Capabilities

We begin every new relationship by reviewing all current assets and upcoming acquisitions. We identify both the challenges and opportunities the family is aware of, as well as those that are lurking beneath the surface. Then we address various items based on your agenda, not a predetermined chronology of our own.

Because of the depth and breadth of our bench strength, we can address multiple strategic initiatives simultaneously on your behalf. For many of our clients, wealth is created in the business, so it is deemed natural to hold off on planning until they’ve amassed sufficient liquid assets to invest outside of the business. In truth, by starting earlier than most would deem relevant, we can be highly strategic in planning, especially for business owners who are reinvesting all of their available wealth back into a closely-held company.

The same planning is available to everyone in your family across multiple generations. Adult children and grandchildren are active clients in their own right. Knowing that planning is interconnected – not just strategy to strategy – but likewise generation to generation, we strive to offer the optimum ability to preserve both assets and vision.

Our business succession planning and valuation work is provided not as a transaction or project, but as an integral element of our deep and lasting relationship with a family. As a result of the continuity of our business and relationship models, we’re able to help families transfer business ownership multi-generationally with the least amount of wealth leakage possible.

By nature of addressing business transfer in the context of neighboring disciplines – such as estate planning, business valuation and tax planning – we help families see and plan for the long-term financial durability of the ownership plan.

Many business owners aren’t aware that business valuation is just as subjective as other aspects of planning. This is further complicated by the fact that it’s often addressed by multiple external professionals, each vying for a win from their own vantage point. In contrast, our in-house CPAs become certified in business valuation, allowing the family to receive a singular, integrated voice of wisdom. This integrated voice also honors and incorporates all aspects of the family wealth, and its continuity over multiple generations.

In preparing family’s tax returns, we bring the technical roots of a Big 4 firm and place it through an entrepreneurial lens. We address the unique nature of taxation as it applies to families with complex wealth, at the intersection of personal, partnership and trust assets.

In designing any transaction or ownership structure, we examine the who’s, how’s and what’s at hand. We look at everything you buy or sell to help minimize both liability and taxation.

By nature of our contiguous relationship model, we pre-empt tax surprises. For every business decision that arises throughout the year, we proactively examine the tax implications. We look at how to best pay the tax, and earmark necessary cash flow.

For each family, risk assessment, asset allocation and manager selection begin with a blank sheet of paper. We do not create model portfolios and place you into a predetermined asset mix.

Because of the depth and breadth of our bench strength, we can address multiple strategic initiatives simultaneously on your behalf. For many of our clients, wealth is created in the business, so it is deemed natural to hold off on planning until they’ve amassed sufficient liquid assets to invest outside of the business. In truth, by starting earlier than most would deem relevant, we can be highly strategic in planning, especially for business owners who are reinvesting all of their available wealth back into a closely-held company.

Investment reporting is customized based on your Wish List and learning style. You can segregate or group assets into active or passive, entity types or any other buckets you wish. Also, whereas much of the industry reports returns quarterly, our model consistently reconciles your holdings against your planning goals. We report to ourselves monthly, and recommend modifications to clients as often as monthly, or as needed.

In the capital markets, it’s not about what you make, it’s what you keep. This means that if your returns are impressive but your internal fees are hidden or duplicative, your portfolio’s true performance isn’t as good as it looks on paper. We report returns net of fees at all five layers…

We do not utilize investment vehicles that embed layers of ownership between you and the actual investments, or put a cuff around the timing for liquidating assets. Likewise, we do not offer vehicles that trigger soft dollars or incentive compensation to our firm. The only compensation we receive for managing family’s investments comes directly from the families.

For life insurance portfolios of $5 million or more, diversification of the insurance portfolio is crucial. Because policy performance can vary from year to year, company to company and also based on the type of policy purchased, we help families prudently mitigate risk by diversifying into several manufacturers and product types.

Many families aren’t aware of the subjective nature of policy design. Compensation and other factors directly affect policy strength in the short- and long-term. In our transparent model, you see the flow of your investment into the policy itself.

Importantly, life insurance policies actually change post-purchase. Acquiring and owning life insurance is akin to launching a rocket ship to the moon. To ensure it gets where you want it to go, myriad course corrections are required en route. In our continuous model, we proactively, thoroughly inspect every policy every year, thereby preempting expensive and potentially irreversible surprises. This process, The Capital Protection Package™, includes a proprietary check-system covering over a dozen distinct areas. We perform this analysis on every insurance portfolio every year.

For families who already own insurance when we first become acquainted, The Capital Protection Package helps you understand the state of affairs within your existing insurance portfolio. You’ll have a clear and thorough picture of what you currently own, compared to what was purchased some time ago. Many of the external professional advisors with whom we collaborate engage us to provide The Capital Protection Package services to their longstanding clients.

In previous experiences, perhaps philanthropy was touched on during the development of estate documents. In order to reduce estate taxes, a family is asked to name a charity of choice. Or, due to community visibility, social contacts and organizations approach you for help. In our process, often for the first time, you’ll have a chance to explore your underlying passions for affecting change, and your greater motivations for giving. We create a documented vision that becomes a clear decision-making filter.

Your family’s documented vision reduces social pressures around giving by offering a clear methodology for explaining why you’ve chosen to give or not to give.

In order to execute a major gift, families must know they’ll be alright financially after the gift is complete. We model and explain the financial projections that allow families to clearly see the impact of their gifts on their own financial situation.

After major gifts are executed, it’s important to hold the organizations accountable to the use of the gift. We help families create and document metrics to communicate how you’d like your gift to be utilized by the organization, and then over time, verify its deployment.

We bring a sense of ease and simplicity to the inherent complexities of asset ownership. Families don’t have to remember to manage payment or insurance details, or juggle the multiple balls inherent to owning luxury goods and multiple real estate properties.

We help minimize fraud risk and preserve confidentiality through a variety of core services. These include bookkeeping, bill pay and payroll management for personal and business entities, including rental properties. For most clients, we also administer their quarterly and annual tax payments.

We analyze acquisition paperwork for homes, luxury goods, airplanes, etc. We also help families acquire and manage personal insurance policies associated with these items.