Family Office Practice

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Family Office Practice

Many private family clients turn to family offices to manage both their financial and personal affairs. Family offices often oversee a broad spectrum of responsibilities, including the management of family wealth, trust operations, and generational wealth transfer.

Taft’s Private Client attorneys represent a distinguished group of family office clients, many of whom are the founders or descendants of the founders of prominent companies, some of which are now publicly traded. These companies span diverse industries, including pharmaceuticals, banking, technology coal mining, real estate, hospitality, and industrial sectors, to name a few. Taft’s attorneys understand the multifaceted nature of family office operations and the importance of personalized, trusted counsel in safeguarding family legacies and business interests.

Services provided by Taft’s Private Client Group include:

Organization and operation of family offices, including tax issues, manner of ownership, executive retention, and compensation.
Personal matters for family members, including investments, claims, and various family-related issues that may arise in a dynamic household.
Real estate investment transactions, handed through fund managers or directly by family offices, including acquisition, disposition, and management of real estate holdings.
Direct private equity investments, supporting families in identifying, evaluating and executing private equity opportunities aligned with their broader financial goals.
Trust administrative and management services, with particular expertise in resolving disputes related to trust dispositions and ensuring smooth administration of complex trust structures.

The role of family offices has become increasingly essential in managing the diverse needs of ultra high-net worth families. Over the past decade, their proliferation has notably influenced how private client services are conceptualized, structured and implemented. At the core of each family office’s success lies a commitment to providing a personalized, independent platform that addresses the multifaceted demands of succession planning, multigenerational wealth and the unique personal needs of family members. This platform ensures that each family’s complex financial and operational needs are met with precision and foresight.

Taft Private Client attorneys, in collaboration with colleagues across various specialties within the Firm, have crafted a suite of services that is both comprehensive and flexible. These services are designed to address both high-level structuring decisions—those that impact a family’s wealth and resources for generations to come—and practical day-to-day needs, ranging from investment strategies to tax compliance and resolution of generational transition issues.

Taft’s services include a broad range of specialized offerings, such as:

Income tax-efficient structuring, aimed at maximizing the deductibility of operations in light of dynamic changes in current tax law.
Employment agreements, benefits and compliance issues, specifically designed for private clients and the professionals they employ, whether embedded in a family business, employed under a devoted header or brought on as private contractors.
Family education and governance, including the development and implementation of family boards and committees designed to facilitate involvement and buy-in from successive generations.
Aviation law, including related tax and corporate issues that arise for high-net-worth families with private aviation interests.
Comprehensive risk management services, such as:
- Cybersecurity protocols and protections
- Confidentiality concerns and public relations management
- Litigation avoidance strategies, including estate administration disputes, probate controversies and fiduciary litigation.