43.7347° N, 7.4228° EMonaco
For family offices
The same discipline, for the yacht.
You bring documented process to investment, succession and capital. I bring that same care to a superyacht purchase, acting as the family's buyer's broker, for the family or whoever the office designates, and working beside the advisers you already trust.
Start the right conversation- Per transaction
- Engaged for the length of one purchase, as you would engage tax structuring, art advisory or aviation
- Reports to you
- To the family, or to whoever the office designates, with a written record of what I recommend and why
- Terms in writing
- Remuneration explained and agreed in writing before the family appoints, for the office's own review
- Master
- Captain Anthony Austin holds Master Mariner Unlimited: unlimited tonnage, unrestricted waters
Where this sits in the office
A decision with its own kind of expertise
Family offices have spent a decade building real structure around the decisions that matter: investment committees, documented decision rights, succession frameworks. A superyacht purchase deserves the same care, and it asks for knowledge the office does not need to hold.
A decision that comes round rarely
A purchase like this happens once, or once in a decade. There is usually no internal precedent and no file from last time, so I bring the method and the questions to ask.
Expertise the office need not hold
Your advisers are at their best on tax, structuring and investment. Reading a marine survey, judging a master's certification and pricing a refit schedule is where I work.
Every adviser keeps their role
The family's lawyers, accountants, tax advisers and managers keep their professional responsibilities. I coordinate the purchase around them, so the office knows who is handling each matter and what needs its attention.
Alongside your advisers
Working beside the advisers you already have
Judgement cannot be outsourced, and I would not propose it. As the family's buyer's broker I find and assess yachts, negotiate and organise the purchase, and the family decides, while the advisers who already serve the family keep their professional responsibilities and I work with them.
- The family's lawyers advise on contracts and title, tax advisers and accountants on structure and tax, insurers and financiers on cover and funding, and managers on running the yacht. I give each the technical picture they need and bring their questions back to the yacht.
- I check technical claims against the record and the issuing authorities: the vessel, her machinery, her certification and her crew.
- I stand beside the family, or whoever the office nominates, at viewings, survey and sea trial, working alongside the appointed surveyor and judging machinery under load rather than at the dock.
- Before money moves I give a written recommendation: conclusions, open questions and next steps, in a form that can go into the office's own file. The family decides, and authorises each offer.
- Handover is organised so that outstanding items, responsible parties and next steps are clear within the agreed scope. Later support, such as crew certification or yard proposals, can be agreed separately.
43.7347° N, 7.4228° EMonaco
The record
Credentials the office can check
Captain Anthony Austin's qualifications are held by the issuing authority and can be confirmed directly, as for any adviser the office appoints.
- Certificate
- UK Master Mariner Unlimited: unlimited tonnage, unrestricted waters
- At sea
- Approaching two decades
- Largest vessel served
- A Signature-class cruise ship: 86,700 gross tons, 285 metres, 2,106 guests and 929 crew
- Role
- Buyer's broker for the family, acting within the agreed mandate
Reporting and terms
Reporting to you, terms in writing
I report to the family, or to whoever the office designates, with my recommendations in writing and the reasons behind them.
For full buyer representation, I am remunerated through buyer's broker commission on a completed purchase, together with a modest retainer agreed when you appoint me. The retainer establishes a committed engagement, reserves agreed capacity and supports the search and preparation work.
Remuneration is explained to you before you appoint me, and these terms are settled in writing at appointment: the amount, duration and scope of the retainer; how the commission arises, who pays it and how it is calculated; how the retainer is treated whether or not a purchase completes; and how expenses and applicable taxes are handled. You see all of them together before you commit.
Advisory sessions and defined consultancy projects are separate engagements with their own agreed fees. They are not part of the brokerage arrangements, and neither commits you to full buyer representation.
What offices ask first
The practical questions
Does the office need its own maritime expertise, or can this be engaged for one transaction?
It can be engaged for the length of the purchase. Most offices have no reason to build this expertise permanently for something that happens once, or once a decade. It is the same arrangement you already use for tax structuring, art advisory or aviation.
Who do you report to?
To the family, or to whoever the office designates. I act as the family's buyer's broker and give recommendations with the reasons behind them, in writing, and the family decides and authorises any offer.
Do we need a separate buyer's broker as well?
No. I act as the family's buyer's broker through the purchase: finding suitable yachts, arranging access and viewings, assessing suitability, negotiating and organising the steps to completion and handover within the agreed mandate. Listing brokers are part of every transaction, and I work with them, and if the office has already appointed a broker, please tell me at the start so that we can agree what is useful.
At what stage should this start?
The earlier the better. The two moments of greatest value are before an offer is made, while expectations about ownership model and running cost are still open, and through survey and sea trial, where the technical verification happens.
Does this replace the family's lawyers, tax advisers or wealth advisers?
No. They keep their professional responsibilities, and I work alongside them. I coordinate the purchase and cover the maritime and vessel-specific side that private banking and wealth advisory teams are not set up to evaluate directly, so the office knows who is handling each matter.
Is there anything for our compliance team to review?
Yes. Remuneration is explained and agreed in writing before the family appoints me, so the team can review the terms first. The shape of the arrangement is described on the Fees page.
Next step
Someone in the room who knows the yacht
For a decision the family will live with for years, I would welcome a confidential conversation, with no obligation, about where this fits a specific purchase.