Wilson Clarke treats governance as part of the work of running an arrangement of any depth.
As assets, entities, advisers and obligations multiply, the quality of decisions starts to depend on the framework around them more than on the substance of any one matter.
Governance Is the Question of Where a Decision Belongs and On What Basis it is Taken
The harder that question becomes to answer cleanly, the more weight it carries.
Once an arrangement has reached a certain scale, governance is part of the work of running it. It is held alongside the investment side as a piece of the same engagement.
Inside Many Families, Decision-Making Develops Through Habit
That habit can hold for a long time. It tends to come under pressure once the structures around the family expand and more people are involved in shaping each matter as it moves.
The aim of our advisory work is to put a workable shape around that process. The questions it returns to are practical ones, set out below.
This may include:
• Who has authority over which matter
• How an instruction becomes an action
• Where the weight of a decision is recorded
• How a decision is revisited when the position has moved on
Once assets are held through several entities and providers, no view of the position from one place is complete on its own. The risk is that decisions are taken on a partial view long before the consequences are visible in the performance of the underlying capital.
Good reporting puts the right material in front of the people responsible for a matter at the moment a decision is taken. The form of the report must be settled, so the same matter is not read differently each time it comes round.
• Whether reporting is timely enough to support the matter at hand
• Whether authority sits with the people best placed to take it
• Whether responsibilities are properly understood once a decision has been made
The answers shift as the family’s position moves. Governance is treated as a piece of work that runs through the relationship and is revisited as circumstances ask for it.
The Framework Itself Is Part of What the Office Is Paid to Hold
Governance shapes the way a family works with the lawyers, trustees, tax advisers and managers around it. External expertise is essential at any depth of wealth. We find it is most useful when the boundaries of responsibility are settled and the sequence of work is understood from the outset.
Wilson Clarke draws on a small number of specialists in each centre; chosen for the depth of their practice and the way they hold a relationship over time.
