A family walked into our office for the first time with what they considered to be an “air-tight” estate plan that they had the utmost confidence in.

Unbeknownst to them, their estate plan failed to account for forced heirship laws in international jurisdictions, tax treaties between the countries, as well as how gift taxes in the country worked.
Without our guidance, they would have left multiple real estate assets to children from outside the marriage they never intended to bequest them to—forcing the surviving spouse to give up her beloved home, and short-changing
her long-term income.

With our guidance, they have structured their estate plan properly reflect the family’s wishes, saving potentially millions of dollars in future litigation costs amongst the family members, and providing for greater protection against threats from Creditors, Predators, Divorce and U.S. Estate Taxes. Now, their estate plan, both domestically and internationally, is indeed, as “air-tight” as it can be.

A family has built up a large medical practice that has attracted the attention of private equity investors, and various private equity firms were already approaching this practice to make a purchase. We assisted this family in the negotiations with the potential buyers, and restructured their business so they could command a higher price. This family is now on track to sell their practice for much more than originally anticipated. Our plan also allows for the family to discount the value of their business when calculating estate taxes by nearly 30%-35%—equating to an estimated future estate taxes reduction of $15 million.

Additionally, because the parents of this family financially support their children, we created a structure to shift income from the parents to the children, taxed at the children’s tax rate instead of the parents. Employing this income shifting technique allows for the parents to save an estimated $200,000 in income taxes each year.

One of our families is in the business of investing in, managing and
developing real estate. Many of the real estate assets were purchased in the 1980s and 1990s. Prior to consulting with us, the family would have had to pay a large amount of capital gains tax upon the sale of most of their properties. We have structured their estate plan to provide a step up in cost basis upon the death of the eldest member in the family, providing for over $5 million dollars in capital gains tax savings. This tax savings will allow the family to reposition the capital moving forward in a more growth-oriented fashion.

The son of this family is actively involved in the management of their real estate portfolio. Our advice enabled this family to shift the majority of the assets outside of his taxable estate. Even with conservative return assumptions, our plan could save this family in excess of $500 million in estate taxes over the next 50 years. Additionally, the family business is now structured in a way that provides for a significantly greater level of protection from threats posed by creditors, predators, and divorce.

A C-Suite Executive’s company was recently acquired by a new parent and generated a liquidity event in excess of $100 million. The anticipated income tax liability was in excess of $24 million.

There were additional stock grants that were to be issued for several years beyond creating a multi-million dollar tax liability annually.

Further, we structured a tax-efficient retirement income and charitable giving plan that maximized the benefit for the causes that the family supported annually – and reduced their projected estate tax liability (at death) by more than $174 million.