a family office consortium in conjunction with a very substantial investment fund that provided the capital to pay the premiums<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nthe transaction is exceedingly complicated, and it made a few family member decision-makers more than a little nervous. overall, they clearly understood there was potential for things going wrong and were, therefore, concerned about the risks. they wanted to be confident they knew all the risks, which led them to stress test the transaction.<\/p>\n
a leading international tax lawyer referred us to senior management at the family\u2019s single-family office. after being retained and getting an overview of the transaction, we assembled a team of specialists mirroring the group involved that executed the transaction. one of the experts we brought in is off the grid and was only available because of our previous business dealings. it took the team a couple of months to critically evaluate the transaction.<\/p>\n
bottom line: the transaction effectively addresses the needs and wants of the family. it is also 100 percent legitimate. moreover, the professionals who put the deal together were exceptionally clever about it. the family members were quite happy knowing that the actions they took were verified and confirmed.<\/p>\n
illegal tax planning:<\/strong> a wealthy individual was quite proud of how ingenious his tax planning was and how well it worked. the complication was that some of his business dealings were being scrutinized, and he wanted to make sure his wealth planning would not cause him any problems. his wealth plan had done several things:<\/p>\n\nhe transferred some of his businesses to a trust for which he received units of beneficial interest. the business trust makes payments to him, thereby avoiding taxes. the business trust will also not have to pay future estate taxes.<\/li>\n in another jurisdiction, he sold appreciated property to another trust in exchange for an annuity, which in turn sells the assets and reinvests the money. he claims recognition of the built-in gain over his life, and the trust is not included in the estate.<\/li>\n he transferred his family home to yet another trust and received units that were claimed to be part of a taxable exchange, resulting in a stepped-up basis for the property. the trust is thus in the rental business and claims to rent the residence back to him. he does not pay rent because he is the caretaker of the property.<\/li>\n he created a hierarchy of trusts owning other trusts. one trust on top, in effect, holds the trust units of 41 trusts, and this trust distributes the income from those trusts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nit quickly became apparent that what he and his advisors had created were many trusts, some dubious in nature, that held selected assets and income streams. a criminal mistake was that by vertically layering these trusts, there were arguably fraudulent expenses being charged to subsequent trusts, resulting in a decrease in taxable income. simultaneously, the approach resulted in the illusion of separation of control to protect the assets in the trusts.<\/p>\n
creating abusive trusts and layering them the way he did can come in a wide variety of forms, with almost all of them clearly used for questionable, if not illegal, purposes. it is analogous to russian matryoshka dolls, where one doll hides within a similar doll. unless all the dolls are opened, you cannot find the only one that is not hollow.<\/p>\n
in this case, the super-rich individual claimed he thought he was just being smart about wealth planning. what he was doing was illegal, and even if he did not know it, the advisors who guided him and did the work most assuredly did \u2013 or should have. regardless, he was on the hook for this planning. because of stress testing, he completely redid all his wealth planning.<\/p>\n
too much money too soon:<\/strong> we reviewed a will in which the youngest son, currently 6 years of age, would, on turning 12, receive an inheritance of slightly more than $250 million. who would hand this much money over to a 12-year-old? not many super-rich families would hand over a quarter of a billion dollars to a 12-year-old, and this family would not<\/strong> think of doing so.<\/p>\nthe technical failure was the transposition of two numbers. the will should have stated that the son inherits the fortune at 21 years of age, not 12. again, who would hand this much money over to a 21-year-old? how many super-rich families would entrust $250 million to a 21-year-old when that person is only 6 years old today? we pointed out that, in fact, it might actually be \u201csafer\u201d to give a 12-year-old $250 million than give a 21-year-old that amount.<\/p>\n
some extremely wealthy families might hand a quarter of a billion dollars to a 21-year-old without restriction, but this family was appalled by the idea. there was a serious breakdown in communication between the family and the advisors involved in the estate plan.<\/p>\n
because of stress testing, the super-rich family\u2019s estate plan was dramatically adjusted and updated. currently, it\u2019s tightly aligned with the family\u2019s overall agenda, and the son will inherit substantial wealth in a very disciplined manner \u2013 but not a quarter of a billion dollars when he turns 12 or 21. the estate plan delivers the framework and structure for creating a dynasty while insulating family members from losing wealth through taxes, litigation or divorce.<\/p>\n
stress testing for the wealthy<\/strong><\/p>\nstress testing is quite common for the super-rich. a large percentage of single-family offices are regularly stress testing to make sure optimal results are being achieved for their extremely wealthy families. meanwhile, stress testing is becoming more prevalent among the wealthy who are far from being super-rich.<\/p>\n
based on our research and extensive experience, there is a poignant difference between stress testing with the super-rich and stress testing with less wealthy families. generally speaking, stress testing by the super-rich tends to find fewer errors or opportunities for improvement than for those who are less wealthy. this fact is probably because of the caliber of professionals engaged by many super-rich families and their single-family offices. their approach to due diligence is usually intense. however, when \u201cfailings\u201d get discovered, they tend to be quite severe.<\/p>\n
more mistakes among the wealthy:<\/strong> stress testing for individuals and families who are not super-rich tends to uncover more mistakes and more missed opportunities. it is more likely for the wealthy, in contrast to the super-rich, to be plagued by pretenders, predators and exploiters.<\/p>\nit is fairly common, for instance, for stress testing to uncover deadly \u201cback doors\u201d to a wealthy family\u2019s asset protection plans. for example, some extremely successful entrepreneurs structure multiple company holdings in separate entities. however, they fail to insulate those entities from adversities that may occur in their personal lives. this error is quite prevalent among a great many business owners and real estate entrepreneurs. however, when it comes to the super-rich, the back doors are more likely to be locked tight.<\/p>\n
conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\nfor the most part, stress testing is a very attractive service the wealthy want and appreciate. because of the swarm of pretenders, predators, exploiters and even true professionals who are not that client-focused, mistakes are all too common and missed opportunities are quite prevalent.<\/p>\n
although you can formally provide stress testing and charge for the service, it also comes about as you uncover the self-interests of the wealthy and even other professionals. for example, the \u201cthriving through the covid-19 crisis and beyond\u201d workshop is a form of stress testing. stress testing is implicit as the participants are considering their self-interests, their actions and what they need to do to make the most of their current situation. whether stress testing is explicit or implicit, it will often lead to more business for your high-net-worth practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
check the bottom line.<\/strong> \nby anthony glomski and russ alan prince<\/i> \nyour $5-million high-net-worth practice<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3562,"featured_media":83153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1363,3120,3002,11,3139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-pro-member-exclusive","category-special","category-research","category-wealth"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nfour steps of stress testing - 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n