Families & Wealth Management

We advise families and multi-family offices on wealth management and succession matters, as well as on transmission of family values and strengthening of family bonds.

Specifically:

• We advise families in connection with sales of their businesses to unrelated third parties. See Mergers and Acquisitions;
• We negotiate and draft plans for related party succession transfers, using cross purchase, stock redemption and buy-in agreements, as well IDGTs, FLPs and, where appropriate, ESOPs;
• We design and implement plans for lifetime transfers of assets by means of FLPs, GRATs, charitable trusts, private foundations and similar structures; and
• Acting as the family’s overall confidential advisor, we develop and assist in managing bespoke multi-generational interaction processes, designed to resolve conflicts, facilitate implementation of succession plans and strengthen family bonds.

We have also had occasions to advise multi-family offices in connection with their internal structure and issues arising from their wealth management work and interactions with the families.

Notable recent transactions include:

•  Designing and implementation of corporate recapitalization and two shareholders’ agreements for affiliate manufacturing companies in connection with gift and estate planning;
•  Designing and implementing a series of transactions resulting in the restructuring of a large family office-owned real estate business, with the use of carefully designed pass-through entities and trusts, to facilitate (a) an estate planning-motivated transition of a portion of the ultimate ownership of the business to subsequent generations and (b) placing the business into an optimal position for the absorption of a minority equity investment and/or conversion into a REIT;
• Advising a very large estate in effecting inter-beneficiaries asset swaps and transfers, as well as purchases from the estate, with the view of taking maximum advantage of the step-up in basis and the capital gains exemption available to QSBC’s;
• Designing a $75 million transaction involving a loan to a large dynasty trust and entities controlled by the trust's settlor;
• Designing and implementing a sale of a controlling interest in a manufacturing business and significant real estate assets to an IDGT; and
• Resolving a dispute involving a major trust leading to the sale of its assets, distribution of the proceeds to the beneficiaries and termination.