SE HABLA ESPAÑOL
SE HABLA ESPAÑOL
For Founders & Operators • Business & Real Estate Succession
You Spent Thirty Years Building It. Without a Succession Plan, Your Family Sells It at a Discount to Pay the IRS.
Business and real estate succession planning for Miami founders, operators, and sponsors with $5M to $250M+ in closely held value.
For Founders & Operators • Business & Real Estate Succession
You Spent Thirty Years Building It. Without a Succession Plan, Your Family Sells It at a Discount to Pay the IRS.
Business and real estate succession planning for Miami founders, operators, and sponsors with $5M to $250M+ in closely held value.
When a business owner dies without a succession plan, the estate has nine months to pay federal estate tax. In cash. The business itself is usually the largest asset on the balance sheet and the least liquid. The result is what every founder fears: a fire-sale to a competitor, a buyout at distressed valuation, or a forced liquidation that erases a lifetime of compounded equity.
The same problem exists for real estate sponsors. A large portfolio of appreciated property generates a tax bill the heirs cannot pay without selling the buildings. The buildings then sell at the worst possible time, and the family loses the income stream that was supposed to support them.
This is not a problem you fix in the last year. The instruments that move ownership out of your taxable estate work because of time and growth. The earlier you start, the more leverage you get.
Founders preparing for a sale, recapitalization, or generational transfer within 36 months.
Developers with concentrated, appreciating real estate holdings that need to be "frozen" for tax purposes.
Owners transitioning control to children while balancing the interests of non-operating heirs.
Owners of pre-liquidity equity or restricted stock that is poised for a significant valuation spike.
We don’t believe in “one-size-fits-all” transitions. We build the architecture of your legacy based on your specific asset classes, tax exposure, and family dynamics
The cornerstone of business succession for owners who want to freeze the value of the business in their estate and shift all future growth to their children at minimal gift tax cost. Often paired with a discount entity to compound the leverage.
Built for assets you expect to appreciate quickly. Transfers the upside to heirs while you receive an annuity stream back. Especially powerful for pre-liquidity equity.
The receiving vehicle for transferred ownership when the goal is to keep the business or portfolio in the family for multiple generations without re-exposing it to estate tax at each death.
For real estate and operating businesses where liability needs to live at the asset level and ownership needs to live somewhere else.
Used to centralize ownership, apply valuation discounts, and create governance that survives the founder.
We coordinate the planning with the operating agreements, shareholder agreements, and buy-sell terms so the estate plan and the business documents do not contradict each other.
A deep-dive into how your current holdings impact your eventual tax exposure.
We work with your appraisers to establish a defensible strategy for gifting and sales.
A written roadmap detailing the recommended structure and the sequence of transfers.
Drafting all trusts, entity amendments, and supporting documents.
Active coordination with your CPA, and financial advisors to ensure the plan holds up during a sale.
We work directly with your CPA to ensure all entities are correctly integrated with your tax strategy.
A deep-dive into how your current holdings impact your eventual tax exposure.
We work with your appraisers to establish a defensible strategy for gifting and sales.
A written roadmap detailing the recommended structure and the sequence of transfers.
Drafting all trusts, entity amendments, and supporting documents.
Active coordination with your CPA, and financial advisors to ensure the plan holds up during a sale.
The questions clients ask
before they hire us
Maybe not. Some of the highest-leverage planning happens in the months before a definitive agreement, while the value is still ascertainable but not yet locked in. Call now, not after signing.
This is the most common fact pattern in family business planning, and it is solvable. We structure ownership so the operating child gets control, the non-operating children get equivalent value from other assets or insurance, and nobody ends up in court.
Fixed scope, fixed fee, quoted after the discovery call once we understand the structure.
Yes. We expect to. The engagement runs better when the existing team is in the room from day one.
Book a private planning discovery call. We’ll look at your situation and be remarkably candid: if we can add significant value, we’ll show you how. If your current plan is sufficient, we’ll tell you that too.
Partner · Estate Planning & Asset Protection.
Leslie focuses on estate planning, asset protection, and corporate transactions for domestic and foreign families.
FIU Law J.D. 2009 · Florida Bar · S.D. Fla. · USPTO Reg. 62,918
Tax Counsel · Cross-Border Tax
Francoise advises high net worth foreign and domestic clients on U.S. federal income, gift, and estate tax matters.
UF LL.M. Taxation · St. Thomas J.D. cum laude · U.S. Tax Court