Our Process

Our Goals, Mission & Objectives

We direct our energies to:

• Continuous and careful listening, to thoroughly understand your goals and objectives.
• Interpreting and demystifying the complexities of strategies, such as irrevocable trusts, split dollar funding, wealth replacement trusts, family limited partnerships, charitable trusts, and grantor retained annuity trusts. We continuously strive to make insurance and other solutions understandable to you.
• Applying critical thinking to help identify problems, and then providing creative and sound ideas and solutions to complex problems and issues.
• Making the process as comfortable as possible, communicating clearly, and being sensitive to family needs and personalities. Our goal is to be patient and caring, to assist in keeping the process going, to surface the emotional issues, and at times, those essential issues not raised by others, all the while attempting to reach consensus and improve communication.
• Building strong, lasting relationships based on trust, confidentiality, discretion, integrity, and whole-hearted dedication to your best interest.

Being an accessible professional, anticipating your needs and assisting you on a long-term basis. We will gladly spend the time needed to develop a close relationship and a careful analysis of the issues. We are flexible and tailor our services to your particular needs.

Work As A Team

We work as a team with your attorneys, tax, and other professionals.

• We work cooperatively with your other professionals to jointly design a strategy that fits your needs and objectives. Our role is not to practice law or provide tax advice. We are a resource to you and your professionals in areas not directly related to the placing of life insurance, where our experience and contacts are valuable.
• We begin with a complete review of your current situation. We then identify issues for attention, and recommend solutions. This provides an organized approach for other professionals and makes cost effective use of other professionals’ time. Suggested solutions are discussed and refined until final strategies are decided on, with consensus approval of all professionals.
• We work with excellent law, accounting, investment, banking, trust, charitable, and financial professionals around the country. We have extensive knowledge about, and good working relationships with other professionals. If desired, we can help you select, evaluate, and monitor the team of professionals for your situation.

We have assisted private company owners in selecting money managers, financial institutions, brokerages, or other financial professionals to provide investment strategies, or administer a family office.

Your Overall Financial Strategy

Our focus is helping you formulate a comprehensive, thoughtful financial strategy, of which life insurance is one component.

• How to best keep, transfer, or realize the value of a company is a complex issue that we help clients resolve. Often, business assets are appreciated, illiquid, low basis, and among your most valuable assets. We help you maximize the value of your business for your benefit and minimize tax liabilities and risks.
• We help clients with personal issues, such as business succession solutions within a family, how to provide equitably for other beneficiaries, and how to build incentives, creditor protection, and flexibility into your strategies.
• Many clients are concerned about giving family too much wealth. We help you provide for your family as you wish and control the disposition of the balance in ways that are fulfilling to you.
• We facilitate family meetings to improve understanding, communication, and trust.
• Many clients have asset preservation concerns, due to the nature of their businesses or their assets and beneficiaries. We have significant experience helping them address these concerns.

We help you amend your strategies, over time, in light of changes in your goals, or in family circumstances, business ownership, or finances.