Introduction: The Illusion of Control
Families bounce between lawyers, tax planners and investment advisers, cobbling together a fragile mosaic of opinions. The result? High fees, blurred accountability, and structures that unravel the minute someone dies, remarries or sells up. That’s not wealth management, it’s legacy roulette.
The problem isn’t bad advice. It’s bad architecture.
What most families lack isn’t another fund, or another tax wrapper. It’s a structure that actually supports the weight of their ambition. That’s what the Mural Crown SAFO delivers and it does it without compromise.
I saw this up close recently with a client in his early 60s. He had sold a business for eight figures, only to realise he had no real plan. His advisers gave him spreadsheets, forecasts, and jargon. We gave him a single question: “If you disappeared tomorrow, what happens to all this?” That question changed everything. It always does.
What Is the Mural Crown SAFO?
Think of the SAFO as the anti-family office.
It’s not a product. It’s not a private bank. And it’s definitely not a consultancy. It’s a legal structure, fully self-contained, that allows families to operate like a private institution, with none of the legacy drag.
At the heart of a SAFO is a bespoke Family Investment Company, stitched together with ironclad articles and custom share classes. Control doesn’t sit with individuals. It sits in the framework, passed on but never watered down.
The anatomy looks like this:
A bespoke FIC with alphabet shares for fine-grained control
Trust layers both discretionary and employee benefit, to hold value, not risk
A fiduciary layer to carry the voting rights when needed
Pre-written governance rules that eliminate the “what if” chaos
No offshore tricks. No third-party gatekeepers. No flimsy service contracts. Just structure.
“I’m tired of asking permission to use my own money”
I’ll never forget the founder who told me, “I’m tired of asking permission to use my own money.” That struck a chord with us. The SAFO is built for people who feel the same.
Core Features That Set It Apart
The real brilliance of the SAFO is that it doesn't ask families to manage complexity — it removes it altogether. Every element serves one goal: long-term control, without constant interference. It’s ownership without the noise.
1. Control Without Personal Ownership
You don’t need your name on an asset to run it. In fact, that's often the problem.
With alphabet shares and fiduciary voting rights, control stays exactly where you want it, without dragging the whole estate into your taxable shadow. It’s like steering the ship without being tied to the hull.
When my wife’s father passed, we spent six figures unwinding a mess of jointly held assets, family trusts and cross-held accounts. No one had control. Everyone had exposure. The SAFO flips that on its head, control stays; liability doesn't.
2. Asset Protection That Holds Under Pressure
This isn’t asset protection by hope, it’s by design.
Assets live inside a company, not your personal balance sheet. Trusts hold the shares. Fiduciaries hold the votes. And because it's a corporate entity with no direct personal ownership, good luck to creditors, HMRC or an angry ex trying to poke holes in it.
3. Inbuilt Tax Efficiency
No more hunting for loopholes. Tax planning isn’t bolted on, it’s baked in.
Founders can retain up to £1 million in BPR-qualifying shares (each).
Substantial Shareholder Exemption eliminates corporation tax on exits.
Preference shares let you draw tax-efficient income without inflating your estate.
You’re not reacting to legislation. You’re ahead of it, structurally.
We had a client exit a property development business for £6.2 million. By structuring via a SAFO with a holding FIC and pre-sale trust allocations, the tax bill went from £1.3 million to under £60,000. That’s not clever accounting. That’s architecture.
4. Structural Privacy That Actually Works
Here’s the thing: privacy isn’t secrecy. It’s control over what needs to be public.
The SAFO never puts the family on public registers. Trusts aren’t visible. Voting control can sit with a fiduciary. Income can be retained, timed, redirected. It’s the difference between hiding… and not being seen in the first place.
The Institutional Shift: From Family to Legacy
The biggest mistake wealthy families make. They keep thinking like families.
That sounds harsh, but it’s true. They plan for their lives, not for their lineage. They build a structure that works for them and hope it holds after they're gone. It rarely does.
The SAFO fixes that by starting with legacy. Not as a by-product, but as a blueprint.
From Advisers to Internal Governance
Ask yourself this: if something happens to you tomorrow, who decides what happens next?
If the answer involves three different advisers and a WhatsApp group, it’s not a plan. It’s a hope.
The SAFO hardcodes governance into the DNA of the structure — voting rights, dividend rules, transfer mechanics, succession terms. No more family arguments over who gets what, or which adviser to trust. It’s all locked in.
I remember a founder telling me, “I trust my daughter completely, but I don’t trust the decisions she’ll make under pressure.” That’s why we built decision-making rules not just handovers.
Built for Multi-Generational Control
The second generation inherits money. The third one loses it.
We’ve all heard that one. And sadly, we’ve all seen it happen. But it's not because the kids are reckless it's because the structure assumes the founder is still around.
The SAFO doesn’t. It assigns roles, not just assets:
Alphabet shares split decision rights across generations.
Trustees and fiduciaries hold voting control when needed.
Capital is available but separated from influence.
This lets future generations adapt, without dismantling the vision that came before them.
No More Outsiders at the Table
Most families think they need a family office. What they really need is freedom from dependence.
You don’t need five firms on retainer to manage your own capital. You need a structure that removes the need for intervention in the first place.
One client put it perfectly: “I don’t want a team. I want a machine.” That’s what the SAFO is a self-governing machine that keeps working when you step away.
Case Example: From £10m Business Exit to Multi-Family Institution
Let’s strip this back to something real. Numbers, people, decisions.
In early 2024, a founder I’ll call Mr Smith called just before finalising the deal to exit his business. We had to move fast to optimise his position. Due diligence was set with a 12 month exclusivity giving us time to maximise the SSE.
“I’ve got £10 million coming in, and no idea what to do with it except not give it all to HMRC.” Classic.
What we built for him wasn’t just a post-sale wrapper. It was a full pre-exit SAFO: structured, locked, and futureproofed.
The Structure
1. The Holding Company Backbone
First, we created a bespoke Family Investment Company. Mr Smith moved his trading shares into it and got back £10m of freezer shares, fixed in value, non-voting, out of his estate. Because the company held the asset for 12 months pre-sale, it qualified for Substantial Shareholder Exemption. Result: zero corporation tax on the sale.
Had he sold personally, he’d have been looking at a CGT bill north of £2 million. Instead? The full £10 million stayed intact inside the SAFO.
2. Strategic Gifting + Control
From there, we shifted £8 million of those freezer shares into a combination of an EBT and a Family Discretionary Trust. His own shareholding dropped to £1 million, still qualifying for full BPR relief. His wife took the other £1 million, double the IHT protection, double the flexibility.
Voting shares? Held temporarily by him, with a clause to pass them automatically to a fiduciary on his death. Seamless transition, no court applications, no panic.
3. Long-Term Income, Not Leakage
This is the real kicker. Instead of yanking out cash and paying full tax, they redeemed shares gradually, about £100k each per year, using:
£12,570 tax-free salary
£37,700 in dividends at 8.75%
The rest via share redemptions under BADR
Effective rate: under 18%, and zero drag on the capital itself. The pot keeps working, untouched.
4. The Result
Here’s what that one move achieved:
£10m fully retained, no CGT, no corporation tax
Long-term income at low effective rates
Intergenerational control with zero outside input
Complete privacy and total internal governance
He didn’t just sell a business. He created a family institution that’ll outlive him by 50 years. When he showed the setup to his old accountant, the man just shook his head and said, “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
That’s the point. Just like the structures we create, Mural Crown is unique.
Why This Is the Biggest Advance in Modern Wealth Management
Most wealth strategies are just damage control with a suit on. They react to risk. The SAFO removes it.
This isn’t a clever wrapper or an updated trust deed. It’s a system, complete, permanent, and owned by the family, not the market.
1. No Drag. No Leakage. No Intermediaries.
With a SAFO, there’s no private bank taking a percentage. No legal firm invoicing you for minor tweaks. No accountant drip-feeding ideas five years too late. Everything from income to voting rights to succession, is structurally embedded.
You’re not buying efficiency. You’re owning it.
One client told us he’d spent more in fees over ten years than he’d paid in university tuition for all three of his kids. And still didn’t have a structure that worked. That ends here.
2. Strategic Flexibility Without the Patchwork
A SAFO can:
Hold property, trading businesses, and portfolios
Make loans to family members
Employ children and pay them tax-free benefits
Control distributions through trust-owned share classes
Redeem shares instead of paying out taxable dividends
All of that. One structure. Zero drift. It’s a family engine, a machine. Adaptable and flexible but never fragile.
3. Permanent Capital. Long-Term Vision.
Family wealth shouldn’t behave like an investment fund. It should behave like a legacy.
The SAFO gives you that base. Not just for you but for the generation you’ll never meet. That’s the level of permanence we’re talking about.
When my uncle died, all that was left was a handful of property titles, two pension files and a list of “should’ve” conversations. My only promise? I wouldn’t leave my kids that same paper trail. The SAFO is the structure I wish he’d had.
What to Do Next
Let’s not pretend this is for everyone.
The SAFO isn’t built for passive investors or spreadsheet hobbyists. It’s for families who want to lead their legacy, not outsource it.
Ask Yourself Three Questions:
Are you ready to replace advisers with structure?
If you still want ten phone calls to make a decision, this isn’t for you.Do you have £1m+ in assets you care about passing on?
Doesn’t matter if it’s from business, property, or investments — the SAFO starts to sing at that level.Are you serious about building something that outlasts you?
Because that’s the real measure of wealth. Not what you earn. What you leave right.
Start Building Your SAFO
No offshore schemes. No vague family constitutions. No middlemen.
Just a clean, self-governing legal structure fully aligned to your goals, your family and your future.
The Mural Crown SAFO doesn’t ask you to trust the system. It hands you the keys to your own.
Book an initial strategy call and let’s map out what your SAFO could look like.
This isn’t about having wealth. It’s about commanding it.
From capital… to institution. From noise… to permanence.
Let’s build something that holds. Forever.
