Why Client Onboarding Matters
Client onboarding within the superyacht industry carries heightened legal, reputational, and operational risk. Owners, charterers, guests, and associated entities often operate across complex jurisdictions, corporate structures, and regulatory environments.
Inadequate onboarding can expose yachts, managers, and service providers to financial crime risk, sanctions breaches, reputational damage, and regulatory scrutiny. Once exposure occurs, consequences are difficult, and costly to reverse.
Robust, intelligence-led onboarding enables informed decision-making before relationships are established, ensuring compliance obligations are met and reputational risk is controlled from the outset.
Risk Areas Covered
Our Approach
Safe Sail applies a risk-based, intelligence-led approach to client onboarding and wealth investigations, aligned with AML, CDD, and KYC obligations. Each assessment is scoped proportionately to the risk profile, jurisdictional exposure, and operational context of the onboarding decision.
Our work combines structured investigative methodology with regulatory awareness, ensuring findings are defensible, compliant, and actionable.
How We Work
Scoping & Risk
Definition
We define the scope based on the individual or entity, jurisdiction, transaction context, and regulatory exposure, determining the appropriate level of CDD or EDD required.
Intelligence & Due Diligence
We initiate structured, intelligence-led analysis across open-source intelligence, official records, and specialist databases, applying AML-aligned checks and investigative judgment.
Analysis & Review
Findings are assessed in context, cross-checked for consistency, and reviewed to identify red flags, gaps, and risk indicators relevant to onboarding decisions.
Reporting & Decision Support
Results are delivered in a clear, structured report designed to support compliant onboarding, escalation decisions, and internal or external review where required.
Reporting & Outputs
Safe Sail delivers structured, decision-ready outputs designed to support compliant onboarding, escalation, and audit requirements.
Principals
Yacht owners and principals.
Management
Yacht managers and management companies.
Advisory
Family offices and private wealth advisors.
Intermediaries
Charter brokers and associated service providers.
Compliance
Legal, compliance, and risk teams.
Next Steps
If you are considering a new client relationship, onboarding a high-risk individual or entity, or require enhanced due diligence to support a sensitive decision, Safe Sail can provide discreet, intelligence-led support.
