01
Governance & board advisory
Boards that decide. We build governance around the owner — board composition, mandates, decision rights, oversight, and independent directorships where an outside seat changes the quality of the room.
Geneva · with partners in Abu Dhabi and Dubai
Trusted counsel, at your side when it matters most.
Independent, senior and personal. The most accomplished owners, families and boards keep an experienced adviser close. We are that adviser: available when you need us, and dedicated to your interests from the first conversation.
The decisions that are hardest to reverse deserve an independent voice in the room.
The Reference Group is an independent Swiss advisory firm. We work with business-owning families, entrepreneurs, investors and boards on the decisions that set the shape of everything after them — how capital is structured, how a business is governed, who holds authority, and what happens when the plan stops working.
What we do
Areas of expertise.
We take on a small number of engagements at a time. Each one is led personally, and each one is scoped to a decision you need to make.
02
Family wealth & private office
Structure that survives the next generation. Family governance frameworks, constitutions and councils, succession and wealth transfer, private office and family office design, and the difficult conversations a family has to hold alongside the structuring.
03
Asset structuring & setup
Holding assets efficiently. Holding companies, SPVs and investment vehicles — jurisdiction selection, entity design, cross-border and treaty efficiency, substance and reporting, and the operating setup that keeps the structure clean as it grows.
04
Investment & value creation
Capital with a thesis behind it. Investment strategy and portfolio oversight, investment committee advisory, due diligence, capital raising, growth and international expansion, and exit preparation for owners who want to keep their options open.
05
Restructuring, turnaround & interim leadership
When the situation is already moving. Operational turnaround and crisis management, interim executive leadership, distressed and stakeholder situations, transformation programmes, and investigative work where value has gone missing.
Not sure which of these you need?
That is usually a sign the question is worth a conversation. Tell us the situation and we will tell you plainly whether we are the right people for it.
Situations
When wealth arrives at once.
A company sale, an inheritance, a settlement: large sums often arrive in a single moment, and the decisions that follow shape the next decades. We mobilise within days and work alongside you from the first conversation.
After a company sale
For founders and shareholders after an exit: holding structure, tax work coordinated with your advisers, choice of banks and managers, and a governance framework for the proceeds.
Read more →After a change in the family
For people taking sole charge of family assets for the first time, after a divorce or separation, a bereavement or a change in the family. We organise the full picture, explain each option in plain terms, and stay at the table for as long as you need.
Read more →New to significant wealth
For people who have inherited or received substantial capital and want an experienced partner at their side to protect and preserve it, before they commit to any bank, product or structure.
Read more →Every conversation is confidential. Our advice is independent of any bank or product provider.
Questions we are asked
What families and owners ask us.
A selection of the subjects we are asked to help with.
- What is the best family office structure for my family?
- How can I protect what I pass to my children if their marriage breaks down?
- Can you guide the transition of leadership across generations and advise the next generation?
- When is the right time for a family constitution or charter?
- How do I plan an exit?
- We suspect the people managing our family’s money of mismanagement or fraud. What should we do?
Approach
Experience, network, and partners at the table.
We bring operator experience from running businesses and sitting on boards, a network that reaches across Europe and the Gulf, and partners who work alongside you for the length of the mandate.
Operator’s judgement
Advice from people who have run businesses, sat on boards and carried the consequences of both.
Network and reach
Swiss-anchored and working across Europe and the Gulf in English, French and Arabic, with a network of capital, counterparties and specialists opened when it is useful.
Rapid mobilisation
When a sale closes or circumstances change, we are at the table within days.
Discreet
Client names stay confidential. Most of our work arrives by referral.
How we work
Four ways to bring us in.
Most relationships begin narrow and widen. Start with whichever of these fits the problem in front of you.
Advisory retainer
An ongoing independent voice on strategy, capital and governance, available whenever the question comes up.
Board or committee seat
An independent director, board adviser or investment committee member, with the mandate and the standing to disagree.
Defined project
A scoped piece of work with a decision at the end of it: a structure, a vehicle, a diagnostic, a transaction, a plan.
Interim leadership
Executive capacity on the inside for a fixed period — stabilise, restructure, transition, hand over.
Where we work
Switzerland and the wider European market, the United Arab Emirates and the broader GCC with our partners in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and the cross-border ground between them.
Who we work with
Business-owning families, entrepreneurs and founders, private investors, individuals after a liquidity event or a change in the family, boards, and institutions in formation or in transition.
Languages
English, French and Arabic.
Questions
Frequently asked.
What does The Reference Group do?
The Reference Group is an independent advisory firm based in Geneva. We advise business-owning families, founders, investors and boards on governance, family wealth and private office structuring, asset structuring, investment, and restructuring and turnaround.
Who do you work with?
Business-owning families, entrepreneurs, private investors, boards, and individuals who have recently sold a company, inherited, or taken charge of family assets after a divorce or another change in the family.
How quickly can you start?
We mobilise within days of a first conversation.
Where do you operate?
From Geneva, across Switzerland and Europe, and in the United Arab Emirates and the wider GCC with our partners in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Do you hold or manage client assets?
Client assets stay with the banks and custodians the client chooses. We advise, structure and oversee alongside the client and their lawyers and tax advisers.
How does a first conversation work?
You describe the situation, we tell you plainly whether and how we can help, and there is no cost or commitment.
Start here
Tell us the situation.
A first conversation costs you nothing and commits you to nothing. It is also the fastest way to find out whether an independent view would change your decision.
If it would not, we will say so.
Or write directly:
info@thereference.group