Managing significant wealth brings both tremendous opportunity and tremendous responsibility for individuals and families. Many of our high-net worth clients find that the myriad of tasks associated with managing closely held business interests, investments and philanthropic organizations have become increasingly burdensome. Valuable time spent managing day-to-day tasks can consume time better spent fostering stewardship in the next generation and the expansion of family philanthropic legacy.
Since World War II, the number of families who control wealth has increased significantly. In our capitalistic society, wealth is controlled by individual families rather than the government, royalty or a few industrial barons. Many of these families are not adequately equipped to handle the responsibilities and challenges of great wealth. These factors have led to a new challenge of overseeing wealth management beyond the family business specialty.
For the past 25 years, many successful and distinguished family enterprises have established “Family Offices.” The traditional “Family Office” is a private entity formed to serve all of the personal and financial needs of one family. However, the traditional “Family Office” comes with the great expense of hiring full-time employees to run your enterprise.
The Busch Firm Family Office Practice provides the same complement of outsource services and high level of personal attention associated with a traditional “Family Office,” but without the significant capital outlay or challenge of establishing a competent team.
Our Family Office advisors will work with you to develop and implement a strategic plan tailored to your needs. We offer a wide range of advisory and administrative services, including sophisticated tax and philanthropic planning and strategies, financial asset oversight, and multi-generational wealth preservation techniques. Although we are not investment or money managers, we help protect and build our clients wealth through tax, estate, investment and personal planning.
Our comprehensive suite of services consists of:
Income Tax Planning and Preparation:
Tax planning and compliance is a critical component of financial success. We help clients protect and build their accumulated wealth through effective tax planning and reporting. The Family Office Practice can provide:
- Preparation of individual, corporate, partnership, fiduciary, foundation and gift and estate tax returns;
- Transactional tax planning and structuring;
- Annual tax projections and quarterly and annual tax planning; and
- Property tax administration.
Legal Services:
The Busch Firm has a long history of advising closely held businesses and high net worth family enterprises. The Family Office Practice can offer a full suite of legal services. Basic legal services offered as part of the Family Office Practice include:
- Preparation of annual corporate minutes and various state filing requirements;
- Lease negotiations; and
- Annual review of estate planning and minor changes and amendments to wills and trusts.
Philanthropic Services:
A key responsibility of the wealthy in a capitalistic society is to provide for the less fortunate. Private foundations and other tax-exempt organizations are more efficient and have a higher degree of accountability than the government in the area of providing public assistance. However, many wealthy families have little experience with managing substantial wealth and philanthropic activities. The Busch Firm has developed a series of Family Legacy Forums to study the spiritual and temporal responsibilities of philanthropy. Basic services offered as part of the Family Office Practice include:
- Private foundation and tax-exempt entity formation including obtaining recognition and maintaining 501(c)(3) charity status from the Internal Revenue Service;
- Advising on board governance issues and developing policies and corporate compliance programs;
- Establishing the deductibility of charitable contributions; and
- Creating charitable giving plans.
Financial Management:
Managing finances consists of more than paying bills. The Family Office Practice can provide:
- Comprehensive financial planning and reports;
- Cash management and cash flow analysis;
- Bill payment and day-to-day accounting;
- Development of accounting policies and procedures;
- Review of existing and/or implementation of new internal controls and procedures;
- Accounts payable and receivable management;
- Compiling, review or audit of financial statements;
- Inventory management; and
- Full Payroll services including payroll tax deposits, 401k deposits, quarterly and annual payroll tax returns & W-2’s, 1099’s and 401k annual census information.
The Busch Firm is licensed to practice law in California, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Michigan and Nevada. The Busch Firm’s approach to family wealth management is unique because many of our professionals are both CPAs and attorneys or attorneys with advanced tax degrees. The merging of legal and financial disciplines of our attorney-CPAs and other professionals render a cohesive balance of planning and implementation of tax reporting and compliance. We have worked with wealthy families for over 30 years to assist them in structuring a balance of in-house and out-source services as the family needs mature.
For more information regarding the range of services provided by the Family Office Practice, please contact Greg Cobucci.