Bahrain · Manama Established MMXIV · A Decade of Sovereign Advisory
Viru · Group
Sovereign Advisory · Bahrain
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Practice / Wealth & Corporate Structuring

Architectures intended
to outlive a generation.

Holding companies, trusts and foundations, single-family offices, special-purpose vehicles. We design the structure with the principal, then sit with the local lawyers in each jurisdiction (Bahrain, ADGM, Jersey, BVI, occasionally Luxembourg) until everything is filed and funded. The structure gets built once, and revisited every year.

— The Principle

A balance sheet that outlives its principal.

A holding structure has one job. It has to keep the balance sheet readable across borders, across generations, and across whatever the tax and succession code in three jurisdictions decides to do over the next decade. The vehicle names, the domiciles, the accounting periods are all in service of that job.

We design the structure on paper first. Then we take it to local counsel in each domicile, and only then to a notary. The principal sees one diagram, on one page, that names every entity, who controls it, and what it is there for. If we cannot read that page aloud in three minutes, the structure is too clever for its own good and we rebuild it.

This pillar usually sits alongside a Real Estate or Citizenship mandate. The three practice areas are designed to be read together; the structuring page is the one the others are written on.

— Vehicle Schedule

What we build, and where.

Indicative. Each mandate is sized to the principal's tax residency, family setup, and what is actually inside the structure.
Vehicle Preferred domicile Typical use Annual cost (USD)
Master holding company Kingdom of Bahrain · ADGM The roof of the structure; sole shareholder of regional subs 8,000 — 18,000
Real-estate SPV Delaware · ADGM · RAK ICC Single-asset isolation; financing-ready 3,500 — 9,000
Discretionary trust Jersey · BVI · Cayman Succession; asset protection; family governance 15,000 — 40,000
Foundation ADGM · Jersey · Liechtenstein Civil-law analogue of the trust; named beneficiaries 12,000 — 35,000
Family office (single-family) Manama · Abu Dhabi · Geneva Operating company; staff, governance, reporting 250,000 — 1.5m
Intermediate finance vehicle Luxembourg · Ireland · Netherlands Treaty access; intra-group lending 25,000 — 60,000
— Process

From the paper diagram to the annual review.

  1. 01
    Mapping
    A session in Manama or, if that is easier, on a secure call. We write down the assets, the family, the current tax residencies, what structures already exist, and the time horizon the principal has in mind. None of it is real until it is on paper.
  2. 02
    Counsel
    We engage counsel of record in each domicile in scope. The firm's job is to keep the diagram coherent end to end, so that no local memorandum contradicts another.
  3. 03
    Drafting
    Articles, deeds, trust instruments, shareholder agreements, the family-office charter where there is one. Each draft goes to the principal with a one-page note in English explaining what the instrument is for.
  4. 04
    Filing
    Incorporation, registration, notarisation, bank onboarding. All of it run as one project. The principal signs once, in person where the registry insists on a wet signature.
  5. 05
    Funding
    Capital in, assets transferred, prior holdings migrated. We sequence the steps so the tax position stays clean and the audit trail reads as one piece, not three.
  6. 06
    Annual review
    A formal review each year, in person where the principal is willing to travel for it. Governance, accounting, tax position in each jurisdiction, succession readiness, and whatever has changed in the relevant codes since the last sitting.
— Selected Mandates

Anonymised, representative.

2018
A first-generation Gulf family office.
A founder near retirement brought together three operating companies, four real-estate holdings, and a personal portfolio under one Bahraini master holding, with a Jersey discretionary trust sitting over the holding shares. Counsel in Bahrain, Jersey, and London worked on it in parallel. The structure has now seen two estate events through without amendment.
Bahrain · Jersey · UKSingle-family office in ManamaIn place eight years
2022
Restructuring after a Caribbean naturalisation.
The principal had just naturalised in a Caribbean state and the existing personal-name holdings no longer made sense for him. We moved the master holding to ADGM, took two real-estate SPVs from BVI to RAK ICC, and redrafted the family trust to reflect the new tax residency. The whole thing closed inside one fiscal year.
ADGM · RAK ICCCoordinated with Pillar 02One fiscal year
2025
A two-generation succession plan.
A principal in his late sixties, with three adult children in two countries, asked for a plan that could run without him at some point. We set up a foundation in ADGM, transitioned voting control on a defined schedule, and wrote a family-governance charter that names the protector class and the dispute mechanism by name. Reviewed in Manama once a year.
ADGM foundationThree beneficiariesAnnual in-person review
— A House Note

A structure that needs more than one page of plain English to explain is not really a structure. It is a problem the next generation will have to solve in court.

— Private Inquiry

Begin a confidential conversation about a structuring mandate.

A first call is held in confidence and is not billed. Most replies go out the next business day.

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