Family investment companies

A Family Investment Company (FIC) is a bespoke private company, which can be used as a tax efficient alternative to (or work in concert with) family trusts.

A FIC is a flexible structure, allowing families to define how specific family members benefit through varying rights attaching to shares, or the number of shares in issue. The directors and shareholders of the FIC are normally family members. As with trusts, the structure of the FIC can enable parents/grandparents to retain control over assets, whilst accumulating wealth in a tax efficient environment and facilitating future succession planning.

Working alongside colleagues in the firm’s Wills, Estate & Tax Planning and Trust & Tax Management teams, we have great experience on advising on all elements of the process, including:

• Working with you to determine the desired levels of control and share rights
• Advising on the structure which aligns with your goals
• Drafting the necessary documentation and agreements to facilitate the creation of the target structure.

In an increasingly complex and evolving legal landscape, keeping pace with legal and regulatory developments can be challenging for businesses.

Our experienced corporate lawyers advise companies, partnerships and joint ventures, as well as business owners, directors and shareholders, on a broad range of company law and corporate governance matters, including:

• Corporate advisory
• Corporate formations, joint ventures & shareholder agreements
• Family investment companies
• Partnership formations and agreements.

We place an emphasis on understanding your commercial strategy to help us form part of your team of professional advisers. Our legal advice is not provided in isolation, and our focus is always on providing advice tailored to your circumstances, with the goal of achieving your overall commercial objectives.

Our size and range of experience and expertise means we have the bench strength to bring in specialist lawyers at all levels to assist on relevant matters. We draw on support from the firm’s very strong Corporate, Commercial, Private Wealth, Real Estate and Employment teams to provide clients with a comprehensive service.