While the private banking industry debates the pros and cons of the “one-bank” model in delivering wealth management, a law firm that definitely feels the benefits of having a wide market presence is Taylor Wessing. Its private client business contributes a great deal to the firm's bottom line.

While the private banking industry debates the pros and cons of the “one-bank” model in delivering wealth management, a law firm that definitely feels the benefits of having an integrated business model is Taylor Wessing.

Taylor Wessing’s international private client team includes 17 partners. Expertise is spread across the firm’s 13 offices, forming a global legal empire with a total of 779 lawyers. Eight of these private client partners are based in London. By far the largest number of lawyers in the firm are in Germany (154 partners and 208 other lawyers), followed by the UK, then France, Belgium, the United Arab Emirates and China. The importance of Germany can be explained by the fact that Taylor Wessing is the product of the merger between Taylor Joynson Garrett (TJG) and Germany's Wessing back in 2002. Taylor Wessing also has an alliance with BSJP in Poland.

Beyond its private client work, Taylor Wessing caters to financial institutions, companies and government organisations, covering areas as diverse as private equity, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, employment law, inward investment and tax, as well as IP and technology. This is a firm with a large footprint, although not quite as global as say, Baker & Mckenzie, which this publication profiled a short while ago (to view that article, click here). The offices are in London, Cambridge; Dusseldorf; Berlin; Frankfurt; Hamburg; Munich;  Paris; Brussels; Dubai; Warsaw; Shanghai and Beijing.

But for all the size of the overall law firm, the private client team at Taylor Wessing says it does not feel overwhelmed by the rest of the organisation. In fact, the private client group makes up a significant proportion of total group turnover, and it has been growing rapidly. In the 2009/2010 financial year, Taylor Wessing logged turnover of around £178 million. The proportion of this turnover stemming from private clients has risen by 50 per cent over the past three years.

Among the UK partners in the private client arm, are Joanne Ward, head of residential property; Steven Kempster, head of trusts and estates disputes; Mark Buzzoni, private client head / personal tax; Andrew Hine, personal tax plus international probate; Nick Warr - personal tax; Andrew Goodman – personal tax; Ryan Myint – personal tax, and Martin Goodwin, personal tax and particularly literary estates.

WealthBriefing recently caught up with Andrew Goodman, partner in the private client team and Clive Cunningham, partner in the financial services group, to discuss how the firm’s broader private wealth group works with the private client team and to hear their thoughts about the future.

“The point is that we offer a lot more to private clients than many other firms. We are an international commercial law firm with a top-class private client practice, rather than a private client firm with some corporate expertise.  We also act for private wealth managers – so we understand both sides of the private wealth equation” said Cunningham. “Many private clients [of TW] are super-wealthy; most of these ultra high net worth families are operating like mini-corporates and require legal support well beyond a traditional private client practice,” he said.

Across the whole firm there is a private wealth industry group (this includes regulatory, commercial, private equity and dispute resolution partners specialising in working with private clients and private wealth institutions). This grouping enables the private client team to make full use of all the expertise of the firm, such as its corporate and financial services sector legal expertise.

Trusts

Taylor Wessing is structured as a business so that clients looking to set up a UK trust can rely on their lawyer to have the client’s best interests at heart, said Goodman in the same interview. “When we act for a client in creating an English trust, the partner will usually act as a trustee for the client,” he said.

Through this trusted advisor role, partners will gain valuable investment and financial sector knowledge by, for example, sitting on fund manager “beauty parades” and annual reviews for trusts, even though the lawyers will not always take direct decisions on these matters, said Goodman.

In fact, this sort of role highlights how the roles of investment advisor and legal advisor can be blurred in the wealth management space, a factor that comes up again and again in the private client law firm area.

Current, future trends

Goodman said much of the work coming across the desks of Taylor Wessing lawyers is due to the ever-shifting rules and regulations connected to tax. There is absolutely no sign of this work slowing down.

For example, Goodman noted the surge in demand for help from expat US citizens hit by the increasingly onerous compliance demands from the US Internal Revenue Service on US nationals living outside the country as a result of the recent HIRE Act.

“It [the new legislation] is causing huge problems. It seems to be drafted on the basis that non-resident citizens, and particularly those with bank accounts, must be up to no good,” he said. (To view a recent article on this legislation and potential effects, click here).

He added that the “British Government is playing its own part, introducing and amending vast swathes of the tax system every year”.

Another strong source of work is in advising single family private offices, and financial institutions in the private wealth management sector, such as banks putting together new products or financial services companies setting up private client custody services.

Taylor Wessing has advised organisations such as family offices; it has advised several wealthy families on setting up such structures regulated in the UK. Its advice has covered the whole gamut of issues, including commercial, employment, financial services regulatory and tax as well as the business activities of the family itself.

As a law firm, Taylor Wessing said it is particularly conscious of its role as trusted advisor to clients: advising them about the kind of issues they must confront and guarding clients against entering investment structures or commercial relationships that might not suit their long term interests.

“We do see a lot more awareness from clients recently, including what they expect from their wealth managers and private bankers,” said Goodman. He continued: “We are looking after long-term clients, who are hopefully going to be with us 10, 20 and 30 years down the line.”

Looking to retain clients for such a long period of time does not come easily. But at a time when rebuilding client trust comes up time and again as a major requirement for wealth management, it looks as if the private client business of Taylor Wessing is on the right track.