We are partner with private clients and closely held businesses, helping them to grow and strengthen their finances, families, and futures.
UB Greensfelder’s private wealth services team assists multi-generational families, high-net-worth individuals and closely held businesses, with a wide range of needs. We have the capability to navigate sophisticated matters with a sensible and flexible approach, and we approach our role with empathy and compassion for each unique situation. Our team frequently operates in one or more capacities as:
- Family counsel
- Family office advisors
- Tax counsel
- Family Business Counsel
Who We Are
We are a unique multidisciplinary team from an array of practice areas essential to private clients and closely held businesses. Our attorneys have deep and sophisticated experience in areas including trusts and estates, corporate, real estate, labor and employment, employee benefits and ERISA, intellectual property, and litigation.
How We Help
Family Counsel
We provide clients with sophisticated estate planning and tax planning services. We regularly assist high-net-worth individuals and families, business owners, and executives plan for and protect their financial future and the family’s wealth for generations to come. We have extensive experience working with multi-generational families. Some of our clients have partnered with us for five or more generations, and those relationships allow us to serve as trusted members of the advisory team.
We counsel families and individuals on the disposition of their property through sophisticated lifetime, estate, and charitable planning. We work to preserve their wealth and educate next generation family members, including representing family offices. We have extensive experience in structuring trusts and can help manage a variety of ancillary issues.
Clients turn to our attorneys for assistance in arranging their personal affairs to minimize asset exposure to potential creditors during possible future claims. We assist clients in implementing asset protection strategies to help protect our clients and their families against the vagaries of potential claims arising out of litigation, divorce, or unique family situations.
Family Office Advisors
Increasingly, American families tend to hold much of their wealth through some form of family business entity which provide a variety of benefits, including:
- Centralized management of family wealth
- Increased investment opportunities
- Greater economic efficiencies
- Asset protection
- Privacy
- Potential tax savings
We also work with clients with a family office – a professional team established to manage the family’s wealth, investments, and professional advisors. We serve as trusted members of the team, bringing business, tax, estate planning, and planned giving expertise to the table.
Tax Counsel
Clients turn to us for careful and thoughtful guidance through all aspects of federal and state tax law. Our lawyers guide clients through the tax planning opportunities, devise strategies to advance the family’s goals for future generations, and advocate for clients’ interests should issues arise with respect to an audit or appeal. Flexibility is built into every plan to respond to the possibility of future change, whether in the tax laws, the economy, or a family situation.
To minimize the impact gift tax, estate tax, and generation-skipping transfer taxes may have on a transfer of family wealth, we take great care in the advance planning – considering each taxing scenario, the associated issues and concepts, and the applicable state law. We will also take a holistic approach to your tax planning by considering and incorporating, where appropriate, other planning vehicles you may have in place, including life insurance policies and retirement plans.
Family Business Counsel
Known for representing entrepreneurs and owners of family businesses, we serve our clients beyond their day-to-day matters. We can also be of particular assistance in planning for a leadership transition, advising on:
- Structuring gifting strategies designed to minimize the potential tax imposed when the business owner dies.
- Preparing governing documents addressing succession and buy-out matters.
- Putting in place techniques designed to minimize the potential for family conflict over the management of a closely held business.
We help clients restructure the current ownership of their business, setting the stage for a smooth transition, and when the time is right, map out the ownership and control transfer to the next generation. We represent a variety of closely held business clients that have grown from small, entrepreneurial businesses to companies with billions of dollars in revenue. We serve as trusted members of the team, bringing business, tax, estate planning, and planned giving expertise to the table. For additional information on our Business Succession Planning services visit our Business Succession Planning page.
Why Clients Choose UB Greensfelder
Every representation is unique because we take each client’s personal situation and ultimate goals into account and work to create highly customized solutions. To preserve your legacy, our team can provide an in-depth analysis of your goals and the planning techniques available to make sure your complex needs are addressed. Above all, we take an approach focused on your goals and crafted with empathy and compassion for your position.
- We meet clients where they are and make things work for their unique needs.
- We have multi-generational fluency with over 100 years of helping families and their businesses transition, from first generation to fifth generation and beyond.
- We provide integrated advisory services – we understand the family’s and business owner’s perspective and care for the client’s legacy and longevity.
