Guiding Principles
The standards we hold ourselves to.
Our principles describe how SC Davis & Co acts when decisions are difficult. We sit close to the families we serve and hold responsibility for capital that often represents several generations of work. The principles below shape how we accept new families and how we judge the opportunities that cross our desk.
A Generational Horizon
We judge each decision by its effect over decades. Short-term results matter, and we weigh them against what a family will need in twenty or thirty years.
In practice, every mandate we accept carries a horizon that extends beyond the current principals. When we assess a private market commitment or a change in allocation, we consider how it will look to the family's grandchildren as much as to the people in the room. We take on only as many families as we can serve over that kind of timeframe, which keeps the office deliberately small.
Preservation Before Growth
Growth is worth pursuing only on a foundation that can withstand a severe market. We size risk according to what a family could lose and still meet its obligations comfortably.
Each portfolio we manage holds a core of assets intended to protect the family's standard of living and its commitments over the coming years. Growth assets, including private equity and venture, are layered on top of that core in proportions the family has agreed in advance. When an opportunity would stretch that structure, we say so before it reaches the investment committee.
Aligned Interests
Our recommendations are shaped by what serves the family. We are open about how SC Davis & Co is paid and disclose any interest we hold in an opportunity we present.
Because several families share one office, we hold ourselves to consistent rules on how co-investment opportunities are allocated between them. Families participating in the same deal see the same terms, and any fee or carried interest attached to it is set out in writing before a commitment is made. Our advisers are rewarded for the long-term health of the relationships they manage, with no link to the volume of products they place.
Candour
Families entrust us with decisions that will outlast the people making them. That trust depends on hearing an honest view, even when the answer is unwelcome.
A family office sees more of a family's affairs than most advisers ever do. That proximity carries a responsibility to speak up on an overweight position as readily as on a governance question that has gone unresolved. Our reports explain a difficult period with the same care as a strong one, and our advisers put their reasoning in writing so it can be revisited later.
Privacy
A family's affairs remain its own. We share information only with those a client has authorised and keep our own public profile modest.
Within the office, access to each family's records is limited to the people who serve that family. We never name clients or describe their holdings in our communications, and families decide for themselves which members and advisers receive reporting. When we work with outside specialists, we pass on only what each one needs for the task at hand.