| Wealth management |
A new cut Private wealth has changed. No longer the sole reserve of the moneyed upper classes, LB finds firms cashing in on a new breed of international entrepreneur.By Chris Johnson Picture the scene. Tarquin Huntersley-Cooper, an ageing member of the landed gentry, needs some trust planning to secure the future of his dilapidated 70-acre country estate. Dressed from head to toe in Prince of Wales tweed, he pays a visit to his lawyers, Reginald Hurley & Sons, a two-partner provincial firm that has acted for his family for generations. Settling down on an antique leather Chesterfield in the dusty study, they quickly knock out a draft before retiring to a wood-panelled smoking room for a snifter of fine cognac and some Cuban cigars. A work of fiction, of course, but for many City partners this outdated view of private client work remains. The reality couldn’t be more different. At the market’s leading practices, old money has given way to new. First generation wealth is now the order of the day, and when it comes to these international entrepreneurs, the line between personal and business affairs is often blurred. For the firm that can offer these demanding, dynamic clients comprehensive advice on both sides of the coin, the opportunities are considerable. If ever there was an example of a firm taking full advantage of this new generation ofsuper-rich, Macfarlanes is surely it. As one of the few remaining City firms to offer private client services, it is something of an oddity. But having reassessed its own position when the majority of the UK’s other major commercial players started dropping their practices in the late Eighties and early Nineties (although individuals remain at some, such as Herbert Smith and Linklaters), the firm is confident it has made the right decision. To read the rest of this article subscribe to Legal Business. 
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