Silk & Vines
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Representative Work

Representative Work

The vignettes below are drawn from real Silk & Vines mandates. Identifying details have been altered for client privacy. What is preserved is the outline of the engagement and the role the office played.

The Situation

A founding family whose principal asset had been the operating company for three decades had recently sold to a strategic acquirer. The proceeds arrived in a single account with a relationship bank that had served the family throughout. Prior to the sale, investment activity outside the company had been limited and the family had no standing arrangement for running an investment programme at the scale the proceeds now required.

What The Engagement Covered

During the initial period, an investment policy was agreed with the family and set down in writing. Managers were then selected across the required disciplines, and the existing bank relationships were rationalised and put on a working footing over the following months. From the first quarter, consolidated reporting gave the principal the full position in a single document.

The Partner's Role

Direct counterpart to the founder from the first conversation and through the transition into ongoing management.

The Situation

A family in its second generation, with wealth held across an operating business alongside a substantial investment portfolio and personal property in more than one country of residence. The family had accumulated a working roster of professional advisers over many years, each doing capable work in their own domain but with no single senior counterpart holding the whole together at the family's level.

What The Engagement Covered

The partner met each of the family's existing advisers over the opening months and, from that point, took over instruction on the family's behalf. Reporting was consolidated across the banks and managers the family used. An annual review cycle was put in place, giving the principal one document each year that read across every part of the estate.

The Partner's Role

Standing counterpart to the head of the family, with a parallel relationship building with a second-generation family member as their involvement in the estate widened.

The Situation

A first-generation principal, now stepping back from active involvement in the family's affairs, wished to bring two adult children into working roles across the investment portfolio and the wider estate. The family's operating businesses remained separately managed; the coordination question was for everything else. Existing decision-making had been informal, held between the principal and two long-standing advisers.

What The Engagement Covered

A working framework for family decision-making was set out with the principal and reviewed with the two children. Regular family meetings were put on a rhythm, with agendas and papers prepared by the office in advance. As responsibilities passed to the next generation, the partner remained the constant counterpart and the reporting and coordination arrangements held steady through the transition.

The Partner's Role

Counterpart to the principal throughout, with the working relationship extending naturally to each of the two children as their responsibilities took form.

The Situation

A principal with an active interest in private capital held a portfolio of direct positions taken on over several years, alongside a diversified investment portfolio managed by external firms. The direct positions had been sourced through the principal's own network and were held in a range of vehicles. There was no single administrative arrangement holding them together and reporting on the direct book was prepared separately from reporting on the managed portfolio.

What The Engagement Covered

The direct positions were brought under a common administrative arrangement, with terms of engagement agreed for each holding. Ongoing monitoring of the direct book was added on a quarterly rhythm between the partner and the principal and reporting was reworked so the direct positions appeared alongside the managed portfolio on one basis.

The Partner's Role

Working counterpart to the principal on both the direct programme and the managed portfolio, with a single team behind the partner covering both sides of the estate.

The Situation

A family whose interests had grown through acquisitions and reorganisations over two decades held their wealth through a network of holding entities established at different times, with different fiduciary counsel, for reasons that were no longer all current. A new commercial arrangement was in prospect that would benefit from a simpler ownership arrangement.

What The Engagement Covered

Working alongside the family's fiduciary counsel, the ownership network was mapped in full and reviewed against the family's current arrangements. A simplification plan was agreed with the principal, sequenced so that the working operating arrangements were not disrupted. The office coordinated the execution over the following period, with the family kept close to the substance without having to hold the operational detail.

The Partner's Role

Standing counterpart to the principal across the review and the execution that followed, with the office holding the working relationship with each of the fiduciary firms involved.

Every Silk & Vines mandate is different. What is consistent is the coordinating role held by a single partner and the working relationship the office maintains with the family's existing advisers.

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