Our plan designs are highly personal, unique to the individual circumstance, and structured to minimize tax liability and exposure while remaining sensitive to each family’s individual dynamic. We counsel clients on the full spectrum of planning issues including:
We enjoy long-term relationships with our clients based on mutual confidence and trust. We invest the time to get to know each client’s particular circumstances, their short and long-term goals, their family dynamics, their business holdings, their asset management needs, and their philanthropic outlooks. We enjoy our ability to offer personalized attention and to meet the unique challenges that each client presents.
Estimates suggest more than 70 percent of family-owned businesses do not survive the transition from founder to second generation primarily due to unrealistic or poor planning or lack of interest, involvement, or preparedness on the part of the successor generation. Estimates suggest more than 90 percent do not survive to the third generation.
[I]n this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. -Benjamin Franklin, 1789
If your intent is to preserve your business legacy and hard-earned wealth, an in- depth analysis of all of the documentation and planning processes is in order.
In our experience, the most effective method for successful wealth planning and preservation is investing the time to learn about each client’s short and long-term goals, family situation, business holdings and investment assets to ensure we understand the big picture before recommending a course of action. Each plan we devise is unique because each client’s current circumstances and long-term goals are different.
The implementation step is absolutely crucial to ensure that the recommendations are put into action so you can commence your journey to achieving your planning goals. You will have a solid understanding of what needs to be done to have the greatest impact on your business, family and legacy. Your comprehensive plan will act as the implementation guide, as well as a benchmark for monitoring the project as we move forward. Comprehensive planning is always an ongoing process and we are here to help and guide you.
Every comprehensive plan we develop involves an iterative process that includes continual attention and adaptation to ensure that it remains responsive to changes in your current situation and future goals. As wealth, family circumstances and laws change, so must the plan. Therefore, we work with you over the course of your lifetime, in collaboration with your other professional advisors, to help you reach and maintain your goals and preserve your family heritage.
As time passes, your preferences, goals, and needs are likely to evolve. Not only will these situations affect your life, but they are often significant considerations when building and monitoring your comprehensive plan. The birth of a child will impact the way you save. The death of a parent may present taxation issues. The maturation of your business could raise concerns about a succession plan. And an impending retirement, college tuition bill, or job change, not to mention changes in your health or marital status, can have a dramatic impact on your overall situation.
We pride ourselves on developing strong relationships with our clients, and this intimacy between a trusted advisor / your attorney and client tends to result in comprehensive plans that are better suited to meet your needs. Time moves all things, and when it modifies your lifestyle, long-term goals, family situation, business holdings and investment assets, it is crucial that you communicate those changes to your trusted advisor / attorney.
We aim to bring simplicity to our clients’ lives by pulling all of their planning items into one place including access to important documents such as your estate or succession plan, business assets, investment, savings and banking accounts, other major assets, as well as liabilities including mortgages and credit cards.
We provide on-going review and evaluation of comprehensive plans to ensure that things are still on track from a business, family and wealth planning perspective to reach your long-term goals.
When life happens and things do change, we are here to adapt when necessary and involved throughout to be proactive when possible.
Establishing a wealth preservation strategy is a crucial part of any comprehensive plan. You have worked hard to achieve your success and you want to be sure that your business holdings and investment assets are available to you when the time to enjoy them arrives. We can help you develop a long-term plan to preserve what you have already earned, and help it grow.
One aspect of a wealth preservation strategy is asset protection planning, both for the client and the client’s beneficiaries. We develop asset protection plans for individuals that have high litigation risks (such as doctors, other professionals, and business owners) that often include techniques with irrevocable trust planning and family limited partnerships to protect assets for transmittal to the next generation.
Other aspects of a wealth preservation strategy leverage our experience in counseling businesses and families throughout the planning cycle. We work to understand your complete situation so that we can continually identify internal and external risks that could impact the business and family wealth. These threats could come from changing laws (increased regulation), negative market or economic conditions, or disharmony in the family or business dynamics.
Traditionally, attorneys and trust advisors have focused on the technical issues involved in transferring wealth from one generation to the next. While the technical aspects of estate and succession planning are no doubt important, we feel it is much more effective to also stress a few key, non-technical items including: development and implemention of and coordination with the comprehensive wealth plan, involvement of multiple generations in the process to promote open and honest communication and to avoid family discourse, and active and continual involvement throughout the family and business lifecycle as you build/accumulate your wealth.
We help individuals, families and businesses through the wealth transfer process by providing the following services:
We act as the attorneys for all of your family’s legal needs. Whatever issues may arise, ranging from the sale of a business, mergers and acquisitions, to day-to-day business or personal legal issues, we work closely with your team of trusted-advisors to provide you with full service representation.
We have extensive experience and knowledge on sophisticated estate tax and wealth preservation strategies. We create plans to minimize estate tax and maximize wealth preservation for the next generation. Remaining at the forefront of new legal developments and techniques, we stay proactive by bringing new ideas and opportunities you.
We assist clients in establishing business succession plans to transfer ownership of a family-owned business to the next generation of family members, key employees or unrelated third parties. We prepare buy/sell agreements, stock restriction agreements, and purchase and sale agreements. We structure ownership of the business so that the transfer is accomplished smoothly and without undue income and transfer tax liability.
We can handle any complex trust matters, including tax issues, trust reformations and decantings, beneficiary concerns, risk management planning and other tasks. In this capacity, we work to protect your interests, whether you already have a trust or need to create and manage a trust to protect your assets.
Running a business can create questions around tax issues, structure, business practices and more. We work to create customized solutions and plans for your company so that you can focus on growth and profitability.
Our integrated approach aims to identify, understand, plan for, and resolves the full slate of legal, tax, wealth and family issues that high-net worth individuals and families and privately-owned businesses face throughout their lifecycles. Each individual, family and business is different, so each comprehensive plan is customized to those unique circumstances. To get to that optimal result, we invest the time to learn about every aspect of each client situation to ensure we understand the big picture. Because of this need for a deeper understanding, we intentionally limit the number of clients that we actively represent at any given time.
The practice of law and the provision of wealth planning services can be done better than the traditional approach. We feel our Integrated Approach strikes the perfect balance by leveraging our years of experience in business, tax, estate and wealth planning to provide our clients with a comprehensive, personal and strategic wealth plan that accomplishes all of their short and long-term goals.
