Membership
On becoming a member.
Aurelius Aegis is a small house and intends to stay one. New relationships begin with an introduction and a conversation, and go forward only where there is real fit on both sides. What follows is a brief account of how that happens, and of what we ask of one another.
Most of those who come to us arrive at a particular moment: when the people and firms looking after a life have multiplied to the point that the life itself has become a thing to be administered. The remedy is rarely another adviser. It is a single relationship with the standing to hold everything, and the discretion to be trusted with it.
That relationship cannot be sold in the ordinary sense, because what it depends on is judgment, and judgment has to be earned in both directions. We are choosing as carefully as you are. The conversation below is the one we have, in some form, with every family we eventually serve.
Whom we work with
A small number of families, by introduction.
Principals
Individuals whose affairs have outgrown the assistants, advisers and firms that once managed them, and who would rather one relationship held the whole than ten held the parts.
Family offices
Offices that run lean by intention, and want the reach of a far larger operation without the cost, or the compromise, of building one themselves.
Sovereign households
Households that carry the complexity of an institution and the sensitivity of a state, where confidentiality is not a preference but a condition of working at all.
Established families
Families that think in decades rather than years, and who treat their residences, jurisdictions and succession as a single, continuing matter rather than a series of transactions.
Trusted advisers
The bankers, lawyers and counsellors who introduce the principals they serve, and who prefer a partner that works quietly alongside them to one that works around them.
The next generation
Heirs who will one day hold what their family built, and for whom continuity of counsel, record and relationship matters more than any single transaction.
How it begins
From a first conversation to an invitation.
Inquiry
A first, unhurried conversation, held in confidence and committing you to nothing.
Review
We consider the nature of the relationship sought, and whether ours is the right house to provide it.
Introduction
A senior member of the office meets you in person, usually on more than one occasion.
Assessment
We come to understand your circumstances, your standards, and the people already around you.
Invitation
Where the fit is genuine on both sides, membership is offered. It is not bought.
What we look for
We are candid about this, because the relationship depends on it. We look for people we can trust with a great deal and who, in turn, trust us; whose reputations we are glad to stand beside; and with whom we can picture working not for a season but for a generation. Compatibility weighs more heavily than size. We have declined relationships we could have served perfectly well, and we expect to again.
Categories of membership
Four standings, shaped to the family.
Terms are not published. They are discussed privately, once it is clear that a relationship makes sense.
Private
For those entering a single relationship for the conduct of their personal affairs.
Elite
For established principals and family offices working across several homes and jurisdictions.
Sovereign
For the largest private fortunes and single-family offices that require dedicated, separated service.
Chairman's Circle
For royal and sovereign households, where the household itself has the weight of an institution.
A first conversation
Write to the office.
If any of this is familiar, we would be glad to talk. An introduction is the usual way to begin, though not the only one. A note will reach the right person, and will be read in confidence.