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 implementing a series of transactions designed to place a large family-owned real estate business into an optimal position for the absorption of a minority equity investment and/or conversion into a REIT;
- 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 a restructuring of a large family office-owned real estate business, with the use of carefully designed pass-through entities and trusts to facilitate an estate planning-motivated transition of a portion of the ultimate ownership of the business to subsequent generations;
- 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.