The Dragoni Executive Team
At Your Service
Dr Paul Grafton-Holt
MANAGING Partner
Dr Paul Grafton-Holt, BA, MA, DA
Paul acts as Managing Partner. His daily role, apart from managerial tasks, is client interfacing at both seminars and one-on-one meetings where he discusses clients’ circumstances and looks for solutions to match their needs.
Claudio Bacci
SENIOR PARTNER
Claudio Bacci, MBA
Claudio acts as Senior Partner in the strategic management of Dragoni Partners. His daily practice is meeting with clients in a consultative approach enabling him to focus on collaborative and customised solutions.
David Abingdon
HEAD OF CLIENT RELATIONS
David Abingdon
David acts as Head of Client Relations in developing and coordinating client responses from those who are actively seeking to engage with Dragoni through the various social media platforms. David’s proactive approach involves him in initial contact through to ongoing relations.
The STORY OF DRAGONI PARTNERS
GENESIS
The genesis of Dragoni Partners goes back 29 years ago, when two of its senior officers first met to discuss strategic business options for their clients, during their tenure at American Express in London.
When Paul and Claudio eventually moved into Alexander Forbes (an international financial services group), as directors of their tax and trust division, this approach morphed into holistic advice which was centred upon wealth creation and preservation for business people and UHNW clients. Various instruments were weaved into this scenario to include trusts and foundations, a cacophony of financial instruments and innovative company structures here in the UK and abroad.
Many years later, as partners in a UK top 20 accountancy firm (now known as Moore Kingston Smith), the concept was developed further as the tax element was intricately woven into the process to ensure that wealth creation and retention was not unduly hampered by the effects of unnecessary taxation (ie IHT). Having served their final apprenticeship in this arena, Paul and Claudio were ready in 2013 to launch their own advisory consultancy called Dragoni Partners.
Dragoni has grown by two further executives and a couple of support members, but remains a small tightly-knit boutique firm in the heart of London’s Mayfair district. We also work exclusively with our tax and legal team who employ 30+ staff members – mainly accountants and lawyers. These staff members are focused on client onboarding, administration, support, advisory and structural design for our clients.
Today, Dragoni engages with clients who have either had a great deal of success in their business endeavours or wish to do so. Not only that, but they have a strong desire to protect what they have and to ensure it is not eroded by inflation, undue risk or the vicissitudes of life in general.
In other words they are protective of what they have. And we agree, preservation and protection of wealth is objective number one. We seek to protect assets by placing them into trusts, first and foremost, so they are secure against creditor claims (bankruptcy, law suits etc). In other words these assets remain the property of our clients and their families in perpetuity. In addition to protection, trusts offer the added advantage of being highly tax efficient as they are, in many instances, tax exempt vehicles for the accumulation of asset bases. Sometimes these are UK variants, used for the likes of IHT planning, other times they are offshore variants (typically Cyprus) for other tax reasons. This combination of security and tax efficiency makes trusts (and foundations) an ideal vessel for the maximisation of your assets.
How we help you protect and maximise your assets
As professional business advisers our role is to seek to thoroughly understand your wants, needs and desires from the get-go. Without this we simply cannot make any recommendations because each proposal is unique and tailored to each individual client after this fact-finding exercise is completed. We simply have no off-the-shelf solutions for anyone.
We look at the ways we can rejig your company’s structure and make it more international in its perspective, without necessarily moving it abroad (though sometimes we will advise on an offshore holding). We also examine the unique characteristics of its officers and key personnel to see who is responsible for the success of the business. This enables us to better decide how to recompense each participator within the confines of this ‘move’. Oftentimes we will rejig the key personnel too. This is a complex matter and it is strategised in-house between the team members and with external advisers (other accountants, lawyers and tax barristers). Once finalised (though still a working and evolving document) we can apprise you, the client, of our collective and considered findings. Our findings will be discussed at length and will be followed up by a written Client Report, called a Brief. This will show the commercial reasons why these suggestions are necessary and offer an insight into the potential savings which can be made through their use. Everything we do is underpinned by a leading tax barristers opinion (which you are more than welcome to view. Indeed, you will receive your own personalised copy once you engage with us). Once accepted, the component elements can be set in motion and the benefits inherent in such begin to flow.
This, then, is how Dragoni was formed, how it grew initially, and to what it has become today. The executive team has now expanded to include David Abingdon, as our Head of Client Relations, who has been associated with Dragoni for the past 10 years .
Our executives, tax and legal personnel and administration staff look forward to welcoming you as a client to Dragoni and for a long and successfully beneficial relationship together.
Commercial advantages
The commercial considerations for the Dragoni type of approach are numerous. They offer some or all of the following advantages.
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The members of Dragoni are individually regulated by the above bodies.
The Dragoni Wealth Vehicle For Business People
