2.4 Evidence-Led Implementation
The research programme is not decorative; it disciplines the portfolio. The central finding of the library's quantitative work is that, measured with listed proxies over 21 years, the consensus allocation's private-market sleeves added risk, cost, and illiquidity without adding return over a simple public-market benchmark — the listed private-equity proxy tracked world equities at a correlation of 0.95. Where the evidence shows an exposure is not compensating the risk it carries, the implementation of the Core Portfolio reflects that finding: the same economic exposure is delivered through liquid, transparent, lower-cost instruments. Every departure from the raw consensus is documented in the research library, with the analysis it rests on. When the evidence changes, so does the implementation — in writing.
2.5 Irish Implementation — Tax-Aware by Design
The portfolio is implemented for Irish-resident families with the Irish tax framework designed in from the start, not applied afterwards. The distinction between the capital gains tax and exit tax regimes — 33% with loss relief and the step-up at death, against 38% with eight-year deemed disposals and neither — changes the after-tax ranking of otherwise similar instruments. Annex C analyses this asset class by asset class, covering fund and ETF domicile, pension wrappers, and estate considerations, and the implementation follows that analysis.
2.6 Custody, Safeguarding, and Risk
Client assets are held through a regulated Irish investment platform and custodian, in structures beneficially owned by the member family. SMP MFO does not take custody of client assets and cannot move client money to itself beyond the disclosed fees.
The Core Portfolio is a long-horizon investment. Its value will rise and fall, capital is at risk, and there are no guarantees. The research library documents, rather than obscures, the historical drawdowns of the consensus allocation. Families for whom a temporary decline of the 2008 order would be intolerable should size their commitment accordingly — and we will help them do so honestly at intake.
2.7 Bespoke Investments Around the Core
The Consensus Portfolio is the core of the investment proposition — but it is not a cage. Families hold, inherit, and pursue investments of their own: direct property, operating businesses, private shareholdings, art, wine, classic vehicles. The service is built so that these hang around the core, properly.
Bespoke and direct holdings are integrated into the consolidated monthly reporting, so total family wealth is always visible as one number. Where the family wants support — with an acquisition, a disposal, a restructuring, the tax consequences of any of them — the full weight of the service is available on request. Where the family prefers its own advisers, or its own hands on a holding, that control stays exactly where it is: these are your assets, run your way. Insurable assets can enter the Unified Risk Programme (Section 4). And every direct holding is considered in the whole-portfolio view the Relationship Manager maintains, so concentration, liquidity, and estate consequences are seen in context.
A point of honesty about how this sits with our research. The research library's caution about private markets concerns paying pooled fund fees for market beta at consensus scale. A family's own enterprise, property, or collection is a different thing entirely: it is chosen, controlled, and often central to the family's identity and income. Our job is not to argue you out of it. Our job is to hold it properly — reported, structured, insured, and understood in the context of everything else you own.
3. One Relationship
3.1 Coordination as a Service
Each member family is served by a dedicated Relationship Manager — the single point of contact through whom all services, instructions, and communications run. The Relationship Manager holds the complete, current view of the family's financial affairs, briefs every professional in full context before an instruction is issued, and manages execution end to end. The role carries no sales mandate: performance is measured on the accuracy and currency of reporting, the speed and quality of coordination, proactive communication, and member satisfaction.
| Without SMP MFO | With SMP MFO |
|---|
| Multiple professional relationships, each operating within its own discipline | One Relationship Manager coordinating every professional with full context |
| No single entity holding the complete financial picture of the family | A consolidated view of total wealth — liquid and illiquid — maintained at all times |
| Modest leverage with individual advisers; standard service levels apply | Institutional leverage and preferential SLAs across the full professional panel |
| The family's own time required to initiate, drive, and follow up on instructions | Instructions placed through a single contact; execution managed end to end |
| Gaps between disciplines go unaddressed until they crystallise as problems | Proactive identification of gaps, risks, and opportunities across all disciplines |
| Adviser incentives not always aligned with the family's interests | Fees fully disclosed; no third-party payments accepted under any circumstances |
3.2 Full Service — The Perimeter
Integrated reporting — the full wealth picture. The Core Portfolio is the primary managed asset; most families hold much else besides — legacy portfolios and pensions, direct shareholdings, property, business interests, private holdings, and specialist assets from art and wine to classic vehicles. All of it is integrated into the reporting platform, with non-liquid assets connected through professional valuation feeds, producing a single monthly view of total family net worth.
Professional advisory network — legal, tax, and accounting under SLA. A panel of Irish legal, tax, and accounting firms operates under service level agreements negotiated on behalf of the membership — covering trust and estate documentation, property transactions, shareholder agreements, family constitutions, personal and corporate compliance, CGT and CAT planning, cross-border structuring, pensions and succession, multi-entity consolidation, and financial modelling. Advisers are briefed on the family's full context before any instruction is issued and communicate exclusively through the Relationship Manager. A defined allocation of professional services is included in the retainer; work beyond it is billed at pre-negotiated Schedule Rates, disclosed and agreed before any engagement, at cost with no markup.
Private insurance — the Unified Risk Programme. The family's entire insurable estate, consolidated into one bespoke programme and managed end to end by the Relationship Manager. Significant enough to warrant its own section: Section 4.
Lifestyle concierge. A professional third-party concierge handles travel and aviation, private dining and events, domestic logistics, and day-to-day requirements, with all requests placed through the Relationship Manager. A defined credit is included in the retainer; usage beyond it is billed at cost.
ONE POINT OF CONTACT — Investment reporting · legal, tax and accounting instructions · the insurance programme, renewals and claims · concierge · the wealth dashboard, document vault and quarterly statement · events and seminars · escalation to the SMP investment or professional services desk. One number. One person. The full picture.
4. Insurance — The Unified Risk Programme
Significant families rarely have an insurance programme. They have an accumulation of policies — bought at different times, from different brokers, on different renewal dates, with cover that has drifted away from what the family actually owns. The result is quietly expensive: overlaps that are paid for twice, gaps that surface only at claim time, valuations years out of date, and renewal admin that lands on the family.
The SMP Unified Risk Programme replaces that accumulation with a single, bespoke programme covering the family's entire insurable estate. It is arranged through an institutional insurance partner, specified around the family's actual holdings, benchmarked at every renewal, and managed in its entirety by the Relationship Manager. Members do not deal with the insurer — for placement, renewal, or claims.
| Property & Motor | Specialist & Named Risks |
|---|
| Primary residence & contents | Fine art, antiques & collections |
| Residential investment properties | Jewellery, watches & valuables |
| Commercial investment properties | Yachts & marine craft |
| Holiday homes & international property | Private aircraft & aviation assets |
| Full motor fleet | Wine cellars & cellar stocks |
| Classic & vintage vehicles | Other named & specialist risks |
Because the programme is specified from the same consolidated asset register that drives the family's reporting, cover and reality stay aligned: when a property is acquired, a vehicle added, or a collection revalued, the programme is updated as part of the same instruction — not discovered as a gap two years later. Claims are managed by the Relationship Manager from first notification to settlement.
THE SAME FEE STANDARDS APPLY — SMP accepts no commission from the insurer or any intermediary. Premiums are placed at market terms, benchmarked at renewal, and any volume benefit negotiated for the membership is passed through in full. The programme exists to protect the family's assets, not to generate income for SMP.
