Succession Planning & Asset Protection

Foundation & Trusts

A trust is a legal arrangement which enables one person (the “grantor” or “settlor”) to entrust his/her assets to another person or organization (the “trustee”) to manage the said assets for the benefit of others (the “beneficiaries”).

Establishing a trust can have numerous benefits. Some of them are as follows;

• Tax Savings – By transferring assets to a trust, the Settlor can often avoid income, capital gains, and estate taxes that would otherwise need to be paid by his or his estate.
• Asset Protection – Since assets that you transfer to a trust are no longer considered your property, establishing a trust can help shield your charitable gift from the risk of loss, should you face a lawsuit or incur another substantial liability.
• Enhanced Certainty – Most forms of trusts are recognized by state and federal courts around the country, and you can use your trust documents to establish clear rules around your charitable donation. As a result, when you use a trust for your charitable giving, you can feel confident that your final wishes will be carried through.

Single and Multi-Family Office

The Ultra High Net worth individuals are seriously considering the concept of family offices to address many of their financial and life issues. Generally, there are two types of family offices – single-family and multi-family offices.

The Single-Family Office: As the name suggests, a single-family office is a structure that manages the financial and personal affairs of one high net-worth family. Since, the single-family office will be structured taking into consideration the needs and preferences of the underlying family, there is no template format for the structure. It can be very flexible and customized. A Single-Family Office can be best defined as an office dedicated to a single family.

The Multi-Family Office: A multi-family office is an extension of the omnipresent wealth management model. A business model that engages in few, deep and lasting relationships with wealthy clients and is based on customized solutions, specialized expertise and responsive service.

Family offices, generally provide two services:

• managing wealth and
• family support.

Wealth management is largely managing the client’s investments and bringing in good returns. This also includes private banking services. There is support services that includes administrative and lifestyle services.

Family support deals with issues such as relocation to a foreign country, managing periodic vacations, admissions to top tier schools and universities for the children, facilitating purchase of trophy homes etc.