The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped down as senior royals at the end of March and were instructed not to use the brand name ‘Sussex Royal’ anymore. As a result, they decided to shut down their non-profit under this name, filing for solvent liquidation in July. In their Declaration of Solvency published on July 28, however, it lists that the “estimated costs and expenses of the winding up” are £16,000.
This is an unusually large figure, according to multiple quotes of how much a Members’ Voluntary Liquidation (MLV) like this usually costs.
An MLV is a solvent liquidation used to close a limited company that has assets.
There are generally three costs associated with an MLV: the liquidators fee, a bond and the statutory advert placed in the London Gazette.
The London Gazette advert costs about £325 and the bond will also usually be in the hundreds.
READ MORE: Meghan Markle and Harry’s non-profit ‘owed £200,000 by mystery donor’
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are shutting down their non-profit, previously called Sussex Royal (Image: GETTY)
MWX Declaration of Solvency documents (Image: Companies House)
The exact cost of the liquidators fee depends on the financial situation of the business, as well as the value and category of assets held.
According to the solvency documents for Sussex Royal, which bizarrely had its name changed to MWX Foundation just as it was being shut down, it had £99,000 in the bank and was owed £200,000 by a mystery donor.
According to Kirks, which has multiple Licensed Insolvency Practitioners, they would charge just £2,500 for an MLV of a company that has assets up to £500,000.
According to a quote by Business Rescue Expert, a company like this could expect a fee of £2,850.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stepped down as senior royals at the end of March (Image: GETTY)
According to Contractor UK, the cost of an MLV varies depending on the type of service you require and can range from £1,000 to £4,000.
Frost Group offers MLV products that range from £850 for the bronze product to £5,000 for the gold product.
According to Company Rescue, they would charge a fee of £4,000-£4,500 plus VAT at the initial meeting.
Wilson Field offers MLVs for £1,695 plus VAT and disbursements for more straight-foward situations and £1,995 plus VAT and disbursements for more complex ones.
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MXW Foundation (Sussex Royal) is paying out a huge grant to Travalyst (Image: GETTY)
All of these quotes are well below half the £16,000 it is costing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to wind up their company with two practitioners from Smith and Williamson.
It is unclear why this is so much more expensive than the quotes found online for other companies.
Sussex Royal ‒ now MWX Foundation ‒ has only been in existence for a year, after Meghan and Harry split from Prince William and Kate Middleton’s charity The Royal Foundation last year.
While it is now being closed, the Sussexes have teased that a new project entitled Archewell will be set up to facilitate their charitable activities.
In the meantime, the money is being transferred to Harry’s sustainable tourism initiative Travalyst, which was initially under the Sussex Royal banner but is now a stand alone operation.
As well as the mysterious £16,000 winding up costs, another curiosity on the Declaration of Solvency was the fact that the organisation was still owed £200,000 by a mystery donor when they filed for liquidation.
According to finance expert Robert Leach, it is unusual for a charity to have sums owed to it like this, because donations are not legally owed before being paid.
He told the Daily Mail: “It is unusual to have a figure for ‘receivables in a charity account as that indicates sums owed but not yet paid, such as an invoice not yet paid.
“Charities rely on donations, which are not sums legally owed before being paid.
“The fact that the sum is a round figure of £200,000 suggestions that whoever it is coming from is making periodic payments, possibly with future payments to the new charity.”
