Our convictions
The lines we do not move.
Most firms have a page of values. Ours is shorter, and it is the reason we decline more often than we accept. What follows is not a description of how we would like to be seen — it is the test each decision has to pass before a family's capital is committed.
Capital is held, never owned.
A family's wealth passes through hands. We plan as though the person who inherits today's decision were sitting in the room — because in most families, one day, they are.
The offers we decline define us.
Opportunities are never the scarce thing; judgement is. An investment we cannot explain simply, or a manager who needs convincing twice, usually tells us enough.
Discretion is accuracy, not silence.
We do not discuss families, and we do not describe a year more flatteringly than it was. What is reported is what happened, including the parts that did not work.
Understand five things, not fifty.
A concentrated position held with conviction beats a diversified one held by habit. We take on only what we can follow closely, and say so when a mandate outgrows that.
Liquidity is a promise kept to yourself.
Markets are calm right up until they are not. Every arrangement leaves a family able to act — to pay, to move, to refuse — without selling at the worst possible moment.
We would rather be steady than brilliant.
The memorable year is rarely the compounding one. A quiet decade, with nothing dramatic to explain, is the result we are actually working toward.
“We would rather explain a quiet year than defend a loud one.”
In practice
What these convictions rule out.
Chasing a sector because it is being written about
Attention is not evidence. When something has become the market's favourite, it is rarely cheap.
Promising a number
Anyone who guarantees a return is selling a certainty they do not hold. We can describe a process, a horizon and a risk — not a figure.
Growing for the sake of growing
A larger book changes whose interests a decision serves. We would rather turn an introduction away than stretch the attention we already owe.