CONTINGENCY PLANNING
The most comprehensive project a family will ever undertake.
Most families prepare for death.
Very few prepare for situations in which the person at the centre of the family system is still alive, but unable, unavailable or no longer in a position to manage it.
Loss of legal capacity. Serious illness or prolonged unconsciousness.
Mental or behavioural changes before formal incapacity is established.
Disappearance or prolonged unavailability.
Regulatory restrictions, asset freezes or loss of access to banking and corporate structures.
A breakdown involving a business partner, nominee, trustee, asset manager or key Family Office executive.
In these circumstances, a will may not operate at all. Yet decisions still have to be made, businesses managed, assets protected, liquidity secured and the family supported.
A FAMILY IS NOT AN ASSET.
IT IS A LEGACY THAT LEARNS TO SURVIVE EVERY GENERATION.
A Contingency Plan is not a legal document
It is a comprehensive operational framework designed to ensure that the family and its structures can continue to function when the usual decision-maker cannot.
In practice, contingency planning often becomes the single project that brings together every aspect of a family’s wealth, governance and operating structures into one coordinated framework.
It determines:
-
who has authority to make which decisions.
-
who represents the family in dealing with trustees, banks, asset managers, business partners and other key advisers.
-
how trustees, directors, nominees and other key individuals are replaced if they become unable to perform their roles or are no longer available.
-
where critical information is held and who has secure access to documentation, Data Rooms and essential records.
-
how powers of attorney, signing authorities and access rights are organised and transferred.
-
how informal agreements, guarantees and personal obligations are identified and documented.
-
how the business continues to operate.
-
how liquidity is made available both for the family’s ongoing needs and for managing the contingency itself.
-
what the spouse and other key family members need to understand and be prepared to do.
One Project.
Multiple Disciplines
Effective contingency planning extends far beyond private law.
It requires expertise across family governance, succession planning, trusts and foundations, wealth structuring, banking, taxation, corporate structures, business continuity, cross-border planning and family dynamics.
The challenge is not simply understanding each discipline. It is understanding how they interact—and designing a framework in which every element continues to function together under unexpected circumstances.
Every Plan is Bespoke
No two families share the same ownership structures.
The same jurisdictions.
The same businesses.
The same governance.
The same relationships.
Or the same risks.
For that reason, contingency planning is never based on templates.
It is designed around one family, one structure and one reality.
Assets can be inherited.
Continuity must be designed.