Charlotte Thorne is a Founding Partner of Capital Generation Partners, where she brings a distinctive perspective to family wealth management shaped by her experience at the highest levels of government and diplomacy. Before establishing the firm, Charlotte advised ministers at HM Treasury on pensions and tax policy and served as a diplomat in Brussels, giving her unique insight into how policy decisions impact private capital.
At Capital Generation Partners, Charlotte leads the firm’s Responsible Capital initiative, helping families align their investments with their values while maintaining strong financial performance. As Chair of the Risk Committee, she guides clients through complex market conditions, with particular expertise in real estate and direct investment strategies. Her approach combines institutional rigour with deep understanding of the human dynamics that shape family wealth across generations.
Charlotte is a regularly quoted expert in The Financial Times and Spears, and was a finalist in the 2024 Investment Week Women in Investment Awards. She is currently writing a book on optimising family capital that goes beyond technical frameworks to address the often overlooked personal elements of wealth preservation. Her work focuses on helping families and their advisors navigate the investment industry more effectively, drawing on her experience managing significant pools of capital for families, endowments, and individuals.
Your career journey from advising ministers at HM Treasury on pensions and tax policy, through diplomatic service in Brussels, to founding Capital Generation Partners is quite remarkable. How has your experience shaping government policy helped you guide high-net-worth families in building their wealth strategies, and what key lessons from the public sector have proven most valuable in your work with private clients today?
“I was still relatively young during my time at the Treasury, yet I had responsibility for a big piece of public policy. That meant being prepared at any moment to advise the Chancellor, the rather terrifying Gordon Brown. Having to establish a clear voice so early in my career and gain the confidence to be questioned on it by someone powerful was such a valuable experience.
“There was also an important balance to strike. I wasn’t the ultimate decision maker, I was the adviser, so I needed enough authority to advise, without taking ownership of the final decision. It was my job to provide the best objective advice, and that has proven useful for any job really, but especially this one.
“At CapGen, we work with people who are wealthy and have a lot of power and agency in their own lives, but they need an impactful adviser to offer them directional advice. Again, I am not the ultimate decision maker, I’m there to offer our position on the right objective advice, which we believe will lead to the right outcome for that person. Integrity is a big part of that which is another useful learning from the public sector. The civil service doesn’t have quite the reputation it used to, but I found it to be a place where pragmatism and honesty could co-exist.
“Our industry can be beset with advice that is not objective because of the fees associated with selling a particular product. The way we set up CapGen is different – embedded in our structure is the fact that our clients take priority. We don’t have a product sale mentality because we are not built around product. It’s harder to run a business this way but integrity is fundamental the way we established ourselves.”
When you and your fellow founding partners were managing capital for a family office in Geneva, you identified a gap between investment quality and personalised service in the wealth management industry. What prompted you to establish Capital Generation Partners, and how has building the firm as a partnership without external shareholders allowed you to deliver both exceptional returns and the tailored attention that families need?
“The absence of external shareholders meant we could design our business on a blank sheet of paper, and design it with as few conflicts as we thought we could achieve. In some ways, that came from a degree of naivety because none of us had worked in a bank before and we had no experience of selling product. So, we designed what we thought the perfect investment process would look like, and although that sounds quite high-minded, it works and that’s the process we still have today.
“The crucial point is that we’re not selling a product. We are only paid by our clients, no one else. We are paid for the service we deliver, not for the risk we take, the number of products sold, or any of those other metrics, and it’s those other metrics that tend to distort behaviours in the industry.
“The absence of an external shareholder meant we had a long runway to able to build the programme we wanted, invest exactly how we wanted and build excellence first. If we had had an external shareholder we probably would have got selling a bit quicker, but perhaps at the expense of investment excellence.
“It also means that clients can come to us knowing that it’s the three founding partners who direct the firm, and with Khaled being a wealth owner, we understand what that journey looks like. Our independence is a core part of our identity.”
Real estate has always played a central role in how wealthy families build and protect their capital. Given your work with ultra-high-net-worth clients and your position as Chair of the Risk Committee, how are families currently using property within their portfolios, and what opportunities do you see in real estate markets for balancing income, growth, and protection against inflation?
“At CapGen, we use real estate in two different ways. One is as an asset in your balanced portfolio which performs different functions including income generation, inflation protection, diversification, all the classic asset allocation benefits. That would be through a fund as we don’t hold typically hold direct real estate holdings in balanced portfolios.
“Separate to that, we have a direct real estate business, headed by Ross Davies. He does something different, working for families who want a physical allocation to real estate, something they can hold and touch in addition to their balanced portfolio. I think when you have been a family that owns a business or owns assets, it’s quite challenging to become an owner of financial assets only. Owning a real asset in the form of a building feels different.
“This has thrown up new challenges in the past few years as there’s not been a lot of transaction activity because prices have not been attractive. That means today’s ownership is about managing the building, managing the tenant relationships, meeting strict ESG requirements and refinancing in the best possible way. It’s an asset we need to keep it in good shape to get the yields as good as they can be.
“This huge amount of ongoing investment may put some families off. They may just want to buy and hold a building, that’s it, but families are being asked to top up a lot. And the boot is on the other foot now in terms of landlord and tenant. Tenants are more empowered because there is less demand for real estate, at least in terms of the London office space. So, owners have to invest a lot to upgrade the building’s facilities and to make it ESG compliant. Rather than just buy the asset and let it sit there, today’s owners must keep reinvesting.
“I think that can be quite unappealing unless you know that’s what you’re in for. For many of our clients who want real estate, they’re just doing it via the funds. That gives them exposure, but they don’t have to worry about the asset. If you do still want the ownership, because perhaps you’ve done entrepreneurial things before, including redevelopments, then you need to be prepared to keep reinvesting as you go through, and engage in some really active management.”
You lead the Responsible Capital initiative at Capital Generation Partners, helping families invest in ways that align with their values. How are you seeing wealthy families approach real estate through an ESG lens, and what practical steps are they taking to ensure their property investments deliver both strong returns and positive environmental or social outcomes?
“It might surprise some people who are new the sector to know quite how much real estate comes with ESG requirements. It’s a highly regulated sector and on top of that, given the mismatch of supply and demand, landlords are having to overdeliver on environmental factors. We encourage our clients to understand that aspect of the real estate world and to consider whether they want this degree of engagement. If they do, real estate can be a surprisingly practical way to express their ESG values.”
As someone who has worked at the highest levels of government and now advises some of the wealthiest families, you have a unique perspective on capital markets. How are families successfully positioning their property holdings to benefit from changing economic conditions, including shifts in interest rates and emerging investment trends?
“We all know where office went post Covid, and unless you have a super top-end property in a prime business location, or a highly desirable building which has been upgraded in all the right ways, it can remain a challenge.
“A warehouse on the side of the motorway would have been a hard sell 10 years ago. These huge warehouses do not have the same trophy appeal as suitably addressed office space. But logistics assets have turned out to be a practical long-term investment. As our lives increasingly move online, we need huge storage facilities to house the products we buy with the expectation of speedy delivery. Families prepared to be more agnostic about their capital allocation could find themselves with an asset much better suited to today’s online environment.
“Families seeking a trophy piece of London real estate should be prepared to consider a range of other opportunities. They should also acknowledge the need to create a product which is both relevant and durable, regardless of the sector. Buying an asset and hoping for value appreciation through wider market recovery is currently a risky investment strategy. Today is a challenging environment, but not one without opportunity for those who know where to look.”
Your firm combines professionals from institutional backgrounds with experts from outside the traditional investment world. How does this diverse mix of experience help you serve families with complex real estate needs, and what fresh perspectives do these varied backgrounds bring when structuring property investments alongside other assets in a family portfolio?
“We believe a diversity of backgrounds is important as we serve families, not institutions. That means we have to be adaptable, flexible, and work to serve the broader needs of a family. That’s why you need a diversity of backgrounds and people in any firm.”
You’ve spoken about the value of understanding what it’s like to be on the buy side, with team members who have personally navigated family business sales and wealth transitions. How does your own experience as a capital owner inform the advice you give families, and what insights from your personal investment journey do you share most often with clients?
“Clients may be powerful and full of agency in their own lives, but when it comes to choosing a financial services provider, they can feel completely disempowered. Our industry has tended to focus on the technical aspects of what we do as a means of communicating with clients. And that’s just not useful. Most investment managers will have good years and bad years, you can split hairs over a few basis points here and there in performance, but fundamentally you need to feel safe with the people managing your money. You’re building a long-term relationship.
“Even clients that do want to know about the more technical aspects want to know first of all, can I trust you? Clients should ask themselves, if something goes wrong, do they feel like they can call their manager and say they’re not happy? If they do have that feeling, they’re probably in a good place.
“I’m actually writing a ‘how to’ book for clients, educating, and empowering them about how they can get the most out of wealth management. It’s aimed at those who don’t feel confident making decisions about their money.
“One of the things I observe most often in clients’ engagement with our industry is that they often feel out of their depth. This is a fault with the industry, and whilst I’m passionate about helping to upskill clients, I’m also keen to improve the industry’s ability to connect with clients on their own terms.
“To this end, I speak at conferences and to the press about what clients want and what we do wrong when we try to engage with clients. Sometimes it can be as simple as using too much jargon but often it’s talking about us and our products rather than listening to the client. My aim is to be challenging to the industry but also practical.”
The role of real estate in family portfolios has changed significantly over recent years, with families now looking beyond simple buy and hold strategies. How are you helping families think differently about property as an active part of their wealth strategy, and what opportunities exist for families willing to take a more dynamic approach to real estate investment?
“I don’t think you can take a dynamic approach to real estate; it’s very much a buy and hold strategy and you need to be completely open about that. Clients looking for a more tactical allocation to real estate should be looking at funds, but even then, the recommendation would be to invest on the basis that this will be a hold strategy rather than a traded asset.”