Family offices are unique and complex, and so is the way they invest. We serve wealthy families and family offices in creating tax and legal structures to optimize the investment of family capital in both public and private markets across all asset classes.
Our elite multi-practice team draws on the experience of our tax, private client and transactional lawyers to provide creative and holistic solutions at each of the three levels of a family wealth structure: individuals, trusts and private foundations; family offices and investment vehicles; and underlying investments including operating companies, private investment funds, private credit and other direct deals.
Top Level: Individuals, Trusts and Private Foundations
Thoughtful investment structures begin with creating tax and estate planning structures that help you optimize the ultimate beneficial ownership and succession of wealth. We take into account state, federal and international income tax efficiency; transfer tax efficiency; and your family’s charitable goals and objectives in designing and implementing trust structures, including the use of private trust companies, generation-skipping transfer (GST)-exempt trusts, Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs) and a variety of charitable trusts and private foundations.
Second Level: Family Office and Investment Vehicles
The second critical element of our work on your behalf involves structuring the family office and family investment entities for maximum income tax and operational efficiency, often through profits interest planning (for both family offices and key employees). We also help family offices navigate various regulatory frameworks, such as securities law and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Our skilled team creatively structures family offices and closely held investment entities to craft simple outcomes around complex tax and investment objectives.
Lower Level: Underlying Investments
The third element of efficient investing is optimizing the underlying investment or asset itself and then executing the deal from start to finish. We leverage our vast experience in tax, private equity M&A, real estate, finance, executive compensation/benefits and other areas to ensure that the structure of the target investment seamlessly integrates into a holistic structure.
By taking this comprehensive, multi-level approach, we aim to achieve “tax alpha” for your family, creating incremental investment returns that would otherwise be lost when working with external advisors with a narrower lens.
Tapping decades of experience, an international footprint and a cross-practice platform, our team is ideally equipped to handle your most complex transactional needs, including family office formation, fund investments, credit transactions, FinTech investments, buying and selling professional sports teams, a variety of real estate matters, blockchain investments (both coins and direct investments) and other direct investing.
We take a 360-degree view of each investment, considering every aspect from an entity, family office, trust/beneficiary perspective. Based on our decades of experience in this space, our private client lawyers are deal- and income tax-savvy, just as our tax and transactional lawyers serving our high-net-worth clients have a deep understanding of trusts and estates. It is this multi-faceted lens that defines our market-leading family office practice and equips us to best serve your family’s interests.
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