Dominic Lawton-Smith

Managing Director, UK

Ethos

Solution-focused and methodical with experience and expertise across a broad-spectrum of trust, corporate and international law and finance disciplines; I am highly motivated by opportunities to find pragmatic solutions for complex issues. I pride myself on being the person both clients and team members can come to at any stage when issues arise.

With almost three decades of experience within the finance industry, I have lived in six different countries between US and European time zones and enjoy serving clients from most regions of the world including the Americas and Asia.

I am a strong believer in continual growth and education, and have continued expanding my professional knowledge to better meet the needs of my clients throughout my career. I place high importance on building and maintaining positive and trusting relationships with clients, and team members at all levels


Role

My role at Saffery Trust is multi-faceted; I am Managing Director of our UK trust and corporate services offering, while also supporting clients and trusts from outside the UK through our international offices. I also play an integral role in enhancing the firm’s connectivity with our global network of specialist advisors.

I work with high-net-worth individuals, families, trusts, and corporate entities in both contentious and non-contentious matters, helping to recover, grow, and safeguard wealth and assets. I am highly experienced in supporting clients with complex multi-jurisdictional needs, specialising in UK and US connections, international investments, and cross-border collaboration.

In addition to extensive experience in wealth structuring for traditional assets, I have been active in the digital assets sector since 2017. This experience enables me to support our position as a leading firm for clients with digital wealth structuring needs.

I routinely work closely with other professionals to achieve best outcomes and avoid conflicts of interest for me, Saffery Trust and the wider Saffery group.


Key experience

  • Wealth planning, structuring and facilitating investment solutions.
  • Inter-generational trust and succession planning and operation, liquidity events, and governance in investment projects.
  • Directorships of regulated trustee entities, client, and trust-owned companies.
  • Board and supervisory roles for foundation companies.
  • Digital assets including, stablecoins, tokens and cryptocurrency.
  • Working with Decentralised Autonomous Organisations.
  • Solutions for UK, US, and Asian ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families.
  • Capital market, international investment governance and de-risking.
  • Establishment and governance of fund structures for all forms of private capital.

Professional memberships and listings


Qualifications

  • LLM postgraduate degree in International Business Law (with additional undergraduate legal studies in areas not included in LLM)
  • Postgraduate studies in U.S. Constitutional Law
  • Dealing Certificate (ACI, Foreign Exchange and Money Markets pre-diploma)
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