A family with a portfolio, two properties and an operating company is usually asset-rich and, at the exact moment a transaction appears, short of available cash. The instinctive answer is to sell something. It is almost always the most expensive answer, because a sale is permanent, it is taxed, and it removes an asset that was doing its job in order to solve a problem that was temporary.
Our work here is narrow and deliberate. We look at what the family owns, identify which of it can support borrowing and on what terms, and prepare the financing so the liquidity arrives without dismantling the structure that took years to build.
The situations that bring families here
- A transaction that has to be funded before an existing asset can be sold
- Liquidity for a succession or a settlement between heirs, without forcing a sale
- Buying out a family branch or a minority holder in the family company
- Refinancing scattered personal borrowing into one structure that can be managed
- Releasing capital from an unencumbered property while keeping the property and its income
- Financing raised in one country against assets held in another
What we do, and what we do not do
We do not manage money. Montclare does not hold client assets, does not run portfolios, does not select investments and does not give investment advice. Those activities are regulated and they belong to the family's bank, custodian or licensed adviser, who continues to do them exactly as before.
What we do is the financing side: read the estate as a lender reads it, work out what can be pledged and what should never be, prepare the file, and place the transaction with institutions that lend against this kind of security. When a portfolio is the collateral, it stays with its existing custodian and stays invested; what changes is a charge sitting over it, and that charge ends when the debt does.
What is examined first
Which assets are genuinely unencumbered and who legally owns each one, which is rarely as tidy as the family believes. What is held inside companies and what is held personally, because the two borrow on very different terms. Where each asset sits, since a lender in one country will treat foreign security as an added cost and a longer process. What income the estate actually produces after tax, as opposed to what it is worth. And what the family will not put at risk under any circumstances, which is the first thing we ask and the boundary the structure is built around.
See: Lombard lending → · Download the equity release whitepaper →