Our strategy suite covers four principal approaches to capital protection — each designed to reduce downside risk without sacrificing the long-term real value of your assets.
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Capital protection is often misunderstood as simply holding cash or buying government bonds. In a world of persistent inflation and evolving tax regimes, that approach erodes real wealth steadily. At Hartwell & Sinclair, protection means maintaining and, where appropriate, growing purchasing power across a rolling twenty-year horizon — while keeping drawdown risk within agreed parameters at every point along the way. We achieve this through a combination of structured notes with principal guarantees, diversified insurance wrappers, liability-matched fixed-income portfolios, and alternative risk-transfer mechanisms. Each strategy is bespoke, stress-tested under historical and synthetic scenarios, and reviewed formally at least twice per year.
Each pillar addresses a distinct dimension of capital risk, and most client mandates combine elements from two or more.
We source and negotiate structured notes issued by investment-grade European banks that provide full or partial principal protection at maturity. Participation rates, barrier levels, and underlying exposures are selected to match each client's risk tolerance and liquidity requirements. We independently verify the issuer credit risk before recommending any structure.
Unit-linked and with-profits life insurance wrappers issued in Luxembourg and Liechtenstein offer creditor protection, estate planning efficiency, and favourable Romanian tax treatment on long-term capital growth. We design and oversee the investment policy inside each wrapper, selecting underlying sub-funds consistent with a preservation mandate.
For clients with known future obligations — school fees, property acquisitions, business succession — we construct fixed-income ladders denominated in EUR or RON that mature in alignment with those cashflow requirements. Duration, credit quality, and currency are managed continuously to prevent unintended interest-rate or inflation risk.
Tail-risk hedging through exchange-traded options, commodity allocations as an inflation hedge, and selective allocations to uncorrelated real assets form the fourth pillar of our toolkit. These instruments are deployed judiciously — as genuine protective overlays, not as speculative positions in a different guise.
A new mandate begins with a two-session discovery process — the first session focuses on your financial history, obligations, and objectives; the second on your psychological relationship with risk and loss. From this foundation we draft a Capital Protection Statement, a plain-language document that codifies your goals, constraints, and the agreed strategy structure. Implementation typically takes between four and twelve weeks, depending on the complexity of existing holdings that need to be restructured. Thereafter, we conduct formal biannual reviews and issue written progress reports against the original objectives. Clients also have direct access to their named advisor by telephone and email at any time.
“The Capital Protection Statement that Hartwell & Sinclair produced for our family after our first two sessions was unlike any document a financial firm had ever given us. It read like a legal brief — precise, referenced, and honest about what could and could not be guaranteed. Twelve months in, the structured notes they recommended absorbed the 2023 rate rises with no loss of principal. We sleep better.”
Elena V., Cluj-Napoca — family office client
Our current minimum mandate size is 250,000 EUR equivalent, as the bespoke structuring work we undertake is not economically viable for smaller portfolios. For clients approaching this threshold, we are happy to conduct an introductory call to discuss timing and preparation.
We charge a fixed advisory retainer, agreed in advance and set out in a written engagement letter. There are no asset-under-management percentage fees, no performance fees, and no commissions of any kind. The retainer covers the full discovery process, strategy design, implementation oversight, and the two annual formal reviews.
Yes. A significant proportion of our clients hold assets in Luxembourg, Austria, Germany, and the UK. We do not custody assets ourselves — we advise on their structuring and coordinate with the relevant custodians, trustees, and local advisors to implement agreed changes. We always recommend clients retain independent legal counsel in each jurisdiction involved.
The Capital Protection Statement is a living document. If a major life event occurs — inheritance, business exit, divorce, or relocation — you contact your named advisor directly and we schedule an unscheduled review at no additional charge. Adapting the structure to new circumstances is part of the core service, not an add-on.
Send us a brief description of your situation and we will respond within one business day to arrange an introductory call.
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