Family investment companies

Our expert team can help you set up a family investment company, enabling you to pass significant wealth to the next generation, while retaining control and protecting your assets.

A family investment company is a corporate structure designed to operate in a similar way to a discretionary trust. Advantages include:

  • No upfront inheritance tax charges
  • Tax efficient accumulation of profits
  • Total control over investment decisions
  • Preserving wealth for future generations

The governing documents are bespoke and include provisions covering the distribution of profits, the return of capital, appointments to the board of directors and share transfer provisions.

One of our highly experienced estate planning specialists will work closely with you to understand your objectives and advise on whether this options will best meet your family's needs. 

Our lawyers

We offer unrivalled experience. Our lawyers have established many family investment companies and our clients have invested more the £150million in them.

Our experience

We have in-depth and specialist experience in setting up family investment companies. A few examples of our work include:

  • Setting up our first family investment company in 2009. It now has a wide range of assets including property interests, unquoted trading company shares and a portfolio of equity investments. Total assets today exceed over £50million.
  • Advising a family on transferring a valuable collection of classic cars into a family investment company structure. We enabled ownership to be distributed among the next generation, while allowing our client to retain complete control over the collection.
  • Assisting one of our family investment companies to acquire valuable trading company shares from a family trust for an issue of new shares without incurring any capital gains tax. Dividends from the trading company are now being accumulated tax-free within the family investment company.
  • Providing the perfect vehicle, through a family investment company, for a non-UK resident to transfer an investment property before returning to the UK, tax efficiently. 
  • Assisting a sperm donor who wished to provide for the children he helped create pass on wealth in a controlled way through a family investment company.

Our clients

We act for a wide range of clients across a range of key sectors. Our clients include wealthy families and individuals, business people and landowners both in the UK and overseas. 

Family investment companies - Mills & Reeve

Further reading

Mills & Reeve Sites navigation
A tabbed collection of Mills & Reeve sites.
Sites
My Mills & Reeve navigation
Subscribe to, or manage your My Mills & Reeve account.
My M&R

Visitors

Register for My M&R to stay up-to-date with legal news and events, create brochures and bookmark pages.

Existing clients

Log in to your client extranet for free matter information, know-how and documents.

Staff

Mills & Reeve system for employees.