The life insurance industry has almost certainly changed since you bought your last policy. New products have been developed and prices are falling, yet many policies are still underperforming. Cypress Strategies provides an objective, fiduciary quality assessment of your life insurance portfolio. We will help you determine if your insurance still meets your specific planning needs and whether your products are still competitively priced. This thorough process produces a clear and objective assessment of your insurance and recommendations for future action.
This is a complicated question. We work with clients who own privately held companies and focus on the issues of family ownership, control, active and inactive siblings, as well as executive management and leadership development. These are sensitive issues for a family. Although we find many family businesses with strong next generation leaders, in some cases the gene pool may not be the deepest talent pool to draw from for successor managers. Just because a business started out as an owner-manager-entrepreneur model doesn’t necessarily mean it will remain there. Your family may need to migrate to an owner-investor or hybrid model. A forum for open, honest communication must be established so that a plan that protects the business, the employees and the family can be designed and implemented. Cypress Strategies has been successful as facilitators to help families work through some of these very difficult issues.
In our experience many business owners and entrepreneurs feel that they cannot devote enough time to their legacy and business succession planning because of a hectic business and social schedule. Although often true, lack of time may be only a symptom of the real issue. These people are often surrounded by competent advisors and have reviewed alternative strategies to help reduce taxes, transfer wealth or plan for succession. However, the various tax strategies may not be part of a comprehensive plan meant to accomplish their personal objectives. Furthermore, there may not be a system for follow-up to keep the project moving. At Cypress Strategies, we perform two vital functions. We work with our clients to help them crystallize their objectives relative to their family, business and charity, and most importantly, we get our clients to take action. We relieve the business owner of managing the process and take responsibility for making sure the job gets done.
Too much money rarely ruins heirs, it’s too little character. However, you may want to set your legacy planning up to incent your heirs to lead productive and respectable lives. We help you make sure that your family values are not lost in the process. The establishment of a family mission statement and properly structured trusts can be set up to do just this – preserve family values and incent productive lifestyles. You can plan around the fear of creating “trust fund babies.”
Planning for the future is never easy. Unfortunately for many people with significant wealth, they have not analyzed their personal financial picture in relation to their lifestyle. This leads to needless uncertainty about the future. In reality, personal lifestyle needs drive a wealth preservation plan. We work closely with our clients to build plans that organize their financial affairs making certain personal desires are incorporated. Cypress Strategies can help you take a holistic view of your wealth, and work with you to create a plan that provides confidence for financial freedom today, while helping you to meet the challenges you may face tomorrow.
Normally partners choose each other for synergistic or financial reasons. Often next generation family members have no choice. It is a “shotgun wedding.” As a family grows and the number of family members increases this challenge becomes greater. While dividing everything equally amongst family members seems easier, it’s not always the fairest distribution solution. This is often the most emotional aspect of an estate distribution and business succession plan. Cypress Strategies can be the non-emotional mediator for this difficult process. We have helped many families create specific rules regarding family employment, compensation, distribution of earnings and ownership of the business.
It’s best to arrange for asset preservation as early as possible, preferably before the asset has been created. We analyze estate planning strategies that afford you and your family maximum asset preservation from creditors, divorce, and taxes. Our clients find great comfort knowing a lawsuit or a divorcing spouse will not have a negative impact on the family’s assets that they have worked so hard to build.
Many people never consider this question. But the idea of leaving a meaningful legacy is often the most satisfying accomplishment in life. Whether inspired by a defining childhood moment, a personal interest, or the people of your community, we can work with your legal advisors to help you create a charitable entity to help accomplish your wishes. Our clients have been able to communicate and enhance the family’s values to each generation by working together to help those less fortunate.