Since the publication of the last edition in 2018, the world has experienced significant change. COVID-19, war, economic downturn and a more urgent focus on climate change are just some of the key events that have led to increased geopolitical risk.

This third edition, co-published with STEP, looks at developments within the approach to family business advising since 2018, taking account of the current geopolitical backdrop and the shift in attitude in a growing number of clients towards succession, philanthropy and investments.

However, for those new to the field there remains ongoing guidance on:

• how to understand the unique nature of family businesses;
• typical family dynamics that impact succession;
• the power of governance in supporting good ownership and management;
• the typical stages of the family business and the key risks that will invariably arise; and
• the different legal and non-legal approaches to tackling such problems.

Featuring contributions from leading practitioners in the field (including the Family Firm Institute, Cambridge Family Enterprise Group, KPMG, Rawlinson & Hunter, JTC Private Office, Boodle Hatfield, Forsters, Farrer & Co, Wedlake Bell, Schillings, HSBC Global Private Banking, Stonehage Fleming and Rothschild & Co), this comprehensive handbook makes essential reading for all practitioners who advise business families, including lawyers, accountants, financial advisers and wider family business advisers.
https://www.globelawandbusiness.com/books/business-families-and-family-businesses-the-step-handbook-for-advisers-third-edition

Guy Abrahams
Partner, Forsters LLP
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/guy-abrahams-00a089223/

Guy Abrahams is a solicitor practising in the United Kingdom. He advises individuals and families on how to structure the ownership of their assets and businesses to mitigate capital taxes and to ensure orderly succession from one generation to the next. That often involves orchestrating a formal governance process, culminating in changes to the existing ownership structure and constitutional documents of a family’s business, whether it be an international trading empire or a landed estate.

Patricia M Annino
Partner, Rimon Law
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciaannino/

Patricia M Annino is a partner at the Boston office of global law firm Rimon. She has been voted by her peers as one of the ‘best lawyers in America’ (trust and estates), a ‘super lawyer’, a top 50 Massachusetts female lawyer, Boston Estate Planning Council’s ‘estate planner of the year’ and the initial recipient of EuroMoney/Legal Media’s Best in Wealth Management – USA award. She is a former member of the Family Firm Institute (FFI) board of directors and a founding member of the FFI 2086 Society. She is a frequent presenter at FFI conferences, contributor to the FFI Practitioner and recipient of FFI’s Richard Beckhard Award.
Patricia is a graduate of Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, Smith College (AB), Suffolk University School of Law (JD) and Boston University School of Law (LLM in taxation). She is a fellow of the American College of Trust and
Estates Council and a fellow of FFI.

Yannick Archambault
Partner, national leader – family office, KPMG Canada
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yannickarchambault/

Yannick Archambault leads KPMG’s family office practice in Canada. He and his team collaborate with KPMG’s tax, law, audit and advisory professionals across Canada and globally. They deliver independent, objective and multidisciplinary advice and services to business owners, enterprising families, ultra-high-networth individuals (UHNWIs) and established family offices.
Yannick brings over 30 years’ experience supporting and establishing trusted relationships with UHNWIs and their families. He has held numerous leadership roles within the financial services and private wealth sectors, which includes building single-family offices and multi-family offices, as well as leading as chief operating officer and head of the private wealth and investment management businesses at two of Canada’s largest banks, servicing clients in Canada, the United States and Asia. Yannick holds an MBA, and Chartered Financial Analyst and Family Enterprise Advisor designations. He is also a member of the Family Office Exchange MFO Council, UHNW Institute Leaders Council and Purposeful Planning Institute.

Nic Arnold
UK head, JTC Private Office
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nic-arnold-b5686915/

Nic Arnold heads up JTC Group’s Private Office based in London. Her team is responsible for supporting a number of families with their international lives, across a range of independent consulting, project management and administrative services.
Nic specialises in family governance consulting, advising high-net-worth clients on the strategic direction of family wealth, operational integrity of their family offices and succession planning for the next generation. In addition, Nic works closely with her wider network to support clients with long-term asset protection and management tools such as trusts and family investment companies. Nic has significant experience advising clients on luxury assets such as superyachts, private jets and art portfolios, and ensures that they are appropriately guided on ownership and operational matters with these sensitive and complex assets.
Nic is a chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser. Her 25-year career has spanned Anderson, Deloitte and PwC, where she focused on international private clients and headed up the firm’s Luxury Asset practice. She is a regular international speaker on the topic of bringing order and resilience to client’s lives and has received a number of awards in the private client field.

Hayden Bailey
Partner and head of private client and tax, Boodle Hatfield LLP
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayden-bailey-b8112b10/

Hayden Bailey is the head of private client and tax at leading London law firm, Boodle Hatfield. He has extensive experience in advising family business owners, entrepreneurs and city executives on their wealth and succession planning and UK capital taxation strategy. He also has expertise in advising these clients on partnerships, shareholder issues and corporate governance.
Hayden’s notable projects include advising family-run property investment businesses on their family and corporate governance; acting as the long-term strategic adviser for large landed estates on their complex succession planning and structuring of business assets; advising majority shareholders in advance of a company’s initial public offering; and safeguarding tax reliefs through transfers into appropriate family trust structures.
Hayden’s expertise is widely recognised by the leading legal directories and he is regularly asked to contribute to industry and national press. In 2024 he was announced as one of eprivateclient’s 50 most influential – a listing identifying the leading practitioners of the private client professions.

Emma Beeston
Philanthropy adviser
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmabeeston/

Emma Beeston is an independent philanthropy adviser based in the United Kingdom. She supports families to identify their giving intentions and guides them on how best to contribute their resources in ways that respect those working for social and environmental change. She has over 30 years’ experience of the non-profit sector and is an experienced grantmaker and co-founder of a giving circle.
Emma is a member of the P150 philanthropy adviser network, the National Network of Consultants to Grantmakers and a 21/64 certified adviser trained in facilitating multi-generational giving. She co-authored (with Professor Beth Breeze) the first book about philanthropy advising, Advising Philanthropists: Principles and Practice (Directory of Social Change, 2023) and teaches on master’s programmes at the University of Kent and Bayes Business School. Emma delivers training in philanthropy advising for family offices and financial services professionals.

Victoria Blackburn
Director, JTC Private Office
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-blackburn-55226611b/

Victoria Blackburn is a director in the multijurisdictional Private Office team at JTC Group. She has worked with UHNWIs and both large and small family offices for two decades while based in the United Kingdom, Jersey and Luxembourg. She is known as a true ‘facilitator’ due to her ability get things done and find a solution even in the most challenging of circumstances. Victoria’s network is diverse and her ability to see the potential in what can often at first seem the ‘intangible’ makes her a true visionary. Clients see her as a trusted ‘go to’ for guidance on all kinds of matters.
Victoria is responsible for JTC Private Office’s next-gen education sector, which takes a holistic view, working with the older and the next gen to help build a successful bridge to succession. The approach focuses on four sectors: the two functional sections of business management and financial management, which are interposed with the symbiotic sectors of well-being and crisis management. She is also an expert in the luxury assets sector, with a focus particularly on the marine and aviation space. Victoria often manages large projects such as acquisitions and disposals of these high-value assets as well as helping clients understand the many facets and intricacies involved in running them.
She is an associate of the Chartered Governance Institute, has a master’s degree in political science from the University of Nottingham and a BSc in politics from the University of Bristol.

Matthew Braithwaite
Partner, Wedlake Bell LLP
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewbraithwaite/

Matthew Braithwaite advises UK and international clients, including individuals, families, trustees, beneficiaries and family offices, and in particular acts for high-net-worth individuals and family business owners, professional executives and entrepreneurs. Matthew advises on the establishment and use of trusts and other wealthholding structures, and on the succession of family trusts and businesses, and governance issues.
Matthew also advises on wills and wider estate and succession planning. He is a full-time member of STEP and a member of STEP’s Responsible Stewardship of Wealth Thought Leadership Group.

Beth Breeze
Professor of philanthropic studies, Centre for Philanthropy, University of Kent
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/professor-beth-breeze-obe-b8a40639/

Beth Breeze is professor of philanthropic studies and director of the Centre for Philanthropy at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, where she teaches courses to practitioners including philanthropy advisers, grant-makers, charity leaders and fundraisers.
Her research and writing include the annual Coutts Million Pound Donors Report (2008–2017); The Philanthropy Reader (2016, co-edited with Michael Moody); The New Fundraisers (2017); In Defence of Philanthropy (2021); Advising Philanthropists: Principles and Practice (2023, co–authored with Emma Beeston); and Rich Expectations: Why Rich People Give (2025, coauthored with Rhodri Davies and Theresa Lloyd).
She shares knowledge and evidence-based insights with the global philanthropy community through keynote speeches, media comment and meetings with policymakers. In recognition of her services to philanthropic research and fundraising, Beth was awarded the OBE in 2022.

Tony Cohen
Partner, Kinestra Partners LLP
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-cohen-a9057613/

Tony Cohen has been an adviser and confidante to wealthy families for almost 30 years. Leveraging and combining his skills as a proven business leader and coach, he helps his clients enhance their organisational and family prosperity through mentoring, counselling and challenging the status quo.
Until 2017, Tony was vice chairman at Deloitte and the firm’s global head of private clients, leading a team across the world, dedicated to working with successful entrepreneurs, multigenerational family businesses and family offices. Tony is a founding partner of Kinestra Partners through which his primary focus now is on consulting to private families, specifically developing their plans and frameworks for the future to support them through change in complex family and business circumstances. In addition to his consultancy work, he is also special adviser to a multi-family office based in London. Clients praise him for his down-to-earth and practical approach and his relaxed and effective communication style coupled with his continual pursuit of excellence.

Bryony Cove
Partner, private client, Farrer & Co LLP
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryony-cove-a1708837/

Bryony Cove is an experienced private client lawyer working with a broad range of UK and international clients, from individuals and families, to trust companies and family businesses. At the core of her practice is helping clients and their families put in place the most effective strategies to manage the long-term stability and integrity of their estates. Bryony is herself a trustee for a substantial UHNW UK family in business, giving her a unique insight into the challenges clients face from their side of the table.

Justin B Craig
Distinguished professor, Tecnológico de Monterrey; Adjunct professor, Kellogg School of Management; Adjunct professor, Bond University
[email protected]


Justin B Craig holds multiple academic positions including as a distinguished professor of family enterprise at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, an adjunct professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in the United States, and adjunct professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at Bond University in Australia. His research, primarily focusing on the challenges and opportunities of business-owning families, has been published widely.

Toby Crooks
Partner, trust and wealth services, Rawlinson & Hunter LLP
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobycrooks/

Toby Crooks specialises in the field of private client tax as part of the trust and wealth services department. He enjoys working closely with clients, legal advisers and family offices to understand their particular requirements and has a wide breadth of experience, having advised both UK and non-domiciled clients.
Toby is a chartered accountant, chartered tax adviser and a member of STEP. He is the holder of an advanced diploma in international trust management and is a member of PAIAM (Professional Advisers in the Art Market). He was previously the representative for the City of London on the Worldwide Council of STEP and is a member of the public policy committee. Toby holds a diploma in organisational leadership from the Said School of Business at the University of Oxford.

Dominic Epton
Managing director, Rothschild & Co Wealth Management
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-epton-92800617/

Dominic Epton is a managing director with over 20 years’ experience in wealth management and investment banking at Rothschild & Co. Prior to joining the Wealth Management team in 2011, he worked for five years in Rothschild & Co Global Advisory. He started his career as a lawyer, spending seven years at a global law firm in London. Dom has been recognised by Spear’s as one of the industry’s leading ultra-high-networth advisers. He is a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments and holds the Private Client Investment Advice and Management certificate.

Matthew Fleming
Partner and head of family governance and succession, Stonehage Fleming
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-fleming007/

Matthew Fleming is a partner in the Stonehage Fleming group, responsible for helping clients develop and implement their intergenerational strategies. He and his team also support families as they identify and mitigate the risks associated with those strategies, from intragenerational dynamics to effective family communication.
A former army officer, Matthew served in the Royal Green Jackets. As a professional cricketer, he played for Kent County Cricket Club for 13 years and represented England 11 times. He was the fifth generation to work in the family firm when he joined in 2005 and has held various positions within the business, including managing partner of Fleming Media and a director of Ian Fleming Publications and James Bond Enterprises. He was commissioned into the Royal Green Jackets in 1985. Matthew has also had a number of external non-executive appointments, including chairman of AGL Comms, a director of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and 10 years as a director of the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Dan Frosh
Board of directors, Family Firm Institute Inc.
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-frosh-92759b9/

Dan Frosh is a family enterprise adviser who works with enterprising families to help empower them to navigate the complexities of wealth and family dynamics to achieve enduring multi-generational success. Leveraging over a decade of experience as an attorney and family business adviser, Dan guides families to develop successful governance practices, strengthen family unity, plan for leadership and ownership succession, and to align around a collective vision for their future. Dan formerly served as a senior adviser at Cambridge Family Enterprise Group where he advised leading families from around the world on strategies for the successful continuity of their enterprises.
Dan writes and speaks internationally on topics relating to family enterprises and wealth and has served as a facilitator in the Future Family Enterprise programme at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is a fellow of the Family Firm Institute (FFI) where he also serves as the vice chair of the FFI board of directors and is the consulting editor of FFI Practitioner, a weekly publication that provides analysis, trends and research that support advisers to family enterprises.

Judy Green
President, Family Firm Institute Inc.
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/judygreenphd/

Judy Green is president of the Family Firm Institute and managing partner of Green Associates LLC. She holds degrees from Lawrence University, University of Minnesota, and a PhD from Marquette University as well as a Graduate Certificate in Business and Management from Harvard University Extension School. A frequent author and commentator on topics related to family enterprise, she has received the Barbara Hollander Award and International Award from the Family Firm Institute. Recently she was named one of the top 50 family enterprise advisers by Family Capitol as an “advisor to advisors”. Judy is also the editor of a digital magazine, Olive: A
journal devoted to ambiguity.

Catherine Grum
Director, Catherine Grum Consultancy Ltd
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinegrum/

Catherine Grum advises families and family offices around family office establishment, strategy, family governance and succession. She believes that when families understand their values and the purpose of their wealth, they can build on much stronger foundations. By then aligning their structures and activities with this, she helps them create sustainable long-term solutions.
For more than 20 years, Catherine has helped enterprising families with their needs. She acquired her distinctive insight from her positions as a private client lawyer at A&O, a wealth adviser at Barclays, a leader of a private office and a board member of its international trust companies at Salamanca Group, and a founder of family office advisory practices at BDO and KPMG. Catherine now runs her own independent consulting business, working with clients from across the United Kingdom and the Middle East. She has an MA in jurisprudence from Oxford University.

Katharine Haggie
Partner, private client and family office services, Rawlinson & Hunter LLP
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katharine-haggie-fca-cta-tep-723b922a/

Katharine Haggie advises families and their businesses on a broad range of aspects covering succession, structuring and practical matters, with UK taxation being at the centre of her expertise. She has a broad range of clients across the United Kingdom and internationally, resulting in experience dealing with cross-border and domestic issues.
She enjoys working collaboratively with her clients and their advisers. Her experience extends to valuation work, family office operational and structuring reviews and advising shareholders and companies in transactions.
Katharine is an associate of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners.

Andrew P Hier
Senior adviser and partner, Cambridge Family Enterprise Group
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-hier-b29b807/

Andrew P Hier is a senior adviser and partner at Cambridge Family Enterprise Group and a fellow at Cambridge Institute for Family Enterprise. He is an internationally recognised expert and trusted adviser to multi-generational family enterprises, with particular expertise in the ownership dimension of family enterprises. Since 2003, he has advised family-owned businesses around the world on strategies for growing and passing their enterprises to the next generation. Andrew has authored important works on the unique ownership challenges of family enterprises, family unity and key diagnostic parameters of family enterprise functionality.
In 2020, he received the Family Firm Institute (FFI) Interdisciplinary Achievement Award for outstanding achievement in the advancement of interdisciplinary services to business families. For over a decade, Andrew has co-taught the advanced family business advisory programme at FFI. He frequently teaches around the world at conferences, education programmes and private family meetings. For several years, he served as a facilitator and guest lecturer at Harvard Business School’s Families in Business programme, and now at MIT. Earlier in his career, Andrew was CEO of an international apparel company. Prior to this, he practised law for 15 years, after earning his JD from Harvard Law School and AB from Harvard College.

Nick Jacob
Partner, Forsters LLP
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-jacob-b59a86a/

A partner in the private client team with over 40 years’ experience, Nick Jacob is a world renowned specialist in family governance and succession planning. Working with multi-generational business families, Nick makes it a priority to understand the psychology of the family, in order to uncover the issues and deal with these head on. Only then can Nick put in place the necessary legal structures to ensure the successful transition of wealth from one generation to the next. Nick advises a number of globally significant families, trustees and family offices with assets and family members based in multiple jurisdictions. He specialises in all aspects of crossborder estate planning, especially trusts holding family businesses, that protect against family disputes, including divorce.
With “a phenomenal reputation in Asia”, (Chambers, 2024), Nick has a particular focus on advising families in East Asia and understands the evolving cultural dynamics facing different generations in this region. This is demonstrated by Nick’s recognition as a foreign expert in Singapore in the latest Chambers HNW Guide; one of only three individuals named for this expertise. He has also been cast as “The Godfather of Asian family governance”.
Nick also specialises in UK taxation for individuals and trusts, cross-border taxation coordination, and advises banks and trust companies on technical issues. Nick is a STEP Emeritus Member and was named “Trusted Advisor of the Year” at the STEP Private Client Awards 2024. He was also Who’s Who Global Private Client Practitioner of the Year 2023. Ranked in The Legal 500’s Hall of Fame and Band 1 in Chambers HNW Guide, Nick is recognised as “a leader in his field” for his “sophisticated private wealth planning advice”, and a first class lawyer.

Catharina C Jecklin
Lecturer and researcher, Bond University
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-catharina-jecklin-01a5aa112/

Catharina C Jecklin is a lecturer and researcher at the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at Bond University, where she earned her PhD in 2023. Her research examines trustcontrol dynamics in organisations and their impact on innovation and workplace well-being. With a particular interest in family-owned businesses, Catharina explores how family firms build and leverage trust for long-term success. Prior to entering academia, Catharina held various management and executive roles in business development and market research, communications and web design, as well as in business consulting. Navigating complex organisational challenges inspired her to translate real-world business issues into rigorous research with practical relevance.
As an educator by training, Catharina is an advocate for teaching cases and has published several Ivey Case Studies related to organisational transformation, trust and control and employee well-being.

Hiral Kanzaria
Partner, business tax, Rawlinson & Hunter LLP
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiral-kanzaria-49b95b35/

Hiral Kanzaria is a business tax specialist who advises businesses across a range of industries. He focuses on providing pragmatic and commercially led tax advice, working closely with businesses, shareholders and other stakeholders to provide holistic advice that takes into account both taxrelated and wider objectives.
Hiral advises on a range of corporate tax areas, including corporate structuring and restructuring, employee share schemes and international taxation. In addition, he is an M&A tax specialist, having advised on a number of buy and sell side transactions. This has included undertaking tax due diligence, transaction structuring and shareholder tax advice.
Hiral joined Rawlinson & Hunter in 2010. He is a chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser. In addition, he read law at the University of Liverpool.

Lily Kennett
Partner, intelligence and investigations, Schillings
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lily-kennett-8837571b/

Lily Kennett is a partner at Schillings and cofounder of the firm’s Intelligence and Investigations practice. She is a highly respected adviser to business leaders, family offices and prominent individuals, working on strategy during high-stakes situations and providing counsel on long-term approaches to reputation. Lily works in collaboration with lawyers, communications professionals, security experts and diplomacy advisers to support clients across the globe. Her work draws on a rich background that spans investigative journalism, international relations and over a decade in corporate intelligence and investigations. Lily spearheads Schillings’s pro bono programme, which supports a range of non-governmental organisations and individuals working to counter online abuse as well as misinformation and disinformation campaigns online.

Nick Mayhew
Founder and managing director, Alembic Strategy
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayhewnick/

Nick Mayhew is a facilitator and coach for families who work together or who run an office to manage their wealth. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, has had a 20-year career leading a major professional firm and has an MSc in the psychology and neuroscience of mental health. He was brought up in a Buddhist community by a psychotherapist. Alembic is a family business, which Nick runs together with his wife Sarah, a physiotherapist and generative coach.
In founding Alembic, Nick embarked fully on a lifelong passion to help people, linking his upbringing in meditation and Tai Chi with his career in company and M&A advisory work. Bringing these two things together means a focus on supporting ambitious business leaders with lots of problems to solve. His specialism is solving family rifts and helping families talk through the difficult things well.

Ken McCracken
Family business consultant, MFBC Limited
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenmccracken62/

Ken McCracken is a family business consultant. His work includes succession planning for family enterprises, including creating effective governance; helping clients implement their succession and governance plans, including serving on various family or owners’ councils; and education and training for enterprising families and for their advisers.
Ken is co-author of the STEP Advanced Certificate in Advising the Family Business and the Advanced Certificate in Family Business Governance, both of which are provided online to an international audience. He also created and teaches the family business module in the STEP Professional Postgraduate Diploma in Private Wealth Advising. His other published works include Creating the Trusted Team of Advisers for a Family Business (Special Report, Globe Law and Business, 2018) and The Alternative Family Business Dictionary. Ken is a fellow of the Family Firm Institute.

Victoria O’Byrne
Partner, Schillings
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-o-byrne-b338ba25/

Victoria O’Byrne is a founding partner of Schillings Communications LLP, the firm’s recently formed strategic communications business. She draws on 25 years’ experience in senior positions across UK business and government, having previously worked for the British royal family and Sir Richard Branson as group director of corporate affairs at Virgin. She was also formerly special adviser to a UK cabinet minister and director of communications for the legacy of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012.
A highly respected leader in strategic communications, Victoria specialises in working with high-profile and highly scrutinised individuals, organisations and campaigns to build their reputations, grow their coalitions of support and harness opportunity in high-stakes situations.

Katie O’Callaghan
Partner, Boodle Hatfield LLP
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-o-callaghan-9b608511/

Katie O’Callaghan is a partner in the family and divorce team at Boodle Hatfield, a private wealth law firm in London. Katie’s practice encompasses all aspects of family law with a particular emphasis on complex wealth structures both in the United Kingdom and abroad. Katie offers expert guidance to clients where the majority of the wealth is tied up in family business. This raises issues on divorce not only about the value of the company but also the ways in which funds can be extracted from it to meet any potential entitlement of the other spouse.
She regularly advises clients on potential strategies to minimise the risk of family business assets being attacked on divorce, particularly where a business is owned by family members of various generations.
Katie is also a qualified mediator, helping people who have decided to separate, to end a civil partnership or divorce, or who are trying to deal with changes in family relationships to talk things through. Katie is trained to help clients focus on what really matters to them and their family and to help clients to discuss and agree the best arrangements for the future, whether that be in relation to their children, their money or the practicalities of how life will work in the future.

Gina Pereira
Founder and principal, Dāna Stewardship Advisory
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ginampereira/

Gina Pereira is a wealth steward who helps families build resilience across generations through education, purpose and values. With over 20 years of experience as a lawyer, trustee and philanthropy adviser, Gina offers integrative support to wealth-owning families, including designing education and well-being frameworks that prepare the rising generation for wealth transition and integrating shared values into family governance frameworks, trust structures, philanthropy and other wealth-planning solutions by positioning purpose as the north star. Gina is leading industry-driven trust and company law reform initiatives and policy developments designed to facilitate responsible stewardship of wealth. She is committed to advancing industry best practices through her various leadership roles, including as chair of STEP’s Thought Leadership Steering Committee on the Responsible Stewardship of Wealth, as a board member of the Global Alliance of Impact Lawyers and co-chair of the Bermuda Business Development Agency’s High Net Worth Steering Committee. She has proudly led two of her prior firms to receive the esteemed STEP Private Client Award.

Kaajal Prasad
Former partner, family office and private clients, KPMG Australia
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaajalprasad/

Kaajal Prasad has over 16 years’ experience advising private clients in all matters related to commercial and business advice, accounting and tax matters, structuring, consolidation and governance. She specialises in working with active family enterprises and family offices to guide them through the challenges of ownership and control, continuity, leadership succession, generational change, structuring, sustainability, governance mechanisms and developing the next generation. Kaajal serves as independent adviser to a number of family enterprise and not-for-profit boards, where she is able to apply her deep commercial expertise for the benefit of her clients. She particularly enjoys working with family enterprises and their owners because they bring out her empathetic nature as well as her commercial expertise. Kaajal is a chartered accountant, registered tax agent and accredited family business adviser in Australia.

Russell Prior
Managing director, regional head of family governance, family office advisory and philanthropy, EMEA, HSBC Global Private Banking
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/russell-prior-31b14211/

Russell Prior leads the services providing family governance, family office advisory and philanthropy advice to clients across HSBC Private Banking EMEA. This involves working with family businesses and families on the issues surrounding ownership and wealth transition. Before joining HSBC, Russell was executive director at Charities Aid Foundation and worked for Barclays PLC in large corporate banking and wealth management. He is chair of the London Community Foundation, and until recently had been chair of the Bell Foundation for eight years. He has been a trustee of a numerous charitable foundations, ran the ‘philanthropy offices’ for a number of major philanthropists and held a number of nonexecutive director positions.
Russell has written numerous articles and spoken at over 200 events on family governance and enterprise succession. He is the author of Family Governance and Surplus Wealth: Sustaining Family Fortunes (Globe Law and Business, 2021).

Jennifer Ridgway
Partner, Farrer & Co LLP
[email protected]
https://www.farrer.co.uk/people/jennifer-ridgway/

Jennifer Ridgway acts for a wide range of international and UK-based families, individuals and trustees, advising on estate planning, wealth structuring and trust issues. She is committed to working with families, and those that advise them and their often complex structures, to achieve good succession between generations.
A significant part of Jennifer’s practice is advising UK and offshore trustees on their duties and decision making, and providing UK tax advice in connection with trust structures. This work has also included advising beneficiaries on what they can expect from their trustees in terms of information and communication, and assisting families (both UK and non-UK families) during the evolution of their structures after a generational shift. Her experience of trust matters and advice to trustees and families means she is frequently involved in aspects of UK and offshore trust litigation and non-contentious applications to court, and works closely with the firm’s contentious trusts and estates team. Aside from her extensive trust work, Jennifer has particular experience of acting for businessowning families, individuals involved in the arts, and active landed estates.
Jennifer is used to engaging with family offices and dealing with families who may have multiple branches or individuals with different needs. She is particularly used to assisting with managing confidentiality between branches, family members and the family office, and has assisted families with frameworks and protocols to manage communication and disclosure in this context. Clients look to Jennifer as a trusted adviser and appreciate her sensitive and thoughtful approach to complex family matters, including difficult issues such as capacity, family breakdown and reputation concerns, as well as her technical expertise.

Alexandra Sharpe
Partner, Kinestra Partners LLP
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-sharpe-2867aa12/

Alexandra Sharpe has spent over 15 years dedicated to working with family businesses, family offices and wealthy families, supporting them through generational change. As a specialist consultant, mentor and facilitator, her background as a chartered accountant, coupled with her master’s degree in organisational and social psychology from the London School of Economics, enables her to navigate both the commercial and personal priorities that are important to her family clients.
Previously, Alex was a partner in a boutique family enterprise consulting firm, which was acquired by Deloitte in 2014. As a partner in Deloitte, she became national head of the firm’s family enterprise consulting practice, where she led and oversaw projects ranging in focus from family succession planning, next-generation development and education to the creation of new family office structures.
Through Kinestra Partners, which she founded in 2018, Alex is now focused on personally working with a select group of significant family clients. Alongside her busy consulting practice, she also has a number of governance roles within family and family business structures. She is the non-family chairwoman for three different family councils, each with their own complexities, and has previously chaired various other family decision-making entities including the protector committee for a global family structure. Alex also has experience of remuneration committee membership and currently serves as member of a group board remuneration committee, representing the family’s voice in this decisionmaking process.

Clare Stirzaker
Partner, Boodle Hatfield LLP
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/clare-stirzaker-50741328/

Clare Stirzaker specialises in succession planning and related legal and tax matters for multigenerational families and their family offices. She works alongside some of the world’s leading private businesses, and her practice focuses on helping individuals develop their succession planning strategy and design bespoke asset holding and wealth management structures including private trust companies, limited partnership structures and foundations.
Clare has particular experience of advising and supporting families on implementing family and corporate governance frameworks to support successful wealth transition. She also supports clients in developing their philanthropic strategy to enable greater and more effective wealth distribution. She is recognised for her work having won multiple awards from the leading private wealth award bodies.
Prior to joining the firm, Clare was a partner at PwC and also worked at Barclays Wealth, providing her with a real breadth of experience and commercial insight across the private client sector.

Katharine Taylor
Client adviser, Rothschild & Co Wealth Management
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katharine-taylor/

Katharine Taylor is a client adviser at Rothschild & Co Wealth Management UK, having joined the firm in early 2016. Prior to Rothschild & Co, she worked for HSBC Private Bank and before that Barclays Wealth with a focus on clients working within the media and entertainment industries. She has more than 20 years’ experience working with high-net-worth individuals, families and charity clients. After obtaining a geography degree from Oxford University, she began her career in 1998 by training with PwC as a tax consultant and is a qualified accountant. When not juggling family life, she enjoys being involved with The Access Project mentoring and tutoring students from less privileged backgrounds, being a school governor and sitting on one of the balance and inclusion committees at work.

Daniel Ugur
Partner, Forsters LLP
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-ugur-71230021b/

Daniel Ugur advises international individuals, families, trustees, beneficiaries, family offices and private banks on succession planning, personal taxation and trust law. One of Daniel’s particular areas of focus is on the succession of family businesses, where he works with the family to set up family governance measures to help succession planning run smoothly. He also specialises in advising families who are either based in Asia or looking to move to or from the region. As such, he is a regular visitor to Asia on business to service his clients there.

Maria Villax
Head of family governance and strategy, Bedrock Group
[email protected]
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariavillax/

Maria Villax advises families on the development and implementation of solid family governance structures to prepare for sustainable generational transitions. From family businesses to family offices, she helps families manage the complexity of family ownership to promote long-term unity. She also creates next-generation development programmes, designed to help the next generation become responsible owners for the future. Maria started her career as a lawyer in Lisbon, specialising in criminal litigation and intellectual property. She then moved to London to study an MBA at Hult International Business School, focusing on leadership and communication. After a brief stint in the fashion industry, she then started consulting for family businesses and family offices around the world on governance best practices. As a third generation of a family business herself, helping families prepare for the long term is a purpose that deeply calls to her.

Clare Stirzaker