When the Guinness brewing business was floated successfully for £5m on the London stock market in 1886, Edward Guinness, the first Earl of Iveagh, decided to set up a family investment office to oversee the management of the proceeds.

Four generations on and another Edward Guinness, the fourth Earl of Iveagh, has decided to turn the family's investment office into a business. Iveagh, which calls itself a "private investment house", has been open to outsiders for two years, although it declines to disclose how successful it has been in attracting non-family money.