COURSE DESCRIPTION
Most successful businesses are owned by one or more families. Because they are family owned, these companies create many special planning challenges. Ownership and control do not shift among non-owner managers or anonymous shareholders. Rather, succession in control or management is a momentous and often highly emotional process for members of the family. Frequently, these transitions are caused by the withdrawal or death of members of the senior family generation. And these transitions, if not carefully planned and delicately handled, can be ruinous, damaging to the family and its company. This program will provide you a real-world framework of trust and estate planning and succession planning for family businesses.
Day 1:
- Avoiding family succession drama – communication, income issues, and phased shifts in control
- Valuation issues for financial and tax purposes
- Buy-sell planning with family members or key employees
- The neglected alternative of selling to third parties where succession is not possible
- Planning for the incapacity of the founding generation
- Role of outside managers to overcome family drama related to control
Day 2:
- Framework of trust and estate planning tools and techniques for family businesses
- Life insurance trust planning – or as a compensating asset to certain heirs
- Structuring private annuities to transfer a business and provide income to founders
- Self-cancelling installments notes and intentionally defective irrevocable trusts
- Use of GRATS and “redemptive freezes”
- Obtaining tax-free (or tax-saving) treatment on the sale of a family business
- Post-mortem planning for family businesses and its limitations
Speakers:
Daniel L. Daniels is a partner in the Greenwich, Connecticut office of Wiggin and Dana, LLP, where his practice focuses on representing business owners, corporate executives and other wealthy individuals and their families. A Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, he is listed in “The Best Lawyers in America,” and has been named by “Worth” magazine as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in the United States representing affluent individuals. Mr. Daniels is co-author of a monthly column in “Trusts and Estates” magazine. Mr. Daniels received his A.B., summa cum laude, from Dartmouth College and received his J.D., with honors, from Harvard Law School.