear in Citywealth and be distributed to circulation and be used for sponsor ongoing marketing with no further licensing fee. (Value £10k)
Rename Citywealth philanthropy awards the “SPONSOR NAME philanthropy awards”
Benefits of working with Citywealth
Align with an established global wealth publisher delivering renowned high quality events and attendees and luxury five star approach to events for guests. This means industry and private client individuals want to return year on year. Unlike newer publishers we present a known entity and can deliver what we say in terms of audience and have done so repeatedly. Less risk.
Personal service. The events and publications are run and managed by founder Karen Jones, who owns 100% of the company shares, in partnership with experienced event organiser Bacchus PR and Events, known for launching many ultra high net worth restaurant /club/fashion projects globally. The partnership offers confidence to the sponsor that a sophisticated event team is in place to ensure the events run professionally.
Citywealth keeps the table ticket price high to ensure guests value the event and think carefully about their invite list. Citywealth also monitors requests for tickets to its events with vigour, even refusing some ultra high net worth guests, to ensure every attendee is highly relevant and is an identified leader, a super rich client who can benefit the industry, founding philanthropist or a known referrer of ultra high net worth clients. This means you have a targeted audience and maximises your ability to reach the end client/harvest assets and share of wallet – NEVER MORE IMPORTANT THAN IN A DOWN TURN.
Established niche brand. Citywealth interviews rich list individuals and philanthropists regularly to help connect them with the wealth market. This often reveals client opportunities that are distributed into the industry. In the last year Citywealth has referred a billionaire to a family office; two company directors with £125million into a private client lawyer and a Parisian philanthropist into a consultant in Switzerland. These calls come directly into us by telephone from our website. Citywealth also runs introducer lunches to connect foreign individuals into the European market. This year clients have visited from Japan and India and been connected with prominent individuals in the UK. This means working with us is more than just spending money, we work hard to send client referrals or business opportunities back to you.
Citywealth sponsorship document
Three year deal £300k – built in savings of £30k
(Does not include drinks reception)
BONUS
Two introducer lunches for ten VIP guests to meet and discuss client referral and business opportunities with sponsor as Chair and the round table highlights (all quote checked) featured in Citywealth.
Three year deal additional benefits
Long term, considered approach saves money and time reviewing different events each year
Marketing becomes stronger as time passes and builds momentum creating more value for sponsor over the longer term.
Embedded relationships with lead intermediaries – means more assets have potential to drift to sponsor – your door is open and contacts known.
Reputation management – the event allows constant positive publicity in targeted places.
In a difficult economic market, spending out of the recession has known benefits – keeping staff morale high; client awareness high and promotes a positive, lead stance for others to follow.
For any information contact Karen Jones
kjones@j-p-c.tv
Tel: +44 (0) 207495 1697
Tel: 0771 8588 133
See our recent event on our video on our website www.citywealthmag.com
Testimonials
“Karen puts on a amazing events. Somehow managing to hit on just right mix of business and pleasure. A great time was had by all, but the contacts we made were probably even more important.”
Tim Badham, Concierge entrepreneur (Innerplace Concierge organizing restaurant and club access for billionaires/multi millionaires and VIP members)
"We have been supporters ever since the first event as they manage to attract a "who's who" of the private wealth industry . Unmissable , first class networking - "see and be seen". Very entertaining and friendly events to boot !”
Andrew Young , Head of International Private Capital , LG Legal LLP.(Dealing with Middle Eastern royalty and families)ste
Attendee organisations
Family offices, family office consultants, private banks, asset managers, fund managers, private client individuals, philanthropists, trustees, accountants, lawyers and private equity individuals. Here are table booker company names:
Close Summit Trust Company SA, Lenz & Staehelin, Sand Aire Limited, Macfarlanes, Equus Portfolio Management, Forsters LLP, Sarasin & Partners LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers, HSBC Private Bank (UK) Ltd, Merrill Lynch International Bank Ltd, EFG Private Bank Ltd, Baker & McKenzie LLP, Goldman Sachs International,
BNP Paribas Jersey Trust Corporation Ltd, Coutts & Co, Sanne Group, Deloitte,
CMS Cameron McKenna, Farrer & Co, LG, Key Trust Company Limited, Kingston Smith LLP, Wilson & Co., Charles Douglas Solicitors, Katten Muchin Roseman Cornish LLP,
Katten Muchin Roseman LLP, Baer & Karrer LLP, Mourant, Incisive Media, RBC Trust Company, Boodle Hatfield, Burges Salmon, RBC Wealth Management, Butterfield International Private Office, Butterfield Trust (Guernsey), Butterfield Trust (Switzerland), Withers, Northern Trust, Berwin Leighton Paisner, Allen & Overy, Carey Olsen, Barclays Wealth, Ernst & Young, Stevens & Bolton, Speechly Bircham
SG Hambros Bank Limited, Payne Hicks Beach, Sand Aire Limited, Nevastar Finance Ltd., Håkan Hillerström Family Business Advisory Services, Stanhope Capital, Secretan Troyanov, Avocats, Herbert Smith LLP, GAM, HW Fisher & Company, Stenham Advisors Plc, Belluzzo & Associati, Deloitte Private Client Services, Deloitte Private Client Services, Saffery Champness, Kroll, Maitland, J O Hambro Investment Management, Fleming Family & Partners, Gladstone Corporation, Cantor & Webb P.A., Taylor Young Investment Management, KPMG, Brooks Macdonald Financial Consulting, Bircham Dyson Bell,Project Associates, Appleby Group, Virtus Trust, Lord North Street, Evans Randall Peace and Sport, Hand in Hand International, Financial News, Tru-Est Ltd, Ten Alps, Dixon Wilson, Cheviot Asset Management.
namaste
Saturday 16 February 2008
Lives or the rich and famous: Candace Johnson
Candace Johnson is a telecommunications expert & media entrepreneur, dubbed the “Satellady” by the Economist in 1996 and based in Luxembourg and Sophia Antipolis, France “the Silicon Valley of Europe.” At fifty five she’s amassed achievements which have resulted in more than $15 billion in total business ventures valued and $10 million being raised for charity.
She was introduced to telecoms at five when she received a toy Sputnik. Sputnik
was the first satellite into space in 1957, launched by the Soviet Union, it beat the US in the space race. The size of a beach ball it orbited the earth in 98 minutes and created so much furore with its surprise arrival that it spearheaded substantial funding for satellites in the US. 2007 was the celebration of the fiftieth year of Sputnik.
Candace, who strongly believes in people relationships as the key to success, says she learned everything she knows about telecoms from great people. “My Dad, General “Johnny” Johnson was the first Director of Telecoms and Communications policy in the US Government. “ ‘PX’ Page” founder of Northrop Page, was my “best friend” , when I was eight and he was 60. He owned a large HAM radio station. We used to call around the world, even in 1960 and regularly called Peru, Germany, even Taiwan.” She says her father was a visionary and when she was ten, he was working for President Kennedy at the White House starting the United States telecommunications policies. Back then he said: “One day we will have satellites which will allow education, communication and wars through them but they will also bring peace on earth.” Although he was from a poor background “a child of the depression” and her mother, the daughter of Romanian immigrants, Candace says all of the four children in the family were brought up on the “power of positive thinking”. “My mother and father lived the American Dream and gave us the freedom to believe that if we worked hard and well we would succeed.”
Despite her career in the science and technology sector, Candace left university with her education on the opposite side of the spectrum: five diplomas in music, of which two were performing degrees in voice and music; one from France and one from the US. It was here that her entrepreneurial spirit emerged. “I went to high school in Hawaii – actually the same one from which Steve Case and Barack Obama graduated.”
“I decided classical music was going to save the world and so launched some classical Concerts,” she says laughing at her earnest enthusiasm. The funding advice I received at the time was: “You need a prototype; a first client on board and to have got everything ready yourself.” So she put the idea down on paper and went to someone who could help her realize her vision. “I still follow those rules.” She stresses. “It’s important to go to exactly the right person for new projects.”
She went to local merchants and asked them to support her idea of a free musical concert to drive audiences into the area and they were keen. She chose a building for the event, which she needed permission to use and luck was on her side. “It turned out to be owned by Mobile Oil who were suffering a publicity rough patch with the oil crisis, so they sponsored the concerts, did a big ad’ campaign and put me into the black right away. “The project banked around USD 1million.”
Which indirectly led to her career in the satellite business. A radio station who’d been featuring the summer concerts asked her to fill a temporary role in the winter as acting Assistant Music Director. In 1976, she joined and soon suggested new ventures, which included classical music in the football world. “First lesson to would-be entrepreneurs – if you get a chance, even if it is ‘temporary’, use it and make the most of it.” The radio station took up her ideas and started making some serious money. “It was a private radio station belonged to RKO. As my first idea went well, I said we should put these programmes across the country on satellite. “It ended up being the first nation wide programme on satellite and it was before Ted Turner, the philanthropist who pledged £1bn to the UN and founded CNN, who was credited with starting satellite super stations. In fact, we were two years ahead. Candace soon got into syndication of TV and radio via satellite, before moving to a syndication company. “When I joined they were “ bicycling” their programmes by Fedex so I introduced the idea of satellite distribution .”
It was also then at twenty eight, that she met and married her now husband who was US ambassador to Luxembourg which meant she had to be security ‘approved’. “He’s also a musician and I’m a classical singer.” Says Candace before adding an aside. “I love songs: poetry and music creating a world in three minutes and communicating that world intact to others.”
She loved Luxembourg and immediately suggested they set up a satellite.“Someone once
said, if you know one thing very well, you will be able to know everything.” Which explains her understandable satellite obsession. “Satellites are mirrors and create immediate infrastructure, which means you really can do so many things with them. It’s the same in telecoms and energy now. Understanding of large infrastructures is proving very helpful.” Candace’s “satellite” venture became SES ASTRA and SES Global, the world’s largest satellite system.
The rest of the article is available with a subscription to www.citywealthmag.com
Contact Karen Jones AT j-p-c.tv
Simon Rae: Asian private wealth and philanthropy
Simon Rae, considered one of the elite handful of lawyers dealing with Chinese private wealth in Hong Kong, was recently recommended for the Citywealth Asian leaders list. He updates us on his view of the astronomical wealth being created in the region and his view of philanthropy from Asia.
“Philanthropy is a growing area with bequests being made mainly because of the economic development of the region and taxation is quite generous to those at the top, which has created a large wealth gap in Hong Kong. It means an elite number of individuals have accumulated vast amounts of wealth, measured in several billions of US dollars. In Hong Kong, we have some of the wealthiest families in the world: you just have to look at Forbes rich list to see that about a quarter of them are now Asian.” Despite this growth, Simon says there are lots of fund managers locally generating the wealth but not many who plan for its succession for future generations.
“Philanthropy has been part of the Asian philosophy and, in the past five years or so, there has been more publicity attaching to the growing number of charitable donations. This will be continued by future generations of the wealthiest families”. He explains: “There are substantial donations being given to educational institutions: for example Li Ka-shing to the Hong Kong University. Most of the leading entrepreneurs have large charitable institutions. Previously when individuals have been philanthropic in the region, they haven’t been so publicly and this is beginning slowly to change mainly because of the size and nature of the bequests; but there are a number of people who, because of favourable conditions, have garnered fortunes and feel that something should be put back into the community.” Of the amounts of wealth in the region, he says it isn’t unusual for locals to have amassed fortunes of $20billion.
The rest of this article is available on subscription with www.citywealthmag.com
Citywealth Asian private wealth managers and advisers list coming soon.
Lives of the rich and famous: Valerie Austin and James Pool
Valerie Austin, world renowned hypnotherapist; author of best selling books “Self Hypnosis” published by Thorsons; the original “Stop Smoking in One Hour” and inventor of the ‘Austin Technique’, which is used as an authoritative hypnotherapy method, has had a rollercoaster life, mirroring her British seaside upbringing. She was born in Blackpool, which she describes as similar to Vegas in its day and reveals easily that she is a self confessed “Lancashire lass.” Lunching at her swanky yacht club in St Katherines Dock, her Blackpool accent though, is hardly noticeable, which confirms that she has come a long way since then.
Her parents, who were comfortably off, ran a prosperous hotel called the Beaula Hotel which was visited by the formidable, recently assassinated Benazir Bhutto, known as “Pinky,” and her family. Bhutto’s relatives later bought the hotel when Valerie’s parents decided to sell up, to use as a safe house during tumultuous political times in Pakistan in the seventies. “Back then, Blackpool used to attract lots of interesting and glamorous people, like Bhutto.” Remembers Valerie. “It had it’s own crowd of ‘beautiful people.” I ask if she was one of them when she confesses to having had an hour glass figure, which is still evident. “It included pop stars.” Continues Valerie, smiling unabashed in answer. “Like the Beatles with screaming fans following them everywhere. It was a great time and I loved the party scene.”
At eighteen she left college, married and had a baby soon afterward, but life didn’t turn into the fairytale she expected. Her husband developed an addiction to alcohol and gambling which eventually led to the breakdown of their marriage and divorce at twenty five. To support herself and her son, Valerie fell into a job selling advertising space on a commission only basis and surprised herself by quickly becoming top sales person; breaking all their records during her seven years there. As a further bonus, sometime later, she was able to leverage the sales experience and now uses hypnosis with corporate sales teams and senior management for improved productivity and stress management. Valerie explains. “One company commissioned me to get their telephone sales people on the phone more. They identified that the more calls sales people made, the more sales they got, so I used hypnosis to change attitudes and increase their desire to make calls.” Her client, who one assumes was pleased, said: “Calls went through the roof.”
Valerie now works with many celebrities and stars and offers corporate courses on hypnotherapy. She lectures and holds workshops for companies on stress and increasing productivity in business. She has also put together an exclusive DIY pack, in time for your new years resolutions, to stop smoking. It can be downloaded from the internet.
www.stopsmokinghandbook. www.valerieaustin.com www.flamantrose.com/
The full article on Valerie Austin is available with a subscription to www.citywealthmag.com
Contact Karen Jones kjones AT j-p-c.tv
Lucille Knapp, Northern Trust
Lucille Knapp who is one of the Wealth Management EMEA management team at Northern Trust is also part of the world-wide group whose clients include twenty two percent of Forbes 400 families, who are, the richest people on the planet. Northern Trust also has US$761.4 billion under investment management and US$4.1trillion under custody, making them one of the world’s most formidable private wealth asset managers, fiduciaries, bankers and custodians. With clients now resident in wealth hot spots like Monaco, Lucille who studied her management MBA at INSEAD, spends her time jetting to see them.
Starting her career in the oil industry at SHELL, Lucille worked in IT, Public Affairs and Commercial Fuels marketing for seven years before eventually heading into asset administration and private wealth. “It was a fascinating area.” She says. “And I could easily have stayed longer, but, I’d always promised myself an MBA.” She departed for INSEAD to ‘push herself’ and says she is glad she did. “I met diverse people like vets and brain surgeons; got to grips with economics and spent a lot of time out of my comfort zone.” She raises her eyebrows gently and smiles at me to highlight the point.
After this life changing, educational experience, she spent time as a marketing consultant, working for publishing houses on various projects, one of which included setting up a charity for an institute of art and design: ‘to give something back.’
Of her client work, Lucille, who exudes wisdom and kindness, says she’s seen a strong trend for wealthy families wanting to set up a “family office” type framework and move away from large investment management organisations. “Families are interested in security for their assets with strong administration and economies of scale. They are concerned about good governance; tailored and appropriate investment selection and performance and philanthropic works through foundations.” She explains. Lucille points out, almost absent mindedly, that most MFO’s are regulated by financial bodies but that Single Family Offices aren’t, before adding. “I’m not sure this family office trend is a good one.”
Later she joined Northern Trust, who had a hundred and fifty people in Europe when she joined but now boast more than two thousand, five hundred staff. Lucille spends her days running the business development and promotion division, which is something she says she loves despite some family clients being notoriously demanding. “I like the contact with the families.” She reaffirms.
Elaborating on the issues that arise in her role, she says many of her clients are interested in “soft issues” and this is something she and the team discuss with them at the annual Northern Trust Family Financial Forum. “We spend a lot of time before our conference working out what they want to know.” Lucille says. “The biggest topic is stewardship of families, such as how to manage a thirty five branch family or deciding when to tell their kids that they are rich. “I’m seeing regular use of psychologists with families keen to mend personal and family relationships.” Says Lucille. Clients generally just like to talk at these events so Lucille and colleagues share the experiences they’ve accrued over the years to give direction and guidance. Other hot topics for their ultra high net worth families on the investment side are: the state of the economy and diversifying out of risky investments and private equity positions; reducing exposure to emerging markets and non US individuals limiting their exposure to the USA.
The rest of this article is available on subscription through www.citywealthmag.com
Contact Karen Jones kjones AT j-p-c.tv
India’s wealth “is just a drop in the ocean: much more to come.” Say family office, Client Associates.
Himanshu Kohli of ‘Team CA’ or Client Associates based in four locations in India, is one of the founders of a family office launched in May, 2002. Their offices are in Gurgaon, New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The partners in the business, Arjun Gupta and Rohit Sarin, along with Himanshu, spent many years in corporate finance, investment banking and private banking before setting up Client Associates. Himanshu, who also worked at Merrill Lynch in Delhi, echoes a global view. “We started the company to step away from the sales pressures that are ever present in banks. It enables us to have better relationships with larger clients.” He says. The concept has worked out well with frequent accolades and partnerships including a recent award for Best financial advisor of the year from CNBC TV18 where more than two thousand applicants were reviewed.
Himanshu says that historically in India, a few business families held most of the wealth, but this has changed with India changing. “Corporates and professionals like bankers, lawyers, doctors, accountants and entrepreneurs have a lot of private money now.” He explains. “It’s means lifestyles have improved across the board and clients come to us worried that they can’t sustain their spending through their lifetime. This mood has launched many financial product ideas, which is where the need for wealth planning services like ours comes in.” Another trend he’s seen, is in individuals realising they can’t manage their money as well as they thought and so they seek help.
Reports suggest that there are a hundred thousand people in India with more than a $million to invest, but the twenty four people at Client Associates focus on those with more than $5million. “Although we do work with some families with a $million to invest.”
He believes the public estimates of wealth in India are very conservative. “We find lots of individuals and families with around $5million to invest and work with three hundred families ourselves with an average asset base of $4.5million and one of our clients has a company stake worth more than $1billion.” He suspects there is still lots of ‘unlogged’ wealth, then cites a real estate example to support the belief that there is far more wealth locally. “In the Cities we operate from, decent residential accommodation is selling at $2-3million a piece, which makes it impossible if you have only $1million to invest. He identifies lawyers and sports people as particular sweet spots of wealth. “We have many international companies coming into India and the fees that lawyers can charge for instance are high.” Himanshu confirms there are, as many in the private wealth industry have identified, financial education gaps in the Asian region and a general lack of awareness about wealth management. “Things are changing but we have to present the ideas to clients, they usually haven’t heard about it.”
There, are certain challenges even for a local company. “It’s a closed society and many clients don’t want to open up immediately.” He says it can even take up to four years to get clients to open up; and to get to know the family is an even longer process. They are very conservative and you need a lot of perseverance.”
The rest of the article is available on subscription through www.citywealthmag.com
Contact kjones AT j-p-c.tv
Key Group launch “Inheritors of Wealth” course
Key Group, the Jersey based company, chaired by Brian Clarke, announced the launch, this week, of their Inheritors of Wealth course. The course will enrol young adults and people who come into money later in life to enable them to course learn financial and life skills. As Brian says “Its purpose is to equip them to avoid the problems of catching a wealth cold or “affluenza”.
The first two Inheritors of Wealth™ programmes will take place in mid April at a luxury hotel outside London. In a move that is likely to interest the wealth sector, Key-Trust are safeguarding delegates’ security and privacy, having the hotel closed to the general public and its name and location will not be revealed, even to delegates, until they have both registered and paid the course fee.
Brian Clarke, whose company Key Wealth Forums is organising the course, says: “When people come into substantial money, as well as the obvious benefits, they also become vulnerable to risks, often through a sense of unworthiness. These can include manipulative so-called friends and acquaintances, would-be spouses with unloving intentions, opportunistic business promoters – all in addition to understanding the complexities of their financial affairs. “Inheritors of Wealth™ is an essential step towards becoming comfortable with wealth ownership. It will help to ensure that the wealth belongs to the individual rather than he or she belonging to it.”
The Inheritors of Wealth™ programme is the result of co-operation-in-action between Key Trust, a specialist family office business and top-20 accountancy firm Kingston Smith. All course tutors are experienced and successful professional advisors to wealthy families and business owners. They include: Brian Clarke, managing director of Jersey-based Key Trust Company, where he looks after the financial management and planning needs of wealthy private families; Partners from Kingston Smith LLP, one of the UK’s top 20 accountancy firms whose private client team brings together expert knowledge with practical experience when advising wealthy business owners.
Contact Brian Clarke
T: +44 1534 630500
www.key-trust.com
Saturday 9 February 2008
Barclays Wealth offers podcasts
Barclays Wealth has launched a number of podcasts designed to guide international investors through financial matters and enable them to make informed decisions. The podcasts are specifically aimed at people living and working in a foreign country and aim to help them make the often daunting financial decisions they are faced with when moving to a new country.
The podcasts, which can be accessed via www.barclays.com/internationalpersonal/podcasts, will focus on a number of areas facing international investors. The podcasts comprise:
A guide for international professionals living in the UK with tips on how they can make the most of their wealth while working away from home
An outline of the options that are available to international investors looking to buy a UK home or investment property
A guide aimed at enabling them to protect and maximise their wealth in a foreign country
A guide to structured products, designed to simplify the concept of these investments and describe their benefits, such as capital protection
Peter Horrell, Barclays Wealth, comments, “We are delighted to have launched the Barclays Wealth podcasts. Moving to a new country can be daunting and with the immediate pressures of relocating and working in a different environment, financial matters are often an added pressure. By talking to our clients it has become apparent that they do not have time to read through reams of information and scour the Internet in order to decide on the issues facing them, from purchasing a home to investing wisely. By launching the Barclays Wealth podcasts we aim to provide clear and consistent information to international investors to enable them to make informed decisions.”
About Barclays Wealth
Barclays Wealth is the UK's leading wealth manager and at 30 June 2007 had £126.8bn client assets globally. It serves affluent, high net worth and intermediary clients worldwide, providing international and private banking, fiduciary services, investment management and brokerage. Thomas L. Kalaris is the Chief Executive of Barclays Wealth and he joined the business at the start of 2006.
Barclays Wealth is part of the Barclays Group, a major global financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services with an extensive international presence in Europe, the USA, Africa and Asia. It is one of the largest financial services companies in the world by market capitalisation. With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs over 127,000 people. Barclays moves, lends, invests and protects money for over 27 million customers and clients worldwide.
For further information about Barclays, please visit their website file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Caroline.Wells/Local%20Settings/Temporary%20Internet%20Files/OLKF1/www.barclays.com.
Artist Pension Trust® Launches Trust for Middle East
The Artist Pension Trust® (APT), a global financial services firm dedicated to artists, have launched APT Dubai. APT Dubai is a Trust allowing emerging and mid-career artists that either work and live in the Middle East and its surrounding region including North Africa and Turkey or are of Middle Eastern descent access to APT’s financial planning program.
The program, which is globally patented, is centered on the long-terminvestment of the participating artists’ works. APT is unique as it allows participating artists to invest into their own commercial future as well as that of other selected artists, with their very own artworks.
To date more than 700 select artists have joined. With more than 1200 artworks in storage and committed, APT represents the world’s largest and fastest growing art collection of emerging to mid-career artists. November Paynter, Director of APT Dubai, comments: “This region is rich in unique artistic talent but many of these artists find it difficult toconnect to other global art centers. This trust is positioned to build the most important collection of art from the Middle East and its surroundingregion in the world. In the next five to ten years collecting institutions will be looking for important works from the past decade and we will beable to provide the most comprehensive resource by the contemporary scene.”
Vasif Kortun, APT Dubai Curatorial Committee member, adds: "In a region where there are few collecting institutions, or galleries committed toforging long term relationships with artists, APT Dubai will provide aninvaluable form of support for many outstanding artists, both in terms ofcreating a structure and in proposing a new form of economy dedicated tosupporting artists." Bijan Khezri, CEO and President of APT Holding notes: "The Middle East isemerging as one of the most promising new forces in contemporary art. Whilst Dubai is non-existent in terms of an internationally recognized native art scene, we strongly believe that Dubai is very likely to emerge as the center for Middle Eastern contemporary art. Dubai is more than a gateway to the region.
Dubai is uniquely positioned to emerge as the world’s meeting point of contemporary art from East and West."Since its inception in 2003, APT has built one of the biggest and fastest growing global collections of contemporary art. Selecting tomorrow’simportant and long-term relevant artists and their respective artworks isthe foundation of Artist Pension Trust®. APT artists continue to benominated and win the contemporary art world’s most prestigious awards. Our artists are constantly selected for the world’s leading survey exhibitions and biennials. Therefore, APT provides a unique platform for select Middle Eastern artists to engage with the international art community.
http://www.aptglobal.org/default.asp
Northern Trust
Lucille Knapp who is part of the Wealth Management EMEA management team at Northern Trust is part of the world-wide group whose clients include 22% of Forbes 400 families who are the richest people on the planet. Northern Trust also has US$761.4 billion under investment management and US$4.1trillion under custody, making them one of the world’s most formidable private wealth asset managers, fiduciaries, bankers and custodians. With clients now resident in wealth hot spots like Monaco, Lucille who studied her management MBA at INSEAD, spends her time jetting to see them.
Starting her career in the oil industry at SHELL, Lucille worked in IT, Public Affairs and Commercial Fuels marketing for seven years before eventually heading into asset administration and private wealth. “It was a fascinating area.” She says. “And I could easily have stayed longer, but, I’d always promised myself an MBA.” She departed for INSEAD “to push herself” and says she is glad she did. “I met diverse people like vets and brain surgeons; got to grips with economics and spent a lot of time out of my comfort zone.” She raises her eyebrows gently and smiles to highlight the point. After this life changing, educational experience she spent time as a marketing consultant working for publishing houses on various projects, one of which included setting up a charity for an institute of art and design: “to give something back.”
Lucille, who exudes wisdom and kindness, says she’s spotted a strong trend for wealthy families wanting to set up a “family office” type framework and move away from large investment management organisations.
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www.citywealthmag.com
Visit http://www.northerntrust.com.
Stenham Property Raises Around € 50 million for its Berlin Residential
Stenham Property recently launched the Stenham Berlin Residential Fund whose focus is to acquire, refurbish and manage residential buildings in central Berlin. The fund closed with almost € 50 million of capital from investors and is likely to purchase in excess of € 175 million worth of property.
Stenham, who are a renowned, top five family office in the UK, has been investing in the German property market since 2005. Through its own German team and a range of successful joint venture relationships, it holds over € 1.6bn of property investments in Germany.
Sascha Lewin, Head of European Property at Stenham, said: ‘We started investing in Germany over 3 years ago to take advantage of the positive macro economic outlook. Today Germany is proving to be a resilient, strong and growing economy. Over the past 12 months or so, the cost of borrowing has been rising and the sub-prime fall-out in the US has put a severe squeeze on global credit markets. These factors have had a sobering effect on investors and have flushed out poorly capitalised market participants’.
He added: ‘Further market increases and falling initial yields are therefore unlikely to continue in the medium-term. Consequently, the Stenham Berlin Residential Fund is targeting growth through effective asset management and value-add investment opportunities, which is where Stenham’s expertise lies. This is the reason why our fund is closed-ended with no right of redemption over the 7-year life of the fund.’
The Fund is listed on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange.
http://www.stenham.com/
