A. History of our firm; ownership of our firm
Ballentine Partners’ mission is to help the families we serve make smart decisions about
their wealth, giving them the freedom to focus on their lives as they want to. Many of the
decisions we made about how to structure our practice and how to address conflicts of interest
are based on the experiences of our founder, Roy Ballentine, with his own family’s situation
during the early 1980s – before Roy knew anything about wealth management. Roy’s parents
had a sophisticated estate plan that included multiple trusts, partnerships, and corporations. But,
when his father died in 1984, he learned the hard way about the challenges of managing wealth,
balancing family needs, and the wishes of individual family members. After the estate was
settled, Roy chose to change careers. He began to search for a better way to address the
demanding requirements of family wealth management.
What Roy’s family desperately needed and did not get was comprehensive, integrated,
objective advice that addressed the issues and problems that later became difficult to address.
They had no advisor to provide guidance about a strategic plan for their family’s wealth. There
was no team leader who could help them to realize the benefits of collaboration among specialty
advisors.
In 1984, Roy founded Ballentine & Company, Inc., a wealth advisory firm, resolving to
help other families achieve much better results than his family experienced. In 1997, the firm
became Ballentine, Finn & Company, Inc. On January 25, 2010, the shareholders of Ballentine,
Finn established Ballentine Partners, LLC (“the Company”) and transferred the entire business to
that entity.
As part of the company’s succession plan, in January of 2016, Drew McMorrow was
appointed Chief Executive Officer of Ballentine Partners, LLC. Drew has been a member of the
team since 2002. The ownership of Ballentine Partners, LLC is detailed on the Form ADV 1,
which can be accessed through the SEC’s website: https://www.adviserinfo.sec.gov/. As of
December 31, 2023, Ballentine Partners, LLC was 74% owned and controlled by its current or
retired senior employees or trusts created by those employees, either through direct ownership or
indirect ownership through Ballentine & Company, LLC, and 26% owned by clients of the firm.
Our goal is to have Ballentine Partners remain under the ownership and control of its senior team
members so it will remain independent and properly positioned to deliver objective advice to
families we serve.
B. Types of services we offer
1. Overview.
Ballentine Partners’ goals are to help you to:
Protect, preserve, and grow your wealth so you can meet your financial goals;
Feel in control of your wealth, rather than to experience wealth as a burden; and
Prepare the next generation to be financially self-sufficient and to be good
stewards of the family’s resources.
We serve families with investment assets of $4 million or more. Our largest clients have
family net worth of more than $1 billion. We specialize in managing privately-owned wealth.
We have structured our firm to minimize conflicts of interest between ourselves and you. We do
not sell any insurance or investment products. We have only one source of income – fees paid to
us by our clients. Each client fee agreement is simple, and the costs are fully disclosed to each
client.
Our Wealth Management clients – generally families with assets of $30 million or more –
receive extensive financial planning advice and investment management services on an on-going
basis. This advice includes analysis of cash flows, balance sheet, estate plan, insurance
coverage, debt, income tax planning, etc. Most Wealth Management clients receive quarterly
financial statements covering all major aspects of each client’s situation. Wealth Management
clients have access to both public and private investment vehicles. For clients who wish to
participate in private investments, we make those investments on both a discretionary and non-
discretionary basis, based on each client’s wishes.
Our clients with assets between $4 million and $30 million typically require our advice
for investment management and financial planning. Those clients are served by a dedicated team
using the same investment research we apply to larger relationships, using mostly liquid
investment vehicles that are better suited to those clients’ investment needs. We also provide
investment advice to charitable foundations and other tax-exempt organizations. Many of the
charitable organizations we serve were created by our private clients.
Our primary business is providing families with objective advice about a wide array of
financial strategies and, for our Wealth Management clients, providing an alternative to the cost
and complexity of setting up a single-family office. Families who prefer to maintain a family
office rely upon us to provide advice and implementation services beyond what their own staff is
able to deliver. The range of services we offer each family depends upon the family’s needs,
desires, and the complexity of their financial situation.
Our advisory capabilities include:
Investment strategy and implementation – we manage accounts on both a
discretionary and non-discretionary basis;
Traditional investments – both actively managed investments and index
investments;
Alternative asset classes (real estate, private equity, venture capital, etc.);
Alternative investment styles (hedge funds, commodity trading advisors, etc.);
Asset protection planning;
Advice about the impact of wealth on marital and family relationships;
Estate planning advice;
Income tax planning and forecasting;
Property, casualty, and liability insurance;
Life, disability, medical, and long-term care insurance;
Closely held business interests – tax planning for owners, succession planning,
preparing the next generation of family owners, preparing for sale, estate
planning, financial risk management;
Cash flow planning and forecasting;
Bill payment and cash management systems;
Balance sheet management;
Charitable giving, administration, and management of family charitable
foundations;
Lifetime gifts to family members;
Trust accounting and administration;
Family partnerships, LLCs, and other family business entities;
Family office administration; and
Lifestyle management (aircraft, yachts, vacation homes, household staff, etc.).
A distinguishing feature of our firm is that we put an experienced wealth manager, not a
salesperson, in charge of every client relationship. These experienced advisors are the primary
link with our clients, and they get to know the families they serve very well. This means every
time you want advice about a significant issue, you will be working with an advisor who has
deep technical skills and detailed knowledge about your situation to help you seize opportunities
and identify potential problems. When it comes time to implement a recommendation, we are
prepared to manage whatever work needs to be done. Our goal is to make wealth management
as simple as possible for you.
Many of our family relationships are multi-generational. We often work with younger
members of the family to help them acquire necessary financial skills. We can also provide
direction and coordination for our clients’ other advisors, so our clients are relieved of day-to-
day concerns about the management of their financial affairs.
We have extensive experience with family office planning and administration. We have
helped families establish family offices or reorganize family offices that were already in
existence when we began working with them. We have experience managing family office
relationships that involve multiple foreign jurisdictions.
2. Investment supervisory services.
We serve as your family’s Chief Investment Officer. We manage accounts on both a
discretionary and non-discretionary basis. We help you design and implement investment
strategies for all of the investment assets on your family’s balance sheet, no matter how those
assets are held (directly owned, held in trusts, held in privately owned companies, or held in
private foundations), and regardless of which investment firm is making the day-to-day
investment decisions. The strategies we use are described in Item 8, which begins on page 17.
Most of our clients are individual investors who are required to pay taxes. Our
investment advice is customized for you and is guided by four key tenets that are reflected in the
following questions:
What is the optimal strategy or choice for your family? We try to put ourselves in
your shoes, applying all of the information we have collected about your situation,
and applying all of our technical skills.
What strategy is consistent with your risk management goals? Risk analysis
requires that we gather detailed information about your risk exposures, tolerance
for various types of risk, and what you have already done to mitigate risks. Risk
tolerance cannot be measured with a simple questionnaire.
What is the expected net return, after all trading costs, management fees, market
impact1 and taxes? For investors who must pay taxes, the net return is the only
return that matters.
What other factors need to be taken into account? Most investment
recommendations have implications for your cash flow, tax situation, estate plan,
and charitable gift planning.
We provide advice about a wide range of investment possibilities, including advice about
investment products offered by other firms and, upon request, advice about direct investments in
1 Market impact – this term refers to the risk that a transaction to purchase or sell a security may actually cause the
price of the security to change in a way that is disadvantageous for the investor. For example, if an investor owns
some bonds that are seldom traded, the investor’s attempted sale of some of thier holdings may depress the market
price of the bond, thereby adversely affecting the value of the bonds that the investor continues to hold.
private companies and real estate. We seek to provide you with access to the best investment
products and managers that the marketplace has to offer. A substantial portion of the assets we
oversee is managed by other firms we have recommended.
We search for the most attractive investment products. Our investment research includes
coverage of real estate funds, hedge funds, private equity funds, venture capital funds, and
natural resource funds. These are the areas where active management is most likely to add value
in excess of its costs. Many of our clients make investments in closely held companies. Upon
request, we will help you to find the right resources to analyze a private investment opportunity.
3. Discretionary vs. non-discretionary accounts.
We manage investments on both a discretionary and non-discretionary basis.
“Discretionary” means that you authorize us to buy and sell securities in your accounts without
seeking your prior approval for each transaction. “Non-discretionary” means that we must
obtain your approval before making any changes to an investment account.
If you engage us to provide investment advice on a non-discretionary basis, we will not
be able to make any changes to your account until you respond to an approval request. Any
delay in responding may be to your disadvantage. If you have directed brokerage to a particular
firm, you may also pay brokerage costs that are higher than necessary. Please refer to, “Directed
brokerage,” Item 12.A.4.
4. Portfolio activity.
We have a fiduciary duty to provide services consistent with your best interests. We
attempt to minimize the portion of your investment returns lost to taxes. We also aim to guide
you to an asset allocation policy that is consistent with your long-term goals and that you will
feel comfortable holding through thick and thin. This means there may be long periods when we
do little or no trading in your accounts. We will review your accounts on an ongoing basis to
determine if any changes are necessary based upon various factors including, but not limited to,
changes in your financial condition, changes in market conditions, investment performance, or a
change in your investment objectives. There may be extended periods of time when we
determine that changes are neither necessary nor to your advantage. Our advisory fee remains
payable during periods of account inactivity. There is no assurance our investment decisions
will be profitable.
C. Customized services
We customize both our wealth planning services and our investment services to fit your
needs. Our wealth planning services are highly customized because every client has a very
unique situation that requires a different combination of the services outlined above. Investment
portfolios are tailored to fit each client’s circumstances. For instance,
some clients have large
real estate holdings while others have concentrated equity positions in either public or private
companies. Some clients have excluded almost all U.S. dollar denominated securities from their
portfolios. This kind of customization is routine in our practice.
1. Our consulting & implementation services.
As a regular and substantial part of our business, we provide financial planning and
related consulting services regarding matters other than investments. (Please refer to the list in
services for at least a year. The level of intensity of work and the scope of services we provide
may vary over the course of a year. We do not adjust our fee in response to those changes
because for a variety of reasons it is both inappropriate and impractical to do so. If you request a
service that is outside the scope of services you negotiated and which represents significant
additional work for us, we may request a fee discussion with you. We do not serve as an
attorney, accountant, or insurance agent, and no portion of our services should be construed as
such. We do not prepare estate planning documents, tax returns, or sell insurance products.
Upon request, we may recommend other professionals to provide legal, tax, accounting,
insurance, or other services. You are under no obligation to engage the services of any such
recommended professional. You retain absolute discretion over all such implementation
decisions and are free to accept or reject any recommendation from us. We do not assume any
liability for the performance of unaffiliated professionals.
2. Retirement account rollovers; potential for conflict of interest.
If you own any type of IRA account, or if you have a qualified plan with your employer
and you terminate your employment, you may have up to four options with respect to your
retirement accounts: (1) leave the money where it is, (2) roll the money over to a new employer’s
plan, (3) roll the money into an Individual Retirement Account (“IRA”), or (4) withdraw the
money and pay taxes on it (and penalties, if applicable).
Approximately one-half of our clients have negotiated flat fee arrangements for all
services we provide, and the other half have fees based on assets managed or overseen by us. If
your fee is based on assets under management and we recommend that you roll your retirement
money into an account managed by us, we will be subject to a conflict of interest because the
account will generate additional fee income for us. We operate under a fiduciary standard when
giving you advice of any kind. You are not under any obligation to rollover retirement plan
assets to an account managed by us.
3. Use of mutual funds and Exchange Traded Funds (“ETFs”).
Mutual funds and exchange traded funds similar to those we use in clients’ portfolios are
available directly to the public. You can purchase those investments without engaging us as your
investment advisor. All investors pay brokerage costs and management fees that are embedded
in mutual funds and ETFs. If you engage us, you will also incur our fee.
4. Private investment funds.
If you wish to invest in private investments, we can assist you on either a discretionary or
non-discretionary basis. Some private investments may be over-subscribed. If an investment is
over-subscribed, decisions about the allocation of that opportunity among clients are made by the
Investment Allocation Committee, which is comprised of a few senior members of our firm. If
an opportunity is over-subscribed, we favor our clients over our employees; our employees are
not allowed to invest. If an investment is not over-subscribed, our employees are allowed to
invest on exactly the same terms as our clients.
The value of private funds may be included in the calculation of our advisory fee. You
are under no obligation to make an investment in a private fund. Private funds generally involve
many risk factors including, but not limited to: the potential for complete loss of your capital,
lack of liquidity, lack of transparency, lack of marketability, and the fund sponsor’s conflicts of
interest.
We sponsor a number of private investment funds for the benefit of our clients. We
manage those funds through our affiliate, Ballentine Funds, G.P., LLC, which serves as the
general partner of each fund. Neither Ballentine Partners nor Ballentine Funds, G.P., LLC has
any ownership stake in the private funds we manage, thereby reducing or eliminating most
conflicts of interest between ourselves and those funds. As a private fund nears the end of its
investment cycle, it may reach a point where it will be in the best interests of the investors if we
terminate the fund. There are three ways we can terminate a fund: (1) sell its remaining
investments on the secondary market and distribute the cash proceeds to the investors, (2)
distribute the remaining investments “in kind” to the investors, or (3) sell the remaining
investments to another Ballentine fund and distribute the cash proceeds to the investors. Each of
the three options carries with it potential advantages and disadvantages for the buyers and sellers
involved. Which of the above options we select will depend upon the facts and circumstances at
the time the issue arises. If we elect option 1 or 3, we will obtain a valuation opinion from an
independent qualified appraiser. We will take reasonable and prudent steps to structure a
transaction in which buyer and seller are both treated fairly. We will not receive anything of
economic value as a result of the transaction.
The terms and conditions found in the offering documents of each private investment will
govern your rights and obligations with respect to those investments. Those terms and
conditions of the offering documents will continue to apply so long as you are a participant in the
private investment. Terms and conditions may include, without limitation, your obligation to
fund capital calls, tax obligations and restrictions on your right to transfer your ownership.
Please refer to the relevant offering documents to determine the terms and conditions applicable
to each investment. It may not be possible for you to withdraw from a private investment until
such time as the underlying activity has ended and the legal entity holding the investment
activity has been dissolved.
5. Direct investments.
A direct investment is an investment in a private company or real estate. For example,
some of our clients have made direct investments in private companies and income-producing
real estate. If you are interested in direct investments, we will assist you on a non-discretionary
basis. Our analysis will be based upon the documentation and other information provided to us
by you or the sponsor of the investment, and upon our general knowledge of investments. We do
not claim to have expertise in investment banking, or any industry-specific expertise. Your
Client Agreement2 will state whether or not the value of direct investments is included in the
calculation of our advisory fee. You are under no obligation to make any direct investments.
6. Investments in digital asset and blockchain technology.
We provide advice about investments in digital asset and blockchain technology. We
also provide advice about custody agents for such investments. Clients wishing to invest in
digital assets in their personal accounts do so on a non-discretionary basis, and they select a
custody agent. Upon request, we will agree to make trades in clients’ digital asset accounts. We
also invest in digital assets and blockchain technology on a discretionary basis through some of
our Affiliated Funds (please refer to Item 10.C on page 31). Each client’s decision to invest in
an Affiliated Fund is made on a non-discretionary basis, except when a client has explicitly
granted us discretion to make private investments.
7. Specialty investment managers; our sub-advisory relationships.
After discussion with you about your investment choices, we may allocate a portion of
your investment assets among unaffiliated specialty managers with whom we have sub-advisory
agreements (‘sub-advisors”). For example, we have relationships with equity managers and
bond managers to whom we delegate investment authority. Those specialty managers have day-
to-day responsibility for discretionary management of the allocated assets. We select sub-
advisors based on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, reputation, integrity, financial
strength, corporate culture, fit with your investment objectives, investment performance net of
fees and taxes, reporting, and client service. Investment fees of sub-advisors are separate from
and in addition to our fee. We have negotiated fees with those managers on behalf of all of our
clients, so that all clients are subject to the same fee schedule. We do not participate in any
portion of those fees. Our goal is to minimize the fees our clients pay to subadvisors, consistent
with receiving a high level of service.
The shareholders of some sub-advisors are individual clients of Ballentine Partners,
which creates a conflict of interest for us because our decision to refer assets to a manager may
increase the wealth of one or more of our clients who are owners of that firm. You are under no
2 We have several forms of client service agreements, all of which are referred to in this document as “Client
Agreement.”
obligation to use any sub-advisor. We encourage you to inquire about conflicts of interest
between us and any investment manager we may recommend.
8. Qualified retirement plans.
Trustee-directed plans: If you are a trustee of a qualified retirement plan (a “Plan”) and
you engage us to provide investment advice to the Plan in your capacity as trustee, we will serve
as an investment fiduciary as that term is defined under the Employee Retirement Income
Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). If the Plan is participant-directed, we will assist you with the
selection of an investment platform from which Plan participants shall make their respective
investment choices (which may include investment strategies devised and managed by us), and,
to the extent engaged to do so, may also provide corresponding education to assist the
participants with their decision-making process.
Advice about your qualified plan investments: Upon request, we may agree to provide
you with advice about how to invest your retirement assets held in a qualified plan. Generally,
you will be responsible for implementing our recommendations. Our fee for advisory services
must be charged to one of your personal accounts; we cannot receive any fee compensation from
your qualified retirement account or the Plan’s sponsor. You are responsible for notifying us of
any changes to the Plan and its associated investment menu.
Please refer to the discussion of conflicts of interest in Item 4.C.2 on page 8, which is
also applicable to our advice about qualified plans.
9. Your obligation to notify us of changes in your situation.
It is your obligation to keep us informed of information about your situation that may be
relevant to our advisory relationship, and we shall be entitled to rely upon the accuracy of
information you provide without making any attempt to independently verify that information.
D. Our relationships with other investment managers; wrap fee programs
We have no fee-sharing arrangements with other investment managers. We do not
participate in any wrap fee programs.3
3 A wrap fee program is an investment arrangement under which a client opens an investment account with advisor
“A”, who then parcels out the money to be managed by a number of separate investment management firms, “B”,
“C” and “D”. The client is charged a single fee by advisor A, who then shares that fee with managers B, C and D.
We maintain relationships with many investment managers who offer specialized
products and investment strategies that are of interest to our clients. Our recommendations are
governed solely by our assessment of the quality of the manager’s offering and how well that
offering fits the needs of our clients.
We decline all offers by outside managers to participate in fee-splitting arrangements and
other forms of compensation. We use the collective purchasing power of our clients to negotiate
favorable fee arrangements. All fee discounts are passed through to our clients. This is a direct
benefit to you, and it eliminates another key area of conflicts of interest between us and you.
E. Client assets under our advice4
Table 1 shows the approximate amount of client assets under our advice.
Table 1: Assets under our advice as of December 31, 2023
Description Amount
Client assets managed on a discretionary basis5
by Ballentine Partners
$8,410,792,838
Client assets overseen by us6 but managed by
other investment firms
$2,357,816,929
Other client assets under our advice7 $12,427,497,855
Total client assets under our advice $23,196,107,622