Right now it’s an interesting time up at the top of the market – whether you are talking about supercars, private jets, luxury properties, investments or anything else on the radar of the super rich. Everywhere you look people are shouting out about the explosion of wealth, and how there are more people with more money than ever before.

This has resulted in a proportionate increase in how many brands are marketing themselves as “luxury” or “premium”. Because of this dilution there are more and more people who want to get something different from the norm, and they want people to treat them right in the process. Customer service is making a comeback, at least at the top end.

At Unlimited International we’ve been trying to make a difference by putting customer service at the front of our agenda, and by offering a different product to anyone else on the market; a one stop shop for the super rich. Our membership is by invitation only, and because of that we can control the type of person who joins – what we look for is a strong track record of achievement and an entrepreneurial streak. It also helps if they like to play as hard as they work!

What unites all of our members is that they are interested in investments. That’s not only investments in the common sense, which we do provide, but also ones which yield enjoyment as well as financial gains.

One project we are working on at the moment involves a group of our members who have teamed up to look for a 500 acre island where they can develop the world’s most exclusive private resort. It’s going to take them the best part of 5 years, but at the end of the day it should be a great investment – that part of the travel industry is really booming at the moment. And as a bonus, they will get to keep a villa on the island for their use after it is all finished. I’ve found in the past that in can be difficult to get in touch with a bunch of like minded people for this sort of venture, so being able to find them all in one location is a great bonus.

At the moment we are actually awaiting final approval from the Financial Services Authority to sell regulated investment products, but we usually find that most of our members aren’t looking for something that they can get through their normal bankers or brokers. Over the last few years I have put in quite a bit of time looking for alternative investments which provide tangible financial benefit with a bit of excitement. In the past one member was investing in a £20m portfolio of very rare large diamonds (over 6 carats), and at the moment one of the success stories is a guy who holds over £2m of Château Pétrus (see last issue of Lusso – ed), Interestingly, both diamonds and fine wine have consistently out-performed the stock market over the past 10 years!

I like to think of the second part of our business in the investments class too – asset sourcing. Over the years we have built up a number of strong relationships with some of the world’s largest and most exclusive luxury brands – the latest of which is Koenigsegg, the Swedish supercar manufacturer. Last month we invited a handful of members out to the factory in Sweden to have an exclusive preview of their latest model, the CCX-R Edition. It’s a serious piece of machinery with over 1000bhp making it one of the most powerful cars in the world. Only 20 will be made for a price of roughly €1.5m, but it looks like Unlimited International will have 3 owners in our ranks. I can’t imagine that any other group of people over the world will have such a high number of these super exclusive cars. Without Unlimited, I don’t think most of these guys would have even known about this car, let alone have been in a position to go to the factory to test drive it.

But buying a car is relatively easy – airplanes and yachts are much more difficult. It’s easy to decide to buy it, but not as straight forward to go through with all the details involved in getting your hands on one. We are able to help out with all aspects of buying and owning high value luxury assets, from financing, insuring, importing, registering, managing and maintaining, saving our members a lot of time and money.

This leads me on to the final aspect of our business. Concierge services have been around for decades, if not centuries. In today’s society it is so important for people to be able to free up their time from day to day trivialities that this service is actually getting even more important. Recently one of our members, based in Manchester, had bought a luxury apartment in Knightsbridge that we had helped him to source. It is a great place, but it was empty inside. After a meeting with one of our lifestyle managers lasting a few hours one morning, we had a good idea of what our new resident was looking for, and within a week the house was fully furnished and equipped with all the essentials, ready to be lived in.

So at the end of the day we do offer a variety of different services, but they all come down to one thing – being able to invest your money with the aim of growing it into the future, and allowing you to enjoy life more in the present. And of course this is nothing without a good personal service too. It’s easy to say, hard to do – but I think we’ve cracked it.