Family Office

High-net-worth individuals and families are increasingly creating family offices to consolidate the management and administration of their personal, business, tax and charitable concerns. Understanding the benefits of these structures, we partner with clients to service their existing family offices, creating solutions that are adaptable to meet their changing needs and goals.

By combining experience from private client services, tax, corporate, private equity, real estate and employment, our family office team has successfully structured and advised many of the most significant family offices in the United States.

We advise our clients on complex legal issues, providing comprehensive service to support their business goals. Our team often serves as a family office’s outside general counsel and our 24/7 devotion to our clients in this space is unparalleled. While our work with family offices is deeply rooted in supporting their tax and estate planning needs, as family offices have become an increasingly popular source of capital, we draw upon our firm’s excellence in corporate and funds work, to counsel on mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and private equity investments and other financing transactions. Our team advises clients on day-to-day operations, including keeping our clients apprised of regulatory developments and compliance issues, including,

• federal, state and local income tax planning and compliance;
• fiduciary and trust accounting issues;
• securities regulation and compliance with the SEC family office exemption;
• structuring of customized pooled investment vehicles to take into account individualized family dynamics;
• succession planning for family-owned businesses;
• private foundation creation and administration;
• privacy and data protection;
• litigation and alternative dispute resolution;
• employment issues for family office staff where we effectively serve as a “virtual” human resources department;
• drafting and negotiating pre-nuptial agreements and post-nuptial agreements; and
• the hiring and supervision of local counsel to handle real estate transactions and other personal legal needs.

Transfer of ownership and control between generations is a concern that many family offices that manage a controlled business face. We leverage our deep breadth of experience in this area, combining both succession and estate planning issues into a complete solution that addresses the successful transition of business assets to the next generation, including the impact of income, gift, estate and generation-skipping taxes to help create a level of liquidity that meets the family’s needs.