Reviewed by Hugo Gonçalves, Founder & Risk Management Specialist at Adler & Rochefort · Degree in Business Management (University of Hertfordshire) · Ongoing training at the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), London.
A family office exists to hold a family’s wealth together across generations, companies and countries. Its insurance usually does the opposite: a D&O policy bought for one company, a home policy for each house, a yacht insured where it was bought, a life policy arranged years ago by a private bank — none of them written with the others in mind.
We work with single-family offices and the families behind them in Portugal and Spain to see the whole picture first — people, entities and assets — and then to place each risk where it is underwritten properly, in writing, with one adviser from the first review to any claim.
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A single-family office manages the investments, companies, properties and affairs of one family; a multi-family office does the same for several families as a regulated or professional business. In Portugal and Spain the structure is often a holding company — a Portuguese sociedade gestora de participações sociais or a Spanish sociedad holding — sometimes sitting alongside a foundation, or alongside trusts governed by a foreign law, with family members, non-family executives and household staff spread across Lisbon, Cascais, the Algarve, Madrid, Marbella or the Balearics.
That shape changes what can go wrong. Decisions are taken by a small group of people who are both owners and managers, often on behalf of relatives. Money moves in large amounts between entities and countries. The assets are visible. And the people involved — principals, next-generation family members, trusted employees — are personally exposed in ways a conventional corporate insurance programme was never designed to answer.
The review we do starts by mapping those three layers against the policies that exist today. It is the overlaps and the gaps between them, far more than any single policy, that cause problems.
Not every family needs every line. These are the ones we look at in a first review, and the reason each one matters.
Personal liability of directors and officers for management decisions, including claims from family shareholders, creditors and regulators — with a Side A layer that protects the individual when the company cannot indemnify. Read more
Cover for individuals who act as trustees, protectors or foundation board members, where the duty is fiduciary and the claim usually comes from within the family. Read more
Several residences in Portugal and Spain, contents, art and a yacht under a coordinated programme with agreed values and one renewal date where the market allows it. Read more
Social engineering, invoice and CEO fraud, employee dishonesty and cyber incidents in the family office — and in the family’s own devices and accounts. Read more
Specialist crisis-response consultants and reimbursement cover for the family, staff and guests, arranged with the confidentiality the class requires. Read more
Life cover that provides liquidity when it is most needed — for succession tax in Spain, for buying out a sibling, or to keep a company running after a key person dies. Read more
A family office that works in both countries deals with two legal systems. These are the points that most often affect the insurance; the legal and tax analysis itself belongs with the family’s lawyers and tax advisers.
| Portugal | Spain | |
|---|---|---|
| Directors’ liability | Directors answer to the company, shareholders and creditors under the Código das Sociedades Comerciais. In a sociedade anónima, art. 396 requires directors to post a bond, which can be replaced by liability insurance, unless the law allows it to be waived. | Directors answer to the company, shareholders and creditors under the Ley de Sociedades de Capital (arts. 236 ff.), and can become jointly liable for company debts arising after a legal cause for dissolution if they fail to act on it (art. 367). |
| Trusts | No general domestic trust law, and Portugal has not ratified the 1985 Hague Trusts Convention. Trustees resident here usually act for trusts governed by a foreign law. | The same: no general domestic trust law, and Spain has not ratified the Hague Convention. Foundations and companies are the usual local vehicles. |
| Life insurance on death | There is no inheritance tax as such; gratuitous transfers fall under stamp duty, with spouses, descendants and ascendants exempt. Sums paid under life insurance are outside its scope (Código do Imposto do Selo, art. 1(5)(a)). | Life insurance paid to a beneficiary who is not the policyholder is subject to the Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y Donaciones (Ley 29/1987, art. 3.1.c). Reliefs and rates depend heavily on the autonomous community. |
| How we place the risk | From our head office in Lisbon, with insurers authorised in Portugal and specialist markets. | Under the EU freedom to provide services, with insurers authorised in Spain and specialist markets. |
We list the people, entities and assets, set them against the policies in force — limits, insured persons, territories, renewal dates — and send you in writing where the cover stops.
We work alongside the family’s lawyers, tax advisers and wealth managers, so that the insurance follows the structure they have designed rather than the other way round.
Each risk goes to the insurers or specialist markets that write it properly, with proposals set out side by side: cover, limits, sub-limits, excesses and exclusions.
The same person reviews values and structures at each renewal and stays with any claim until it is settled. Information about the family goes only to the markets approached on your instructions.
Tell us briefly what you would like to protect, and where. We reply in writing, in English, within 24 hours, with a first assessment and the information an underwriter will need. No call is required at any stage.
By sending this form you agree to us using your details to prepare and discuss the cover, in line with our privacy policy. We never sell your data, and we do not publish client names or details of what we insure.
We will reply in writing within 24 hours.