A short list of convictions and a long memory.
Discretionary management for families who have already made their money. Few positions, held for years, reported in plain language.
- Minimum relationship
- $10,000,000
- Client assets at the last statement
- $8.1B
- Tier 1 capital ratio
- 21.4%
- Chartered in Windsor
- 1818
As of 30 June 2026. Revised annually.
Money that has already been made needs keeping. That is a different trade.
Discretionary management at the house is for families whose money has already been made. The mandate is preservation, and preservation is quieter than it sounds: a short list of holdings, chosen slowly, held for years, and reviewed by people who will still be here when the holding matures.
There are no products. The bank does not manufacture funds and does not sell anyone else's. A portfolio is built from securities the house would hold on its own account, and the fee is one line, set at the desk and confirmed in writing before a dollar is placed.
The house view is set by the Chief Investment Officer and published quarterly. It is revised reluctantly.
What the wealth desk keeps.
Six things a family can place with the house, and the person who answers for each.
-
Discretionary portfolios
Mandates from ten million dollars, run by the wealth desk under Miriam Okafor. Built to be forgotten about, on purpose: few positions, held for years, and a third generation that inherits holdings rather than surprises. Cash is a position, and it is often the largest.
-
The house view
Published quarterly by the Chief Investment Officer, Alistair Finch, since 2016. Four pages. It says what the house holds and why, what it declined, and what changed since the last one. It has never contained a forecast.
-
Trusts and family governance
Desmond Achebe-Hall sits in the corner of the family meeting, reads what counsel has drafted, and says which clauses a bank can act on without waking anyone. Trustee services, family constitutions, and the meeting where the next generation hears how the money is kept.
-
Philanthropy
Foundations, donor-advised funds, and direct gifts, administered by the same desk that runs the rest of the balance sheet. Grants are paid on the day you name. There is no gala and no plaque unless you ask for one.
-
Reporting you can read at breakfast
One statement a month, on paper, fingerprinted. Positions at cost and at market, income, fees, and the ledger movements behind them. Written for the client, not the auditor, though the auditor can verify the same page.
-
What it costs
One fee, a percentage of assets, set at the desk and confirmed in writing before a dollar is placed. No performance fee, no product fees, no custody charge. If the number changes, you hear it from your banker before you see it on a statement.
How the house invests.
Four steps, in the order they happen. Nothing is bought before the first, and nothing is reported before the third.
01 Preservation first
Before any security is considered, the desk agrees with the family the loss it could bear without changing its plans. That number governs everything after it. The house has never run a mandate whose first question was the return.
02 The short list
The Chief Investment Officer keeps a list of roughly forty businesses the house would own on its own account. Portfolios are built from that list and nothing else. Additions are rare. The reasons for every removal are minuted and read again a decade later.
03 Custody
Every position sits in the bank’s own custody, under Ines Marchetti, reconciled daily against the ledger. There is no sub-custodian to call and no omnibus account to unpick. Title is yours, possession is ours, and both appear on the statement.
04 Reporting
The statement is the report; there is no second document. Once a year the desk sits with the family, reads the year back, and says what it would change. Usually nothing. Any page can be verified by anyone you choose to show it to, without asking the bank.
The wealth desk, in numbers.
Twelve months to 30 June 2026.
- 28 Positions in a typical discretionary account
- 11% Turnover across discretionary accounts in the last twelve months
- 9 Ideas declined for each one funded
- 43 House views published since 2016, none with a forecast
Begin with a conversation.
A mandate starts with a meeting at Main Street, a number the family can bear to lose, and a banker who writes both down.