W talks: families and family office

In this podcast, we look at family offices as direct investors. Our host and head of the family office practice, Ivan Sacks, talks to Megan Jones, a Private Client lawyer in Withers' LA office with a background as an investment banker in Silicon Valley. This interview puts the spotlight on how family offices across the scale are increasingly seeking to go direct, investing in private companies, particularly in the tech world, and why start-ups and venture capital are alive to the benefits of attracting these types of long-term strategic investors. Megan offers insights and pointers about the opportunities and risks to consider when investing in a private company.

In this podcast, we look at sibling rivalries in family businesses. Our host and head of the family office practice, Ivan Sacks, talks to Lou Mezzullo, an experienced advisor and speaker on family business succession planning and a frequent expert witness in cases involving family business disputes. Lou provides insight and thoughtful guidance on succeeding across generations within a family business by avoiding the types of stumbling blocks that often come to hinder that success, including a simple lack of communication or transparency of information, an imbalance of the wealth distribution, and failure to deal effectively with the rights of inactive business members to participate in the family business.

In this podcast, our host and head of the family office practice, Ivan Sacks, talks to Christina Baltz, a Partner in Withers' Private Client practice in New York with extensive experience advising on estate planning and pre-nuptial agreements. Christina provides insight and guidance on integrating elements of wealth protection for children from divorce risks into sophisticated estate planning strategies, especially the design of trusts, as well as the importance of prenuptial agreements.

In this podcast, we look at moving a trust. Our host and head of the family office practice, Ivan Sacks, talks to Sandra Fung, about moving the situs of a trust from one jurisdiction to another. The movement of trusts may be influenced by life changes, such as the Trustees or beneficiaries moving to another state, or independent strategic considerations related to the advantages of different rules in different jurisdictions. Sandra provides guidance on what it means to "move" a trust, including the difference between a tax home and an administrative home, and how and why families move trusts around to achieve strategic advantages, including tax efficiencies.

In this podcast, we look at the opportunities for planning in the current, low-interest rate environment. Our host and head of the family office practice, Ivan Sacks, talks to Genevieve Larson, the head of Withers San Francisco office and a noted wealth planner, to consider guiding clients on estate planning during these unprecedented times, including addressing heightened concerns with mortality among wealth founders, and the importance of reviewing existing documents and plans to consider any needed changes. In addition, Genevieve highlights the importance of possible tax changes ahead and the current opportunity that exists to utilize intra-family loans and other planning tools geared off the current low-interest rate environment to transfer wealth generationally and meet desired goals for your family.

In this podcast, we look at employment agreements and incentives for performance and retention. Our host and head of the family office practice, Ivan Sacks, talks to David Guin, head of Withers' corporate practice in the US who often acts as outside corporate counsel to family offices, about structuring compensation of staff in a family office. David provides an overview and guidance on employment compensation incentives for performance and retention. In less than ten minutes, David's insights cover a wide range of issues from the strategy behind incentive compensation to exploring the different tools and varieties of incentive-based compensation, from bonuses to "phantom" equity programs.

In this podcast, we look at the structuring of family offices for tax and investment benefits. Our host and head of the family office practice, Ivan Sacks, talks to Bill Kambas, a noted practitioner, speaker and author on the subject, about tax-efficient structuring for family offices and their relationship to family investments. Bill provides insight and guidance on organizing tax efficiency in the design and structure of the family office, a "broader family enterprise," and a range of other management vehicles. In addition, Bill explains that in proper circumstances, a family office can generate income and manage expenses in a way that is both tax efficient and beneficial to the entire wealth enterprise.