Our services in managing family settlements

Key takeaways

Divorce planning should be far-sighted: Post-divorce settlements require long-term management to sustain a client's needs throughout their lifetime.

Guidance should be specialised: Inexperienced individuals or those handling new responsibilities, such as following a divorce, need specialist guidance to manage their financial position.

Beware cross-border complexity: US-connected clients in the UK face unique, complex, and high-risk tax scenarios that require a combined, strategic wealth management approach to manage global assets efficiently.

Our work with international American clients recognises that for those who are inexperienced in managing finances, the risks associated with financial decision-making can be a real concern. For those of our clients that have gone through a divorce and find themselves managing their finances for the first time, this feeling can be particularly acute. The reality is, a settlement will need to service a client’s needs for a lifetime and to achieve this requires proper planning. Once the divorce proceedings are concluded, the role of the family lawyer will become less pronounced. At this stage, many clients need guidance on how to manage and sustain their settlement in the longer-term. These clients usually have a number of key questions;

• “How much income can I expect my settlement to provide me each year?”
• “Where can I afford to live?”
• “Do I retain or sell investment property?”
• “How can I invest my settlement so that I can continue to fund my lifestyle?”
• “How can I invest as a US Citizen living in the UK?”

The complexities are increased when we are advising US connected clients living in the UK as a duel thought process needs to be adopted. We take a joined up approach for our clients, working with other professionals and ensuring the many potential tax pitfalls when managing worldwide assets are avoided.

Our role is to guide our clients during this pivotal time, unravelling the complexities to ensure that their financial position can be understood, and the right decisions are made.

Combined investment management and strategic wealth planning

Our service is built around 3 key areas:

1. Strategic financial planning

We organise and manage our clients worldwide assets, delivering a coherent and global investment strategy; whilst ensuring a client’s settlement can be structured and invested to serve their needs for a lifetime. Good strategic wealth planning is crucial when organising an individual’s affairs and can make a meaningful difference to a client’s long-term wealth.

2. Investment strategy

Our capital preservation investment philosophy is ideal for ensuring our client’s portfolios provide them with a reliable and predictable level of income each year, whilst preserving and enhancing their capital. Our investments are structured to comply with US regulations, so that they do not attract highly disadvantageous tax implications.

3. Consolidated reporting

Legislation such as Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and Common Reporting Standard (CRS) have significantly increased the reporting burden for US linked citizens. We provide consolidated reporting across all our clients UK, US and offshore assets. This includes US calendar year reporting, UK fiscal year reporting, separation of short and long term gains, and £/$ FX gains and losses.

What is our charging structure?

Our initial consultations are without fee or obligation. We do not charge hourly fees or initial charges. Upon becoming a client of W1M we charge a percentage, usually 1% per annum on the assets we manage. Our fees tend to reduce depending on the size of the investment mandate.

Our background and values

We are an independently owned global wealth and asset management company based in London. Established in 1986 we have around $4bn* of assets under management on behalf of individuals, families and Trusts.

As both an SEC (US) and FCA (UK) regulated business, we are uniquely placed to support and guide our clients wherever their assets are located.

Partnership

Our approach is to work with a person, rather than for an investor. We take the time to get to know you as an individual and to understand your goals, working with you to help you achieve them. We will regularly review your strategy to ensure that you continue to have the most appropriate plan in place based on your changing needs and circumstances.

Investment choice

W1M is independently owned, with no ties to any other financial services groups. We are therefore free to match our client’s objectives with the best investments across the globe.

Prudence

Our greatest focus is to preserve and enhance our client’s capital within a stringent risk control framework. We demand full transparency from our underlying investments and will only invest in vehicles where we are able to carry out full due diligence on the underlying investments.

Glossary

Settlement: The financial agreement, including assets and property, finalised at the end of a divorce process.

Strategic wealth planning: The overarching, long-term process of structuring and investing assets to meet a client's future lifestyle goals.

US-connected client: A person living in the UK who is subject to US tax regulations and reporting requirements.

Worldwide assets: Total holdings, investments, and properties held by an individual across different international jurisdictions.

Tax pitfalls: Potential, often unintended, tax liabilities arising from improperly managed cross-border finances.