https://westwick.org.uk/blog/ Articles and long-form guides on family office strategy, governance and generational transition, by the partners of Westwick Melrose & Cromwell. en-gb Mon, 13 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/family-office-succession-planning/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/family-office-succession-planning/ Mon, 13 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Succession is the moment a family is most likely to lose control. Handled early, it becomes a family project. A practical guide to preparing the next generation, the knowledge one person holds, and the team that has to evolve. Aymeric Erulin https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/interim-family-office-ceo/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/interim-family-office-ceo/ Mon, 06 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000 What an interim family office CEO is for: keeping the office and its live projects running, understanding why the seat came empty, and helping the family choose the right permanent leader. Aymeric Erulin https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/founder-syndrome/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/founder-syndrome/ Tue, 30 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 86% of single family offices have no succession plan, yet most expect to pass control within a decade. The founder's authority became the structure. That is Founder Syndrome. Aymeric Erulin https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/family-governance-is-not-corporate-governance/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/family-governance-is-not-corporate-governance/ Thu, 25 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Corporate governance and family governance share a word and almost nothing else. One protects outsiders. The other keeps a family in control of what it owns. Confusing them is how families lose what they built. Gilles Erulin https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/trust-is-not-a-governance-model/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/trust-is-not-a-governance-model/ Tue, 23 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Bill Ackman made the story of his own family office public: a decade of costs growing unchecked behind complete trust. Trust was never the problem. The absence of governance was. Isabelle Irani https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/single-family-office-vs-multi-family-office/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/single-family-office-vs-multi-family-office/ Mon, 22 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 A practical comparison of the single family office and the multi-family office: what each model controls, where the economics make sense, and how families actually decide between them. Andy Wadley https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/how-to-choose-a-family-office-adviser/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/how-to-choose-a-family-office-adviser/ Mon, 15 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 The few durable criteria that separate a useful family office adviser from the crowd. Aymeric Erulin https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/family-office-club-deals/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/family-office-club-deals/ Mon, 08 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 A practical guide to family office club deals: how they come together, where they go wrong, and the due diligence and terms that make co-investing hold. Aymeric Erulin https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/reducing-a-family-office-cost-base/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/reducing-a-family-office-cost-base/ Wed, 03 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 How we brought a $1.5bn single family office's running cost from nearly 0.9% to around 0.4% of assets, by reworking five parts of its operating model. Aymeric Erulin https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/selling-a-family-business/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/selling-a-family-business/ Mon, 01 Jun 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Selling a business is the family's decision. The process that follows lands on a family office already running at capacity. A practical guide to running a disposal, stage by stage, so it serves the family. John Saunders https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/returning-control-to-the-next-generation/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/returning-control-to-the-next-generation/ Thu, 28 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 "We're not sure we really have control over our family office." After the patriarch died, a few advisers quietly took the reins. Here is how the next generation took them back. Gilles Erulin https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/how-to-set-up-a-family-office/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/how-to-set-up-a-family-office/ Wed, 27 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 How to decide whether a single family office makes sense — and how to build one that actually serves the family rather than the advisers around it. Aymeric Erulin https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/family-office-cost-structure/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/family-office-cost-structure/ Tue, 19 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Running a single family office is expensive. How expensive depends on the size of the assets, the scope of the mandate, and above all on the discipline with which the office is built and managed. Aymeric Erulin https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/how-to-spot-a-real-family-office/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/how-to-spot-a-real-family-office/ Sat, 16 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 The market is full of companies which call themselves family office experts. The vast majority were nothing of the sort. The family office label has become one of the most abused titles in finance. Aymeric Erulin https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/the-missing-voice-in-the-family-office-conversation/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/the-missing-voice-in-the-family-office-conversation/ Mon, 11 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Most conversations about family offices happen through the lens of investments. Almost none happen through the lens of families. The conversation is incomplete without the people a family office exists to serve. Aymeric Erulin https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/best-hires/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/best-hires/ Fri, 08 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Skills can be learned. Character cannot. A century of combined experience hiring for families and family offices shows that the four traits that matter have not changed. Gilles Erulin https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/what-should-family-wealth-stand-for/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/what-should-family-wealth-stand-for/ Mon, 04 May 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Aligning family wealth with shared values is one of the defining challenges of multigenerational wealth planning. This guide sets out how to approach it — from opening the conversation to translating shared principles into a coherent capital strategy. Isabelle Irani https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/club-deals-in-family-offices/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/club-deals-in-family-offices/ Wed, 29 Apr 2026 08:00:00 +0000 Sixty percent of direct single family office investments are made through a mechanism most outsiders have never heard of. It is not a fund structure, not a platform, and not a syndicate. It is a club deal, and it runs entirely on trust. Aymeric Erulin https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/trustee-in-a-family-office/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/knowledge/trustee-in-a-family-office/ Thu, 23 Apr 2026 08:00:00 +0000 The duties of loyalty, prudence and care that govern a pension fund trustee govern a family office trustee equally. What differs is almost everything else: the regulatory framework, the investment mandate, the relationship with beneficiaries, and the time horizon over which the trustee is expected to think. Andy Wadley https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/on-transitions-in-the-family-office/ https://westwick.org.uk/blog/insights/on-transitions-in-the-family-office/ Tue, 21 Apr 2026 08:00:00 +0000 In PwC Switzerland's Family Business Stories podcast, Gilles Erulin reflects on three decades inside the Pinault family office, and what that experience reveals about what transitions in a family office actually require. Gilles Erulin