Laureate Strategies

Many of our clients have taxable estates, asset protection issues and business legacy concerns. Under the current estate tax laws, individuals with estates valued over five million four hundred and ninety thousand dollars will pay estate tax. Wealth Strategies planning allows us to understand your assets, your family and your goals so that we may help design and implement a plan that will reduce or eliminate estate tax and pass on a legacy.

Our Laureate Planning Process

1. Introductory Call and Visit

   When you (or your trusted advisor) contact our office, one of our friendly team members will gain a basic understanding of your particular situation and concerns. If we determine that your situation is relatively complex, we will recommend that you come to our office for a Laureate Planning Initial Visit. We generally schedule one hour for this meeting.

   When it is convenient, we encourage you to bring your other trusted financial or accounting advisors to your Laureate Initial Visit. During our Initial Visit together, we will gain a more detailed understanding of your particular situation and concerns. We explain our Laureate Planning Process and its benefits in order to determine whether we are a good fit for establishing an attorney-client relationship.

2. Review

   If you wish for us to review your affairs, we will quote a fee for this initial review and we will request documents for you to provide us in order to facilitate our review. Our minimum fee for a Review of a Laureate client is $15,000. Once we have gathered your estate, our team will perform a review of your family and estate information.

   Next, we analyze, test, and challenge combinations of planning theories and strategies for the allocation, distribution, and protection of your assets. We determine those that will best fulfill your needs and aspirations for you and your family. We work collaboratively with your financial advisor and CPA on the design and present a preliminary plan to them before we present the proposed planning options to you.

   Finally, we prepare a book outlining the current estate tax structure and proposed structure. This book contains narratives, graphs, charts, models, and schedules to help you comprehend complex legal strategies that we think would benefit your family.

3. The Retreat

   During your Retreat, we present your Laureate Planning book and explain the legal strategies we believe will benefit your family. Your CPA and financial advisor will also attend the Retreat. The Retreat is scheduled for four hours to ensure there is adequate time for us to communicate the various planning strategies and answer all of your questions. We cater lunch in our office and take a break midway through the Retreat.

   Based on your needs and desires, we formulate parameters for the Implementation Engagement, including implementation fees, deadlines and responsibilities.

4. Laureate Plan Implementation

   Upon your understanding and approval of the plan, we finally proceed to implementation and begin drafting documents. We provide you and each of your advisors with a detailed plan and implementation schedule. During this period, we will prepare the legal instruments necessary to carry out your strategic objectives (such as trusts, business organizational documents, or buy-sell agreements).

   The Laureate Plan Implementation culminates in your Signing Ceremony. It is during the Signing Ceremony that we review the documents together and identify how they accomplish your specific wishes.

5. Confirmation

   Once we finish the Laureate Plan Implementation, our team coordinates with third-parties to confirm certain aspects of your plan are fully implemented. We will meet with you and your other advisors for a confirmation meeting to review and address the implementation details and address any remaining questions.

6. Formal Updating & Maintenance

   In many Laureate Plans there are actions that must be accomplished in future years. This planning may or may not require further collaboration among our team and your financial and accounting advisors.

   A sound Laureate Plan meets your goals and keeps you in control of the process and the results. We generally recommend that we sit down together to review your planning documents every year (or more frequently if you have had significant changes in your family or assets) to ensure that your plan remains current.