The Family Council provides WFO with a structured intergenerational forum for family Governance, Continuity, Succession, Stewardship and Family Learning.
Its role is to ensure that significant family responsibilities are considered across generations and across the Six Capitals, while preserving clear distinctions between family Governance, executive management and legal or corporate Authority.
It provides a disciplined forum through which family members can understand the Capital, responsibilities and institutional context they inherit and contribute intelligently to their future Stewardship.
The existence of Governance should be visible. Its sensitive mechanics need not be.
MEMBERSHIP
Membership of the Family Council is drawn from descendants of Alfred Charles Windmill who currently hold, or previously held, the Windmill family name by descent or marriage.
The Council presently distinguishes between:
- Council Members — voting participants;
- Family Participants — non-voting family participants who attend, contribute, question and express views.
The Council comprises eight voting Council Members, together with a broadly similar number of Family Participants.
Participation in the Family Council does not of itself create ownership, corporate office, statutory Authority or entitlement to family assets.
Those rights and responsibilities arise separately through the relevant legal, corporate, trust, contractual or other governing arrangements.
INTERGENERATIONAL PARTICIPATION
Children and younger family members are encouraged to participate before acquiring voting responsibility.
Family Participants can:
- receive and study appropriate material;
- attend Council discussions;
- listen to professional or family presentations;
- ask questions;
- contribute observations and opinions;
- and develop familiarity with family Capital and Governance.
Voting eligibility begins at age 25.
The objective is not to defer learning until Authority is transferred.
It is to create sufficient understanding before responsibility arrives.
Succession should transfer the capability to judge, not merely inherited conclusions.
FAMILY LEARNING
Family Learning is a continuing Council responsibility rather than a separate educational event.
It includes understanding:
- the Six Capitals;
- family history and Provenance;
- Governance and Authority;
- investment and Stewardship;
- Risk and Capital Defence;
- professional relationships;
- institutional behaviour;
- family responsibilities;
- and the intellectual frameworks through which WFO interprets complex Decisions.
Family Learning also preserves the distinction between receiving information and developing judgement.
A successor who knows what previous generations decided but not why they decided it inherits a weaker form of Knowledge Capital.
STANDING AGENDA
The Family Council maintains a standing agenda sufficiently broad to ensure that family Stewardship is not reduced to Financial Capital alone.
Governance & Succession
Authority, Governance arrangements, Continuity, future responsibilities and preparation of succeeding generations.
Material financial position, investment, liquidity, Private Banking, Capital allocation and related Stewardship matters.
Intellectual property, authored and creative work, methodologies, research and other Intellectual Capital.
Intellectual property and relevant IAS 38 considerations remain a standing agenda matter rather than being addressed only when a transaction occurs.
Cultural & Relational Capital
Family history, reputation, relationships, traditions, archives, cultural assets and their Stewardship.
Institutional relationships
Material institutional participation, standing, professional relationships and Institutional Capital.
Technology & Cyber Risk
Digital capability, information resilience, access, backup, recovery and relevant cyber Risk.
The Council considers the governing discipline and assurance position rather than publishing sensitive technical implementation.
Personal Risk
Material key-person, accident, health, insurance and other personal Risks capable of affecting family Continuity or Capital.
Property Risk
Material risks affecting family, residential, commercial or other relevant property interests.
Personal Safety
Appropriate personal-safety and protective arrangements where circumstances require.
Implementation, providers, locations and operational details remain protected.
Family Learning
Continuing development of the knowledge, judgement and institutional understanding required by present and future generations.
Other Business
Material issues falling outside the standing agenda remain capable of consideration where relevant to family Purpose or Stewardship.
SIX CAPITALS
The Family Council considers family interests through the Six Capitals:
- Financial;
- Cultural;
- Relational;
- Intellectual;
- Institutional;
- Knowledge.
The categories are analytical rather than exclusive.
A single Council issue can therefore affect several forms of Capital simultaneously.
For example, a family property can contain Financial and Cultural Capital; an institutional appointment can create Institutional, Relational and Knowledge Capital; and a family archive can carry Cultural, Intellectual and Knowledge Value.
The Council is therefore concerned not only with what the family owns, but with the wider capability available to it and the responsibilities associated with that capability.
CAPITAL DEFENCE
Capital Defence forms part of the Council's continuing Stewardship responsibility.
The Council considers whether family Capital is being:
- preserved where preservation remains appropriate;
- developed where greater Value can be created;
- protected against avoidable permanent impairment;
- restructured where present arrangements no longer serve Purpose;
- or transmitted with sufficient context for future Stewardship.
Capital Defence does not require preservation of every historic form.
Continuity preserves what remains valuable; it does not require the preservation of every historic Map.
INVESTMENT GOVERNANCE
The Family Council sits within WFO's graduated investment-Governance architecture.
Material investment Decisions are subject to oversight through appointed officers, the Investment Committee and, according to their significance, the Family Council acting through a quorum.
The Council does not replace the Investment Committee or the delegated Authority of WFO officers.
Its role is to provide the higher level of family Governance appropriate to Decisions whose scale, duration, Capital consequences or institutional significance warrant broader oversight.
Private financial thresholds and other sensitive internal mechanics are not published.
PROFESSIONAL INPUT
The Family Council can receive input from professional advisers and specialist functions where their expertise is relevant to the Council's Decision environment.
These include, according to the matter concerned:
- investment professionals;
- bankers;
- lawyers;
- accountants;
- tax advisers;
- risk and compliance specialists;
- technology and cyber specialists;
- cultural or historical specialists;
- and other professional advisers.
Specialist participation does not transfer the Council's family-Governance responsibility to the adviser.
Professional Maps remain professionally owned and are considered within the wider Decision environment.
MEETINGS
Routine meetings rotate through:
London → Paris → Rome → New York
This provides continuity while avoiding the assumption that family Governance belongs permanently to a single location.
Extraordinary meetings are held elsewhere where circumstances require.
Meeting location does not alter the Authority, ownership or legal jurisdiction of any underlying company, trust, asset or transaction.
RECORDS AND TIME-BINDING
Material Council discussions, Decisions and relevant supporting material are preserved through appropriate records and Knowledge Management.
The objective is not merely administrative record-keeping.
Records preserve:
- what was known;
- what Evidence was available;
- what assumptions were made;
- what alternatives were considered;
- what Decision was reached;
- and what was subsequently learned.
This supports Time-Binding, Knowledge Capital and Succession.
A Decision without its reasoning is a weakened form of institutional memory.
CONTINUITY AND RESILIENCE
The Council considers family Continuity across more than ownership or inheritance.
Relevant disciplines include:
- Authority;
- Knowledge transfer;
- professional relationships;
- digital resilience;
- property resilience;
- personal Risk;
- insurance;
- security;
- and Succession.
Public disclosure establishes that these matters are governed.
Detailed dependencies, providers, routes, security arrangements and technical implementation remain protected.
WFO publishes enough to establish Continuity is actively governed, but not enough to make Continuity easier to disrupt.
RELATIONSHIP WITH WINDMILL FAMILY OFFICE LTD
The Family Council forms part of the wider family Governance architecture.
It does not displace the statutory responsibilities of directors of Windmill Family Office Ltd, nor the Authority created by the company's Articles, applicable law or another governing legal instrument.
Where corporate action is required, the relevant corporate Authority must be exercised separately.
Family Governance informs and supports Decision-making; it does not manufacture corporate power.
PURPOSE ACROSS GENERATIONS
The Family Council exists ultimately to help ensure that successors inherit more than assets.
The intended inheritance includes:
- understanding;
- judgement;
- Knowledge;
- institutional memory;
- relationships;
- cultural context;
- professional capability;
- and the Governance structures needed to steward Capital responsibly.
Good Stewardship leaves successors not merely with what was inherited, but with the Capital, capability, knowledge, relationships, Optionality and institutional capacity required to steward effectively themselves.