A private eye

If you are going to immerse yourself in the world of private client law, there can surely be few better places to do it that in the luxurious surroundings of the Villa D’Este hotel on the shores of Lake Como in Italy. At least then you get an (albeit brief) insight into what it is actually like to be loaded.

This is the venue of Legal Week’s Private Client Legal Forum, which is now in its fourth year. The event brings together private client lawyers from across the globe – more than 25 jurisdictions this year – to discuss their work advising the rich and famous. Unsurprisingly, the boom in corporate work is having a knock on effect in this sector. There is a large amount of money sloshing around and the people into whose hands much of it is concentrated need advice on what to do with it. Or rather, how to keep hold of it.

The event kicked off with a keynote address from the historian Niall Ferguson. He drew from historical examples to illustrate just how fragile family dynasties are. He cited the Rothschilds as an unusually successful case and outlined some of their strategies. These included being based in more than one country, spreading their assets – they invested a third of their wealth in paintings – and minimising the number of new family members by encouraging cousins to marry one another.

But these days, it would seem, wealthy individuals are just as likely to devote their attention to philanthropy, Bill Gates-style, than they are to pass their wealth on to the next generation. No doubt most of this activity is fuelled by a desire to make the world a better place. But it was also pointed out by one speaker that some wealthy people turn to philanthropy because they simply do not trust their children to look after their money and hate paying taxes.

Under such circumstances, it can cause more harm than it does good.