ESG and the Family Office
ESG issues are intricately linked with preserving and enhancing private wealth and the importance of private capital in addressing ESG-related challenges must not be underestimated.
Often viewed through the lens of “family vision” or “family values”, and carried through generations of a family, an increasing proportion of private wealth is invested using ESG principles.
Family-run businesses are increasingly sensitive to their ESG impacts and how their businesses are perceived from an ESG perspective.
Macfarlanes has a long history of supporting family offices and families, and can assist on the wide range of ESG related impacts, including:
- ESG and impact investing in the context of fiduciary duties;
- embedding ESG in trust deeds and other documents to effect a lasting approach to ESG;
- the strategy implications for regulated family offices;
- reputational issues including tax, tax policy, inequality, wealth, joint ventures, co-investments;
- charity and philanthropy matters;
- contractual arrangements surrounding peatland restoration and afforestation projects for landowners;
- ESG risks and opportunities for family-controlled businesses;
- advice on transition pathways and opportunity selection, performance and diversification;
- ESG in family governance and managing intergenerational dynamics; and
- advice and drafting for private clients with ESG/impact as an objective, including governance mechanisms, impact strategies, family constitutions and family policies to further objectives.
