Wealthy investors tend to have a very different mindset from ordinary mortals. Where Mr and Mrs Average are looking to get rich quick, their millionaire counterparts are looking to stay rich.

Their aim is wealth preservation and if they had a collective motto, it would be: “What we have we hold.” Ordinary investors can learn a lot from the way their well-heeled cousins manage their finances. The emphasis is on slow but steady growth over the long-term and a lordly disdain for chasing short-term performance.

One of the keys to achieving wealth preservation is to spread investments across a wide range of assets and to adopt something akin to an absolute return strategy, where the investor aims to make money in both rising and falling markets.

All very well, you may say, but that’s quite a task for your typical private investor. However, if you know where to look you can tap into the same money-making expertise that wealthy families, such as the Rothschilds and Salomons, have used to manage a significant slice of their many millions.

For example, some unit and investment trusts set up primarily for the benefit of wealthy families are also open to private investors. One such is RIT Capital Partners, an investment trust in which a branch of the Rothschild family has a stake of more than 20 per cent. It is a classic wealth preservation vehicle for long-term investors. RIT is invested not just in shares, but in private equity, property and hedge funds, thus providing the trust with plenty of breadth and balance.

But although it is regarded as quite defensively positioned, as befits a wealth preservation vehicle, it has actually produced very good long-term performance. Over 10 years it has turned £1,000 of investors’ money into £3,961, putting it second of the 21 trusts in the global growth sector. It has also showed its mettle in the stock market turmoil of the past year. While most of the trusts in the sector have lost money, RIT has returned nearly 10 per cent, putting it third out of 31.

Another example of a fund where ordinary individuals can participate in the investments of the wealthy is the Trojan fund, run by Troy Asset Management. The company, set up by the late Lord Weinstock, the former managing director of GEC, and named after his Derby winning horse, was designed to manage his family’s investments and was specifically structured so that outside investors could participate.

The Trojan fund, the company’s first unit trust, was launched in the summer of 2001. It too follows a clear wealth preservation strategy. In its first year, when the UK bear market was raging, the fund had 75 per cent of its money in bonds, preference shares and cash, with the result that it weathered the stock market storms better than most other funds. It has also performed well in the recent market turmoil, standing ninth out of 127 funds in its sector over one year.

Where these quite defensive funds can lag a bit is in a strong bull market, such as we have had for most of the past five years. The Trojan fund’s performance reflects this as it stands 69th out of 87 in its sector over five years. However, its five-year return of nearly 60 per cent is still not to be sniffed at.

Other wealthy families who have an investment vehicle in which the public can participate include the Cayzers, with Caledonia Investments, and the Salomon family, with Hansa Trust. Both have good long-term track records which have benefited private investors as well as the wealthy families.

John Newlands, of Brewin Dolphin, the stockbroker, says: “If you are going to attach yourself to the coat-tails of a wealthy investor then these are some of the best coat-tails you could find.”

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