Mishcon de Reya LLP
mishcon.com/services/family-offices →Mishcon de Reya LLP is one of the UK's leading private wealth law firms, with a dedicated family office practice serving new family offices, established multi-generational family offices and multi-family offices. The firm operates from London, Dubai, Singapore and — through its association with Karas So LLP — Hong Kong, placing it across the key centres of international private wealth.
The firm's family office practice is chaired by Victoria Pigott and led alongside Charlie Sosna, Head of Private Wealth and Tax. Mishcon de Reya's approach is explicitly holistic — addressing not only wealth preservation and tax structuring but family governance, reputation protection, dispute resolution, residential property, immigration and philanthropic legacy. Its ecosystem of capabilities includes MDR Mayfair, a dedicated private client advisory service, alongside a network spanning strategic communications advisers, educational consultants and family business specialists.
The firm has particular depth in dispute resolution, cross-border estate planning, trust structuring and the establishment and governance of family investment companies — and maintains a dedicated Middle East hub for families based in or connected to the Gulf.
Lauren Marlow and Sabrina Sears, Managing Associates in Mishcon de Reya's Private Wealth and Tax team, have responded to HMRC's consultation on draft secondary legislation on changes to information sharing regulations in connection with inheritance tax on pensions — due to take effect in April 2027.
The response raises two principal concerns. First, HMRC must provide clear guidance on the evidentiary standards pension scheme administrators should apply when identifying prospective personal representatives — a process that becomes particularly complex where there is no Will or where the deceased was based outside the UK. Second, placing IHT reporting obligations on personal representatives creates substantial additional administrative burden under the new regime while providing no clear mechanism for those representatives to recover the associated costs — given that pension assets typically fall outside the estate.
Family investment companies are often discussed primarily through a tax lens — but for many families, the more compelling attraction is practical. Mishcon de Reya's Private Wealth and Tax team sets out three core practical benefits in this June 2026 insight.
The first is governance. A well-structured FIC separates voting rights — retained by a small stewardship group — from economic rights, which can be distributed across generations. A board of directors provides a decision-making framework that remains efficient as family complexity increases, with documented reserved matters setting clear thresholds for decisions requiring wider consent.
The second is flexibility. A FIC can evolve as the family and its portfolio change — accommodating different share classes for different objectives, acting as a consolidated hub for adviser engagement and oversight, and bringing a professional, repeatable approval process to new opportunities without requiring structural redesign.
The third — particularly relevant for families whose wealth includes operating businesses — is risk containment. A FIC as holding company, with operating businesses held in separate subsidiaries, limits shareholder liability and ring-fences risk so that problems in one business are unlikely to contaminate the wider family portfolio.
The insight concludes with a link to the firm's earlier article on the tax advantages of FICs and a reminder that professional advice is essential to maximise utility — the structure's value depends entirely on how it is implemented in each family's specific circumstances.
Read the full insight at mishcon.com →