I WORRY..
Starting in September the season of wealth transfers begins to “save your estate from growth of estate taxes”. Saving on significant taxes is a worthwhile effort. Yet, ‘trouble’ begins for most business families at the intersection with trust work.
For example, who has helped you and your beneficiaries to understand their trusts in plain English? Have the differences in various trustee roles been explained with examples? Has the person who contributed financial or business assets to the trusts been helped to understand the dos and don’ts of no longer having ownership, control or rights of decision making? Gaps such as these contribute to why transfers are failing at an 86% or higher rate.
Does it matter to you, the original owner, to preserve and protect your wealth? If it does, this is your obligation to act, not that of your hired trustee or trust company.
A conversation will improve relationships, communications and dampen the likelihood of missteps.
Sources of Improvement
Clarity of trustee selections; that are not all the same.
Clarity of what other options do we have?
Diagnostics will help you to pinpoint gaps in trust administration, trustee duties, partnership management so these can be tightened or at least to better understand the consequences if you do not act.
Before Getting Started
Families and their service providers would benefit from an independent assessment of the suitability of transfer strategies to families, their advisers, and the underlying asset.
Step 1
In a complex transaction, such as this, start with what is the Benefactor’s (You) Intent? What is the hill and traffic light in your way?
Step 2
Your strategy should be to determine how to win (take the hill)!
Step 3
Your plan to deploy forces can be made real
Step 4
A look inside at the health of the business; capital, revenues, potential value and plan to monitor these if you continue to hold in trusts for more than 3 years.
Pre-Transfer
All else is built on these first 4 steps. I can assure you, do the homework and you will have options and solutions that are driven by the revenues and growth you expect and what family members desire for decades to come.
