Our Thoughts

Helping Clients Through Difficult Times

Probably the most important work we do is helping clients get through difficult times. Whether it’s a catastrophic event such as the death of a spouse, a debilitating illness, or a challenging financial situation, making sure our clients succeed—both emotionally and financially—in overcoming these hardships is our top priority. As you’ll see in the following examples, this is never more important than for our clients who are widows.

Recently, a client suddenly passed away after a brief illness. At the time of his death, we were in the process of helping him straighten out a tangled financial situation—a situation his widow and other heirs were ill-prepared to handle. His investment portfolio and a family-owned business did not require much attention after his death, but our expertise in managing real estate portfolios really paid dividends. We were able to renegotiate the terms of some loans, complete the sale of other properties to long-time renters and place other real estate assets under Chapter 11 protection without harming the credit of his widow.

Another widowed client had never actively participated in managing her family’s finances. When her husband died, she had to confront not only his loss, but also the arduous task of trying to control a fluid financial situation. We were able to step in to husband’s medical bills, consolidate and simplify other household expenses so she could easily manage them, and advise her on refinancing her mortgage to make it more affordable to stay in her house. We then transferred her investment portfolio from a broker in another city and reallocated it to better meet her long-term financial goals. Finally, we employed our experience serving multi-generation family clients to create an estate plan that will help ensure her legacy extends to her children, grandchildren and beyond.

A third client, whose husband passed away several years ago, received a significant inheritance from her mother. While the settling of her husband’s estate went smoothly, the disposition of her mother’s did not. She came to us after incurring thousands of dollars in legal fees for advice that did nothing to help resolve the complicated financial situation in which she was mired. Because of our extensive experience in estate planning, we were able to review, understand and implement her mother’s estate instructions and facilitate the transfer of illiquid securities from a small community bank to our custodian, Charles Schwab & Co. We accomplished this without having to consult the attorney again, saving our client additional headaches and legal fees.

One of our clients is a 64 year old divorcee who owns her own real estate development company in a major metropolitan area. She has two adult children and five grandchildren. When “Marianne” came to us, she had several goals. First, she needed to invest for her own retirement. Also, she wanted to help ensure the financial future of her children and grandchildren. Finally, she wanted to someday disseminate her assets to her heirs in the most tax-efficient manner.

To help ensure that Marianne is successful in achieving her goals, we constructed an investment portfolio designed to preserve principal and generate income while limiting potential tax liability. We then developed and implemented a sophisticated estate planning strategy using a series of trusts and a family LLC for her children and grandchildren. By taking a long-term, multi-generational approach to her plan, we are able to help Marianne enjoy her wealth today and pass it along to her family in the years to come.

Many of our clients are retirees. One of them spent his working years building his company into a regional powerhouse. But, due to the recent sale of the business, he faced the potential for a sizable tax liability. In addition, his investment portfolio sustained significant losses during the previous two years. These issues were distracting William in his desire to take care of his extended family and donate generously to local charities and other non-profit groups. To help William focus on his vision, we consolidated his investment management goals, tax planning needs and philanthropic desires into a single, coherent strategy.

Our first step was to design a portfolio that would provide long-term, above average risk-adjusted returns. During the reallocation process, we were able to bring our tax expertise to bear by advising William—over his initial objections—to liquidate all his investment positions with unrealized losses. Not only did this eliminate securities from his portfolio that were unlikely to recover, we used many of those captured losses to protect capital gains he earned in the portfolio we constructed. We were then able to apply the remaining losses against the income from the sale of his company, rendering that transaction virtually tax free.

With his financial situation secure, we helped William create a comprehensive estate plan that provides long-term financial security for his family and a charitable giving strategy that is both philanthropically effective and personally meaningful. By providing William with a center of stability for overseeing his family’s assets, we help ensure he and his family can enjoy their wealth now while preserving his legacy for future generations.

Glynnis is a 65 year old widow who was left considerable assets by her late husband and stands to inherit a substantial estate from her mother in the not to distant future. When we first met Glynnis, she, like many single women her age, was primarily concerned with preserving, growing and, more importantly, not outliving her assets. She was also concerned about her current trust document in which the corporate trustee also acted as the asset manager.

To help Glynnis realize her financial goals, we constructed a portfolio that generates a monthly income while minimizing risk to her principal. To resolve her trust issue, we established a new trust document which specified that our custodian will provide administrative trust services while retaining our firm as manager of the trust’s assets. The arrangement avoids any potential conflict by separating investment management from the corporate administrative trustee.

Glynnis’s daughter, Tina, and her husband came to us after realizing they needed to start saving for retirement. We established Roth IRAs for both and planned for regular contributions to their U.S.-based employee-sponsored plans. Their situation, however, is not as simple as it seems. Tina and her husband, a legal resident of the U. S., own income-producing real estate overseas and he has a retirement plan from a former employer in the same country. With our global perspective, we were able to create a domestic-based wealth plan that took these factors into account.