Family office and private client services – a space where business, trust and family values come together – were once reserved only for the wealthiest global dynasties such as the Rockefellers or Rothschilds. Today, thanks to HAVEL & PARTNERS and ONE FAMILY OFFICE, these services are available to successful entrepreneurs and families in the Czech Republic and Slovakia as well.
The services for affluent families and individuals stand on three key pillars: investment and wealth management, advisory and protection of family assets, and ensuring the best possible quality of family life.
The team dedicated to private-client services was created in 2007, when a group of experienced lawyers led by Jaroslav Havel and David Neveselý became the first on the Czech market to specialise in comprehensive advisory for the private and business affairs of the most successful entrepreneurs and their families. “From the very beginning, our focus has been on building family structures, protecting assets and ensuring their long-term, intergenerational transfer,” said David Neveselý, partner at HAVEL & PARTNERS and ONE FAMILY OFFICE.
Today, HAVEL & PARTNERS looks after the private affairs of Czech and Slovak entrepreneurs, managers and business owners, including one third of the richest Czechs and Slovaks. These matters are handled by a stable team with unique know-how which, with 50 senior lawyers and tax and accounting specialists, is the largest advisory group of its kind in central Europe.
Since its establishment nearly 20 years ago, HAVEL & PARTNERS has helped set up more than 550 endowment funds and trusts in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with approximately CZK 200 billion in assets under administration.
Global investment reach
Since 2012, the services have gradually expanded to include strategic wealth management and capital appreciation, leading to the creation of the group’s investment arm. This segment has continued to grow, and in 2024 culminated in the establishment of a dedicated family office – ONE FAMILY OFFICE – which now boasts the largest and most experienced investment team in central Europe focused on active investment opportunities both in the Czech Republic and internationally.
“We operate as a western-style multi-family office built on a club-based model. Our focus is on high-return, balanced and maximally secure globally diversified investments, often structured to provide regular annuities. We share know-how, capabilities, an exceptionally experienced team and strong relationships, yet every solution for a member of ONE FAMILY OFFICE is always individually tailored,” explained managing partner Jaroslav Havel.
The strategic goal is global diversification. Today, more than half of the family office’s capital is invested abroad. ONE FAMILY OFFICE has offices in Frankfurt and Dubai, with an additional presence in London, Miami and Silicon Valley, and preparations underway for Zurich. It manages assets exceeding CZK 13 billion, and its 20-member investment team includes professionals with experience working for dollar billionaires both in the Czech Republic and internationally.
This gives ONE FAMILY OFFICE a truly exceptional global position and access to investment opportunities that are typically unavailable to investors from our region. These include top-tier global managers and funds with long, proven track records and opportunities that maximise the balance between risk and return. Among them are leading names such as KKR, Vista, Thoma Bravo, Insight, Bain Capital and Accel – the renowned US venture capital fund that invested in Facebook early on and today counts more than 100 unicorns (companies valued at over USD 1 billion) in its portfolio.
"The reputation and contacts of HAVEL & PARTNERS, together with our world-class legal network built on our leading position across central and eastern Europe, allow us to secure exceptional treatment for our members worldwide. This is something that cannot be bought, even for billions. Our reputational, relational, informational and intellectual capital has been accumulated over decades,” Jaroslav Havel explained.
“We also offer options with an entry threshold starting at just one million crowns for smaller qualified investors who are not members of ONE FAMILY OFFICE. This includes the OFO Global Private Equity Semi-liquid open-end mutual fund, registered in the Czech Republic and notified for offering in Slovakia as well. The fund is managed by CYRRUS investment company, which works closely with ONE FAMILY OFFICE,” Havel added.
More than just a family office
Beyond protecting and growing family assets and investments, the firm places equal emphasis on supporting intangible family values. Since 2013, it has been steadily developing a dedicated concierge team focused on excellence in areas such as health prevention and maintenance, personal and cybersecurity, next-generation development, and philanthropy in its broadest sense.
“We strive to make life as smooth and as fulfilling as possible for the families we work with. For many years, we have been building a comprehensive ecosystem of services for ourselves and our clients at HAVEL & PARTNERS – and today we share it fully with members of ONE FAMILY OFFICE," said Jaroslav Havel. We offer concierge medicine and access to premium healthcare. We ensure physical security as well as cybersecurity and reputation protection. We guarantee our members immediate access to the best specialists, including elite security experts and detectives. At the same time, we assist family businesses with succession planning, preparing and educating the next generation, and supporting their philanthropic ambitions.”
Billionaires who remain out of sight
According to current data and estimates, there are roughly 900 to 1,100 billionaires in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with around 65 to 80 individuals holding assets exceeding CZK 10 billion. Both the number of Czech and Slovak billionaires and the total value of their assets have grown dramatically – in 2015, there were only about 400 people with assets over CZK 1 billion, less than half of today’s figure.
"In the coming years, we expect an even wider gap between the truly wealthy and everyone else. The strongest players have access to the best opportunities, talent and capital and they will continue to grow. At the same time, the number of entrepreneurs with assets between one and five billion crowns keeps increasing,” said Jaroslav Havel.
Yet many of them remain invisible. Many people have been building companies quietly for years, often far from media attention, for example in the regions. “There are several dozen individuals with assets between two and five billion crowns who operate very discreetly, completely outside the media spotlight,” Havel confirmed. This is precisely why discretion and loyalty form the core of services for the most affluent clients. These values are also the foundation of the approach taken by HAVEL & PARTNERS and ONE FAMILY OFFICE – an organisation that is far more than a traditional family office. Thanks to its professional team and many years of experience, it provides clients with a stable base, personalised care and the assurance of a long-term, trusted partnership.
Generational change
More than 35 years after the fall of the communist regime in the former Czechoslovakia, the first generation of post-revolution entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic and Slovakia is now facing a major generational transition. But not everyone is prepared for it. According to long-term statistics, only about one third of family businesses are taken over by the next generation. In the generation after that, the number drops even further, to barely 10%. Without a clear succession plan, many successful companies may not survive beyond their founders.
“It’s a complex topic," said David Neveselý. "It’s not just about passing on know-how, relationships and contacts. It is also about preserving and further developing the core qualities that made the company successful, while protecting the family's assets. The first step should always be the same: to think about the purpose the property should serve in the future and how it should support your children and their descendants.”
In good hands
There are many possible scenarios. One client may need to protect a share in the company from the partners of their children. Another wants to ensure that the children receive assets in a form – and at an age – when they will be capable of managing them responsibly. Someone else may be preparing to step back from day-to-day leadership, hand over management to professional executives, yet still wants certainty that both they and future generations will be able to live off the proceeds of the passive stake for the rest of their lives.
“Depending on a client’s needs, we often provide a complete fiduciary service - meaning the option to entrust the property, or part of it, to a professional team,” explained David Neveselý. “We work closely with the consultancy M.C.TRITON, which specialises in managing organisational change and corporate transformation. Together, we help family businesses going through succession or those that need temporary leadership reinforcement, for example during a generational transition. Within our group, we have people with experience running major companies with multi-billion turnovers – from Jaroslav Havel and Marek Vojáček to Jan Mynář and Michal Kľučár in Slovakia. This enables us to deploy a management team capable of stabilising and steering the business until the new successor is ready to take over,” he added.
HAVEL & PARTNERS’ private client services and ONE FAMILY OFFICE, united under the motto Architects of Family Wealth, now form the most comprehensive one-stop shop on the market. “We are neither private bankers, investment bankers, nor asset managers in the traditional sense. Our credibility comes from successfully managing billions of our own wealth, accumulated through our success in legal practice. We connect different perspectives and experience across generations, industries and regions – including internationally – all within a club-based environment. This allows us to share with our partners the knowledge gained over 25 years of practice. We believe that behind every great success is a strong foundation – and we are here for those who want their story to continue: calmly, steadily and with confidence,” Jaroslav Havel concluded.
