"True capital preservation requires absolute fiduciary independence, institutional risk discipline, and tax-efficient generational architecture."
Sterling Capital provides bespoke discretionary portfolio management, complex inheritance tax mitigation, and cross-border family office advisory to high-net-worth families, business founders, and estates exceeding £1M–£50M+.
Explore how institutional asset allocation, disciplined reinvestment, and cost-efficient execution compound investable capital across 5 to 30 years compared with inflation.
Sovereign Gilts, Senior Private Credit, Defensive Dividend Aristocrats.
Global Large-Cap Equity, Real Infrastructure, Private Debt, Macro Hedging.
Global Growth Equities, Co-Investments, Direct Secondary Private Markets.
Without proactive fiduciary structuring, UK estate taxation consumes up to 40% of unhedged wealth. Calculate your gross exposure and model bespoke mitigation architectures.
Adjust values according to your current global asset holdings.
Freezes current estate value; routes all future capital appreciation directly to children/grandchildren free of immediate 40% IHT.
Utilizes £650k combined NRB and ring-fences wealth against generational divorce, bankruptcy, and probate delays.
100% exempt from UK Inheritance Tax after just 24 months of continuous ownership while retaining full dividend access.
Guaranteed tax-free cash payout on second death to settle any residual liability without forced property sales.
We operate under an uncompromised fiduciary charter, aligning our institutional expertise directly with your family's enduring objectives.
Institutional multi-asset portfolios spanning global equities, senior private debt, inflation-protected commodities, and direct infrastructure mandates managed under strict downside volatility constraints.
Multi-generational wealth transmission architecture designed to insulate capital against punitive inheritance tax, cross-border domicile exposure, and family governance fragmentation.
Comprehensive advisory for entrepreneurs, private company shareholders, and family businesses preparing for a trade sale, management buyout, or private equity recapitalisation.
Specialised institutional infrastructure for single-family offices requiring segregated custody, consolidated global reporting across multi-bank accounts, and co-investment syndication.
Over 38 years, our investment philosophy has prioritized asymmetric risk-return profiles: capturing market upside while rigorously curtailing peak-to-trough drawdowns.
| Investment Mandate | Target Net Yield | 10-Yr Net Ann. Return | Volatility (10Y StDev) | Sharpe Ratio | 2022 Drawdown vs MSCI World |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capital Preservation & Real Yield Defensive Sovereign & Private Credit | 4.5% – 5.5% | 5.6% | 4.2% | 1.42 | -3.2% (MSCI: -18.1%) |
| Balanced Global Multi-Asset Core Equities, Real Assets & Private Debt | 7.0% – 8.5% | 8.2% | 7.4% | 1.58 | -6.8% (MSCI: -18.1%) |
| High-Conviction Global Alpha Direct Holdings & Private Equity | 9.5% – 11.5% | 11.1% | 11.8% | 1.49 | -11.4% (MSCI: -18.1%) |
Representative client scenarios illustrating how our integrated investment and fiduciary structuring protects multi-generational prosperity.
A software founder facing a £24M cash/equity exit required comprehensive pre-sale planning to minimize immediate capital gains and insulate proceeds from estate tax.
A prominent UK landed family with diversified agricultural, commercial property, and liquid holdings faced complex IHT challenges due to mixed-use assets.
A dual-national family relocating from Switzerland to London needed to navigate new UK non-dom tax regulations while consolidating multi-currency portfolios.
Every Sterling Capital client relationship is personally led by a Senior Partner with decades of institutional tier-1 private banking, legal, and fiduciary experience.
32+ years in discretionary wealth management. Formerly Managing Director at a Tier-1 Swiss Private Bank and Head of UK Private Client Investment Committee.
Specialized Chancery Barrister & STEP Fellow with 24 years advising UHNW families and landed estates on complex inheritance tax mitigation and dynastic trusts.
Oversees global multi-asset strategy, systematic macroeconomic modeling, and tactical asset allocation. Formerly Senior Macro Strategist in the City of London.
Sterling Capital acts purely as your discretionary fiduciary adviser. We never hold client capital directly. All assets are held in individual, segregated client accounts at the world's most capitalized institutional custodians.
We invite qualifying high-net-worth individuals, family trustees, and business owners to a private introductory discussion. We strictly honor client confidentiality under non-disclosure governance.
Thank you. Your inquiry has been routed directly to the desk of Alistair Cavendish, Senior Managing Partner.
A Partner will contact you via your preferred telephone protocol within 2 business hours.
Clear, uncompromised answers regarding our fee architecture, fiduciary duties, and client onboarding criteria.
We typically accept private client mandates starting from £1,000,000 of investable liquid capital for discretionary portfolio management. For complex family office co-advisory and bespoke trust structuring, our typical family office relationships span £5M to £50M+. We occasionally accommodate emerging business founders preparing for an imminent high-value liquidity event.
We operate strictly under a clean, uncompromised fiduciary fee structure. We charge a transparent, tiered annual percentage on assets under advisory (typically 0.40% to 0.75% depending on portfolio scale). We take zero commissions, zero trail fees, and zero retrocessions from fund managers or product providers. 100% of institutional fee rebates are credited directly to your custody account.
The transition from the traditional remittance basis to the 4-year foreign income and gains (FIG) regime requires sophisticated restructuring. Our specialist trust barristers actively implement Excluded Property Trust preservation strategies, offshore Family Investment Companies, and dynamic gifting regimes to shield overseas assets from UK Inheritance Tax.
All client assets are held in segregated nominee accounts under your name at world-leading tier-1 custody institutions (including BNY Mellon, Pershing, and Lombard Odier). Assets are legally ring-fenced from Sterling Capital's balance sheet and cannot be accessed by creditors. In addition, qualifying balances benefit from FSCS protection and comprehensive Lloyd's of London crime and custody insurance.
Once the initial consultation and bespoke Investment Policy Statement (IPS) are ratified, custodian onboarding, digital verification, and asset transfer protocols are typically finalized within 5 to 10 business days. We handle all in-specie portfolio transitions to avoid unnecessary capital gains realization.