Our Approach:
In everything we do, we offer our clients independence, integration, and institutional quality.
Integrated Family Office Services
Choate, Hall & Stewart is one of the nation’s premier law firms. We are very intentionally built to be different from the other high-end law firms with which we compete. Those differences materially benefit our clients and the best and brightest talent which joins us. Our past success demonstrates that our model works for both clients and talent, and creates significant opportunities for our future growth.
Wealth management
Unlike our competitors, our strategy is to focus on a core group of practice areas in which we have deep talent and expertise so that we can provide clients with a unique and best-in-class client experience. One of our most important core areas is wealth management.
Experienced, interdisciplinary planning advice
Choate’s Family Office Services Group is unlike any other family office platform in the country. For more than 100 years, we have served some of the world’s wealthiest families, including five of the world’s top billionaires according to Forbes, helping them to grow, preserve and manage their wealth across generations. We serve our clients by building for them a customized family office to fit their unique financial needs, run by a cross-disciplinary team of professionals working together under one roof.
Sophisticated Financial-Planning Strategies
Our professionals manage our clients’ financial affairs by providing world-class estate and gift tax planning, investment management advice through our subsidiary Choate Investment Advisors (“ChoateIA”), income tax advice and tax return preparation services, and administrative services.
Choate Investment Advisors
ChoateIA is a registered investment advisor which provides investment management advice to both our partners, in their capacity as trustees for our client families, and directly to our clients. ChoateIA seeks to deliver sustainable and attractive long-term investment results. We currently advise on $5.9 billion (as of December 2022) for our client families, and help design wealth strategies for billions more.
The ChoateIA Approach
ChoateIA is a registered investment advisor which provides investment management advice to both our partners, in their capacity as trustees for our client families, and directly to our clients. ChoateIA seeks to deliver sustainable and attractive long-term investment results. We currently advise on $5.9 billion (as of December 2022) for our client families, and help design wealth strategies for billions more.
In an environment where our competitors increasingly look, act and think alike, ChoateIA is also built different. ChoateIA’s investment expertise, working in collaboration with the law firm’s services, allows our wealth management group to deliver a fully-integrated family office for generations of families. It does so by managing risk through sophisticated asset allocation modeling, selecting what we believe to be best-in-class investment vehicles and seeking to maximize long-term after-tax returns across a broad range of diversified asset classes. The group brings the same approach to our clients’ legacy and illiquid assets.
In everything ChoateIA does, it offers clients independence, integration and institutional quality:
Independent Fiduciary Advisor
We believe we provide unbiased advice. Without the burden of having a long list of products to sell, we are focused on finding the best managers in each asset class. We are not afraid to own a low-cost index fund or a smart-beta fund when we believe an active manager is unlikely to outperform its benchmark net of fees. We believe our open architecture approach is directly aligned with our clients’ best interests.
An Integrated Model
In collaboration with Choate, Hall & Stewart’s Wealth Management Group, we provide clients with a one-stop solution that we believe combines the best investment, tax, and estate planning advice. ChoateIA works with experts across the firm to offer clients professional, holistic advice aimed at adding long-term value.
Institutional & Long-Term Orientation
We believe our institutional scale allows us to access investment opportunities that are typically not available to most individual retail investors. These opportunities typically include both public market and private investments.
Sustainable Investing
Sustainability is an integral part of all of our investment strategies because we are long-term investors. As fiduciaries, it is our responsibility to consider risks holistically. One area to which we have given significant attention is the impact of climate change on our portfolios. In general, this means that we seek to minimize carbon risks and target opportunities such as water technologies.
We think climate change is the most important theme for long term investors and have designed a strategy specifically around the risks and opportunities of climate change, incorporating three elements:
Minimize fossil fuel exposure to reduce carbon risk
We believe that the traditional fossil fuel industry is vulnerable to regulatory and technology risks that will decrease demand as consumers globally seek cheaper, more efficient alternatives. We avoid fossil fuel companies due to their capital intensity, vulnerability to commodity prices, and regulatory uncertainty.
Focus on business opportunities that are magnified by climate change.
Demand for energy conservation and water resource management will rise as the climate changes. Closing the material gap between existing water supply and anticipated water demand will benefit companies engaged in water sourcing, transporting, and purification. Similarly, companies focused on energy efficiency and electrification are poised to grow considerably along with global energy demand. We invest in leading energy efficiency firms, enterprises husbanding water resources, and other businesses that sell sustainability solutions.
We further tailor our portfolios for clients who wish to pursue a broader mandate for social engagement. Our portfolios can incorporate a broad range of sustainable, responsible, and impact investments to match investor values. We apply these strategies across bonds, global stocks, and alternative investments.
Global Reach from One Office
We work with families across the United States and around the world from our office in the “Hub of the Universe,” Boston. Our city has a long history as a leading center of learning, innovation, and the thoughtful stewardship of wealth. Choate has been in the business of advising and supporting wealthy families for over a century.
