Family offices deserve strategy and focus
We believe a family office refers to the substantial active management, oversight, and monitoring of a family’s business, investment, and personal assets in a purposeful, prudent, and business-like manner. Often times, ultra-high net worth families concentrate their efforts on accumulating assets under management rather than the structure of their family enterprise. While this may produce favorable returns, we believe a focus on the intangible factors of family governance, harmony, legacy, and risk management are of equal or greater importance to produce great outcomes. Better economic returns and stronger family bonds become the end result.
Why partner with RS&F?
Well, we wrote the book on family offices – literally. RS&F’s David Rosen is the primary author of the forthcoming Bloomberg Tax Portfolio on Family Offices (T.M. 880-1st, Family Offices), which will be the most comprehensive work on family offices to date and is used by thousands of tax advisors. Our team has structured dozens of single-family offices with unique situations and individual complexities. We understand the interrelationships between family situations, legacy, charitable endeavors, entity structure, the regulatory environment, estate planning, and tax efficiency. We also engage with clients and their other advisors to holistically support family office clients and their disparate objectives.
As a service to our clients and the family office community, we have also authored The Family Office Source. This resource provides a comprehensive guide of planning and tax matters important for and relevant to family offices and their stakeholders. Our planning team and tax advisors counsel clients on the various strategies and concepts included in The Family Office Source as they relate to specific families.
We approach family offices holistically
The primary purpose of family office organizations is to create a sustainable, profitable, multigenerational investment company owned by extended family members. These organizations support the endeavors of such families in their local, regional, and national communities. Further, the family office lives at the intersection of income, estate, and gift taxes, and charitable planning matters. Therefore, the functions of family offices cannot live in silos and require robust coordination between everyone involved.
RS&F structures family offices in a manner that address and embrace these principles. In addition to high level planning that must be revisited on a periodic basis, our team engages with clients for their regular management and financial reporting as well as tax compliance needs. This requires an understanding of the role each stakeholder plays in exceeding expectations of sophisticated family office clients. Our team has this understanding and partners with clients and their team on the execution of family objectives.
Family Office services
We offer family offices a variety of services that comprehensively address the needs of family members, future generations, and their communities. Areas of expertise include:
- Family office structuring
- Income tax compliance (federal and state) for family offices and related companies, and family member investors
- Aircraft taxation
- Family gift, trust, and estate planning
- Charitable contribution planning
- Governance practices and reporting
- Private foundations
- Risk management
- State and local taxes (SALT)
- Succession planning
- Tax treatment of family office investments
