After Penta Advisory Monaco SAM, and Penta Asset Management SA in Switzerland, the tandem Maurice Benezra, founder of the Group, and Franck Biancheri created Penta Monaco Multi Family Office SAM, a wealth management services company, at the beginning of the year. Franck Biancheri, former Minister Plenipotentiary for Foreign and International Financial Affairs, explains his strategy.
Why did you set up an MFO when you already owned an Investment Advisory Company?
We created a Multi Family Office because Monegasque law does not currently allow a management company, which we would like to be in the near future, to offer the services of an MFO. We have therefore decided to create an ad hoc structure. Our country has its own specificities, different from those of other financial centres such as Luxembourg, but we must nevertheless offer a complete range of services, dedicated to residents, newcomers and prospects that we canvass internationally. The MFO vehicle is a means of offering these services, of providing expertise in various fields, with responses adapted to the profile of the clientele. It is essential to create a relationship of trust, which this type of service should normally allow in the medium to long term.
What services are requested?
The services offered are numerous: without being exhaustive, they range from assistance in setting up in the Principality of Monaco for selected natural persons, to assistance and advice in the exercise of an economic activity, property and real estate engineering and often private international law.
Your clients are essentially Monegasque?
50% of our clients are Monegasque residents; the other 50% are European and Middle Eastern clients. As the business is very demanding, you have to have the wisdom to develop in stages by structuring yourself in such a way as to offer the same quality of services. Our clientele consists in most cases of entrepreneurs who act with prudence and reason.
Isn't there a risk, without financial approval, that MFOs will approach luxury concierge services?
I don't think so, our approach is very different: to provide our clients with a set of advices and adapted solutions on complex issues that go far beyond luxury concierge services. I would add that the team structuring our MFO, made up of Maurice Benezra, Martin Peake, and myself, has real expertise acquired through its international experience with leading banking institutions.
Does the financial center have an interest in the development of MFOs?
The MFO has its full place in Monaco's ecosystem. It provides solutions to individuals who could not be structured as a Single Family Office, it facilitates the transfer of financial assets in the Principality of Monaco which develops the banking market, it contributes to better structuring in certain cases the Company Service Providers... Moreover Monaco is an ideal State to offer Family Office services given the quality of its infrastructures and its regulatory environment.
In conclusion, it contributes to Monaco's attractiveness.
