Yann Mrazek
Yann Mrazek
Managing Partner | M/HQ
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Family Office
Fiduciary
Office Location
United Arab Emirates
Short Biography
Yann Mrazek, Managing Partner M/HQ. With 17+ years of Gulf presence, he has vast experience advising successful individuals and entrepreneurial families with Middle Eastern exposure on implementing intergenerational wealth transfer strategies and structuring their operational assets and global wealth through Family- and Group- Holdings, Single- and Multi- Family offices, Foundations and other asset consolidation/protection and legacy structures. He is also regularly involved in the ongoing management of corporate structures incorporated by M/HQ – as a board member, council member, guardian or protector, and a solicited speaker on these themes. Under Yann’s leadership, M/HQ is a 7-time winner of the WealthBriefing Awards 'Best Estate Planning Team' [2016 – 2022] and 2-time recipient of 'Best Foundation Creation', and 'Best Family Office Advisory Firm' [2022, 2023].
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Sunita Singh-Dalal
Sunita Singh-Dalal
Partner, Head of Private Wealth & Family Offices | Hourani & Partners
JURISDICTION
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, India, England and Wales
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Family Governance and Business
Family Office
Office Location
United Arab Emirates
Short Biography
Sunita advises significant business families, private clients, trustees, private banks, regulatory authorities and foreign law firms on Cross Border Estate and Succession Planning, Wealth Management, formulating and implementing Family Codes of Governance, Family Constitutions and establishing Family Offices. Sunita is internationally known for dedicating time to teaching and spreading awareness of current legal and practical updates and developments in the regional private wealth sector. She is a full member of STEP and regularly chairs international wealth management forums, being highly respected by the Global Private Client Industry. Sunita is regarded as a leading authority on Middle Eastern private client issues by global private wealth industry groups and has been consistently ranked by Chambers and Partners as a Private Client and High Net Worth Adviser. She received the 2022 Private Client Lawyer of the Year Award and promotes women's empowerment in MENA and SW Asia.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
With the introduction of legislation in the Middle East focused on protecting and sustaining family businesses together with recent fiscal incentives, I expect a consistent increase in the number of family offices being established. Codes of Governance incorporated within cross-border succession plans will inevitably become more prevalent.
Robin Rathmell
Robin Rathmell
Partner | Kasowitz Benson Torres
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Dispute Resolution or Arbitration
Reputation and Crisis Management
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
United States
Short Biography
Robin Rathmell, Co-Chair of Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP’s International Disputes team, is a renowned international litigator representing high-net-worth individuals and institutions in litigation involving allegations of fraud, money laundering and other forms of misconduct. Dual-qualified as an English barrister and U.S. lawyer, Rob formulates offensive and defensive global litigation strategies for international clients, including in relation to civil and criminal asset forfeiture, trusts, commercial and insolvency litigation, INTERPOL, and international sanctions regimes. Rob's engagements always span multiple jurisdictions, legal systems and asset-holding structures. He has acted as counsel in cases involving the world’s key offshore financial centers, as well as Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas. In addition to his regular interface with U.S. regulatory and intelligence agencies, Rob has extensive experience coordinating legal strategies in matters involving actions brought by non-U.S. authorities, requiring sensitive negotiations with government agencies across multiple jurisdictions.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
HaSalon in Tel Aviv
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Follow Mark Twain’s advice: "If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything."
What was your first job?
Gardening
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Making progress on sanctions remediation as geopolitical trends shift.
Nina Auchoybur
Nina Auchoybur
Managing Director - UAE | Ocorian
JURISDICTION
United Arab Emirates
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Family Office
Fiduciary
Office Location
United Arab Emirates
Short Biography
Nina has over 20 years’ experience working in the Global Business sector, part of which was spent at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Mauritius. She also worked for two years in the banking sector heading the operations department of a financial institution. An executive of Ocorian since June 2008, Nina has been leading the firm’s operations in the Middle‐East for the past 9 years. She also serves as director on the board of several multinationals in the UAE
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Fogo de Chao, DIFC
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
You should never stop trying. You learn more in failure than in success.
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
The Family Office for Advisers by STEP
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
A focus on family office and Private clients in terms of setting up of private client structures and administering those structures to be in line with the evolving regulations and demands of the jurisdiction.
Nicholas Warr
Nicholas Warr
Senior Partner and Head of International Private Wealth | Taylor Wessing
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Trusts: Planning
Tax Advisory
Office Location
United Kingdom
Short Biography
Nick is a Senior Partner and Head of International Private Wealth at Taylor Wessing. He specialises in advising UHNW individuals and families with interests mainly on fiscal and succession planning. Nick's practice is international in nature, and he represents individuals, families and family offices in the Middle East, the USA and Europe, as well as the UK. Most of his clients have personal and business interests in several different jurisdictions. Nick has a particular focus on advising individuals from the finance industry on all aspects of their personal and corporate structuring. Nick has led Taylor Wessing’s Private Wealth group for the last eight years and during that time it has become widely recognised as one of the very few international practices able to offer a fully integrated service for UHNW families.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Chutney Mary
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Strive for the best but prepare for the worst.
What was your first job?
Postman
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Eat that Frog
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Increased internationalisation
Maya Prabhu
Maya Prabhu
Managing Director, Head of Wealth Advisory Services EMEA | J.P. Morgan Private Bank
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Family Governance and Business
Family Office
Private Banking
Office Location
United Kingdom
Short Biography
Maya leads the Wealth Advisory practice across the EMEA region and the Family Governance practice for the International private Bank. She helps individuals and families articulate the goals for their wealth and then advises on strategies to hold, protect and transfer their wealth and on the establishment or review of their family offices. She advises families on strategies to plan for and support the continuity of their wealth and family businesses to the next generation. In this realm, her areas of focus include developing family governance (including processes for developing culture, teamwork and communication), next generation engagement and development, and in crafting effective and rewarding philanthropy strategies. She has helped many individuals and families to capture their agreements in their own Mission Statement or Family Constitution. Maya is experienced in working with families from a range of cultures including the UK, across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Always be 'gruntled'!
What was your first job?
Sub editor at a book publishers!
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Complete Family Wealth by James Hughes et al
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Mark Leale
Mark Leale
Head of Dubai Office | Quilter Cheviot
JURISDICTION
Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jersey, Guernsey
TOP SPECIALISMS
Asset Management
Office Location
United Arab Emirates
Short Biography
I started my private banking career with Lloyds Bank International in Guernsey in 1992. Following 3 years with the bank based in the Isle of Man, I relocated to Dubai in 2002. I now head the Dubai office for Quilter Cheviot, based in the DIFC and have been with the firm since 2016. I have a broad experience in working with private clients in the Middle East and globally, often in collaboration with other professional advisers. Quilter Cheviot specialises in the provision of discretionary portfolio management services. Portfolios can be held in our three booking centres; the UK mainland, Jersey or Dublin.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Roberto's, DIFC
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
To be curious
What was your first job?
Account Executive at Lloyds Private Banking in Guernsey
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
We expect that private clients will increasingly seek to appoint professional investment managers, moving away from advisory relationships
Jonathan Conder
Jonathan Conder
Partner - Private Wealth | Stephenson Harwood
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Family Office
Trusts: Planning
Tax Advisory
Office Location
London, United Kingdom
Short Biography
Jonathan is a partner in Stephenson Harwood’s private wealth group and advises UK and international private clients, trustees, foundations, family offices and private banks on all aspects of tax, trust, estate and succession planning, regulatory, immigration and philanthropic issues. He also has significant experience in assisting families and trustees in responding to tax investigations and resolving disputes.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
The Ned
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
"You make your own luck"
What was your first job?
Newspaper round, aged 13
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
"The Firm"
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
More use of AI
James von Simson
James von Simson
Partner | Evelyn Partners
JURISDICTION
England and Wales, Jersey, Guernsey, Switzerland, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, The Bahamas, Cayman Islands
TOP SPECIALISMS
Asset Management
Family Governance and Business
Family Office
Office Location
United Kingdom
Short Biography
James specialises in advising multi-generational and multi-jurisdictional families on their investments, family governance, wealth preservation, and philanthropic strategies. Having begun his career at Citigroup in 2005 as part of the Mergers & Acquisitions team in Frankfurt, he joined Evelyn Partners in 2016. Along with the day-to-day management of investment portfolios, James is also one of the firm’s research specialists with responsibility for Global Equity funds. James sits on both the STEP Worldwide Council and the CISI International Committee. He is also an Ambassador for the Diversity Project.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Depending on their spice capacity; Bibi (Indian), Chishuru (West African), Endo (Japanese), Luca (Italian)
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Those who speak the loudest rarely know the most
What was your first job?
Film extra (blink and you miss roles)
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
A greater respect for patience over fomo
Filippo Turato
Filippo Turato
Member of Executive Committee | Capital Trustees AG
JURISDICTION
Switzerland, Europe, LatAm, Middle East
TOP SPECIALISMS
Family Office
Trusts & Trusteeship
Trusts: Planning
Office Location
Switzerland
Short Biography
Filippo Turato is member of the Executive Committee at Capital Trustees AG, based in Zürich and Lugano. He specializes in implementing international wealth planning solutions for HNW families, dealing with key clients across Europe, LATAM and Middle East. At Capital Trustees, Filippo offers his technical advice on cross-border trust structures and on family office and corporate practices, with a focus on Private Trust Companies. Filippo graduated in Law at Bocconi University in Milan and started his career in an Italian leading law firm, where he regularly contributed to academic publications and conferences. Since then, he built a strong expertise and knowledge in trust-related services, from the initial set-up to day-to-day administration. Filippo is full member of STEP, Chair of STEP Lugano and former Chair of STEP Verein. He is also a member of the Swiss & Liechtenstein STEP Federation conference organizing committee and member of the International Fiscal Association (IFA).
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Baur's Brasserie in Zürich
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
When I was younger, my father always used to remind me "Neminem Laedere"
What was your first job?
Stewarding in a theater during my high school years
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
In establishing trust structures, the current geopolitical instability will accelerate the trend of international families looking for solid regulatory frameworks and sophisticated governance solutions, aimed at providing continuity to family businesses.