WHEN YOUR FINANCIAL SUCCESS HAS OUTGROWN YOUR ADVISORS
Advanced Tax, Wealth, and Financial Planning for Business Owners and Families with Generational Wealth—Expertise Tailored to Eight- and Nine-Figure Complexity.
Personalized Team Of Experts And Family Office Frameworks
Your Partner For Custom Wealth, Legacy, And Purpose-Driven Strategies
Palmerston, a Partner Who:
Promotes Stewardship for Owners Of Successful Businesses And Families With Generational Wealth
Case Studies
We invite you to take a look at these case studies to see how we pursue customized and reliable solutions.
Case Study 1: From Business Leadership to Lasting Financial Freedom and Giving Back
A Business Owner’s Challenge: Aligning Wealth, Succession, and Legacy
Maggie – Age 52
At 52, this successful, married business owner has built a thriving company worth $16 million, providing employment for 45 team members—including two key executives, each with 6% equity stakes.
While she earned $2.5 million annually, she knew her financial complexity demanded more than the traditional planning and asset allocation models she was getting from her advisors.
She needed a multi-expert, coordinated strategy for business succession, estate protection, and long-term solutions for her special-needs child—while ensuring her wealth could fuel lasting impact through effective philanthropy.
Using our Team of Experts Planning™ approach, we developed an integrated wealth, business, and legacy solution:
– Business Succession and Exit Strategy – Designed a future equity-transition plan, including key-person retention/incentive solutions, as well as a partial ESOP design to reduce both income and capital gains taxes – and to align all the now 45 employee-owners with the goal of a successful future.
– Tax-Advantaged Compensation– Implemented non-qualified deferred compensation to reward key employees while reducing tax liability for the client.
– Customized Capital Allocation for Long-Term Security – Utilized the client’s significant financial success to eliminate over-reliance on diversification and rebalancing in favor of a portfolio design featuring a core of high-quality, reasonably priced stocks over the long term. Focus on balancing business vs. personal assets to ensure financial independence.
– Advanced Tax and Estate Planning – Included a series of trusts to protect assets, maximize federal exemptions, generate tax-free income, and tax-efficiently use the “stretch” exception for qualified assets for the benefit of the special-needs child.
– Legacy Philanthropy – Created a customized donor advised funds solution to both maximize charitable impact immediately, and eliminate the cost and time required by a private foundation.
Now, she has a clear path to transition leadership, protect her family’s financial future, and make a meaningful impact for years to come.
*Please note: This “case study” is hypothetical and doesn’t involve a real person. It’s educational, and intended to give you a sense of how our “Team of Experts” process works. It should not be interpreted as promises or guarantees.
Case Study 2: From Executive to Family Office Founder
Building a Legacy Beyond Corporate Success
Ben – Age 40
At 40 years old, this married senior finance executive has spent 15 years managing private equity and venture investments for a $20-billion multi-generational family office.
With $120 million in vested carried interests, a $15-million brokerage account held with his wife, and a $3-million Roth 401(k), he is ready for his next move—launching his own family office.
He faces complex questions about tax mitigation, estate planning to protect his wife and two young children (11 and 8), and asset protection for hard-earned wealth.
Tailored Solutions for Growth, Protection and Impact
Utilizing Team of Experts Planning, we created a customized Wealth Architect Blueprint™ to position him for long-term financial control, risk management, and impact, featuring:
– Independent Family Office Formation – Create a custom entity for investment control and co-investment opportunities – one with compliant administrative and reporting processes that enable the office to receive favorable tax treatment.
– Fractional CFO for Family Office – The client is an expert in private equity and venture capital; he can direct capital allocation. A tax expert and systems-savvy CPA, serving as a part-time CFO, can add ongoing value by effectively managing the firm’s balance sheet and cash flow.
– Asset Protection Trusts (DAPTs) – Help client work with specialized attorneys to create a trust that both protects the client as grantor and retains the client’s right to convert part or all the trust into a full-fledged Asset Protection Trust that blocks creditors and litigants.
– Advanced Tax and Estate Planning – Design multi-generational trusts and tax mitigation strategies that include Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts (SLATs), Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs), and the placement of significant, tax-advantaged permanent life insurance utilizing premium financing inside irrevocable trusts to maintain and create both significant tax-free assets as well as a potential offset for the next generation’s estate tax liabilities.
– Impact-Driven Philanthropy – Consultants specializing in veterans and cancer-research issues can be retained by the client’s family office to transform a low-cost, high-flexibility donor-advised fund (DAF ) into a thought-leadership role in grant-making across the field.
With expert-led planning, the client gained financial independence, strategic control, and the ability to make an impact—all while securing his family’s long-term wealth.
*Please note: This “case study” is hypothetical and doesn’t involve a real person. It’s educational, and intended to give you a sense of how our “Team of Experts” process works. It should not be interpreted as promises or guarantees.
Case Study 3: A Business Owner’s Path to Secure, Lasting Wealth
Balancing Business Growth, Family Complexity and Future Wealth
Frank – Age 56
At 56 years old, this furniture-distribution business owner is on track for eight-figure wealth.
With the company’s value likely to grow from $3-million to $4.5-million within a few years, an imminent $5-million inheritance, $2.5-million in his 401k, and trying to navigate blended-family dynamics (including one adult stepchild with substance abuse problems), he needs customized strategies to protect his wealth, family, and legacy.
A Team of Experts, A Comprehensive Wealth Plan
We brought together independent estate, tax, and insurance specialists to augment long-term Buffett-Munger-style portfolio management, to craft a multi-faceted wealth strategy:
– Business Succession and Exit Strategy – Developed a business transition plan, including plans to hire a director of operations/general manager to assure continuity and create greater enterprise value. Added key-man insurance on the client to protect the value of the business if the client dies or is incapacitated.
– SLAT Trusts – Established spousal lifetime asset trusts (SLATs) to reduce estate taxes and protect assets.
– Asset Protection and Family Governance – Assisted in the client’s selection of his trustees and power-of-appointment rules to ensure financial stability for his wife and children.
– Charitable Strategy and Roth Conversion – Planned to use a Charitable Lead Annuity Trust (CLAT) and a portion of the inheritance when it occurs to undertake a substantial Roth conversion. This combination sets the stage for decades of tax-free capital appreciation inside the Roth IRA.
– Property and Casualty Insurance Update– for both the business and personal assets.
With a clear roadmap and a reliable team of experts as his sounding board, the client is securing his family’s financial future while positioning his business for maximum value.
*Please note: This “case study” is hypothetical and doesn’t involve a real person. It’s educational, and intended to give you a sense of how our “Team of Experts” process works. It should not be interpreted as promises or guarantees.