Estate Planning and Family Office Administration

Gould & Ratner has represented many families through multiple generations.  This has given us unique insight into the issues that confront families and family-owned businesses; from multi-generational governance strategies to tax, wealth transfer, retirement, and philanthropic planning.  Careful planning is the essential element that determines whether a family’s assets remain intact and productive, capable of sustaining the personal needs and charitable inclinations of multiple generations.

Effective plans must integrate legal intricacies with the stated and hidden needs of all individuals involved.  Our attorneys have learned to be active listeners, probing for unarticulated goals and concealed motivations, and encourage open communication on emotional and financial issues that are often difficult to address.  This understanding of our clients’ most cherished desires is combined with the thorough comprehension of legal and business concerns that is fundamental to our practice.

Creating and implementing a plan for the protection of accumulated wealth and to promote family unity, minimize estate taxes and maximize long-term financial security is an ongoing process that may span many years.  It may involve as few as one or two people, or multiple generations.  Development of a plan begins with a frank discussion that helps clients refine and focus on long-term goals.  For many clients, the most revealing element of the planning process is our creation of a diagram that visually represents the flow of assets and responsibilities through a family’s generations.  We discuss and explain every nuance of a family plan, will or trust and its implications before presenting any document for signature.  We help clients coordinate the activities of their professional team, which may include insurance professionals, investment managers, and accountants in order to more efficiently and predictably achieve their financial goals.  We develop strategies for current and deferred charitable giving, including identifying and evaluating not-for-profit entities whose missions relate to clients’ personal interests.  We also help families establish private foundations which accomplish family charitable goals while providing a way for later generations to work together to benefit worthy causes.

A thoughtfully constructed family financial plan must be accompanied by capable administration.  A trust that provides for the grantor’s wishes to be carried out during life and after death is successful only with ongoing administration that carries out the intent and spirit of the document.  Our clients tell us they are comforted knowing that they can rely on us to administer their estates and trusts as personally, precisely and strategically as we approached the earlier planning phase.

Many aspects of this practice have less to do with the law than with a client’s life, emotions, and personal concerns.  Our greatest sense of success comes from the vision of a family unified and moving forward in the same direction, free of the fears and misconceptions that often accompany the transfer of wealth.

Articles

• Advance Health Care Directives and Powers of Attorney
• Income Tax Aspects of Estate Planning
• Fundamentals of Estate Planning