LEGACY AND FAMILY BUSINESS

HELPING YOUR WEALTH PASS TO THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE, AS YOU INTENDED

You built something worth passing on. Years ago you did the responsible thing: the trust is signed, the will is written, and life moved on.

Since then, accounts have opened and closed, property has changed hands, the business has grown, and the children have grown up. The documents have stayed exactly as they were. Almost everyone lets this sit. It is nobody’s job to keep watching, and for our clients, that is the job we do.

A Family Office for Your Family

By now, your financial life has the moving parts of a business: trusts, properties, entities, tax filings, and perhaps a company of your own. A business with this much in motion has a chief financial officer. The wealthiest families have long had one too, a family office running the details so the family can live its life.

As your family CFO, we keep the pieces coordinated from one place, quietly, and we find the decisions before they become problems. Your attorney and your CPA carry their parts; we make sure the parts fit. We bring the decisions to you ready to make.

And we do more than keep the plan current. We manage your wealth as part of that same plan, so your investments, your taxes, and the eventual transfer are decided together.

We work alongside your estate attorney and your accountant, and we bring them into the same conversation.

LRVS is a national practice, serving clients coast to coast from our offices in the Boston and Seattle areas. We work with high-net-worth families and business owners, we are independent, and we sit on your side of the table.

If coordinating the attorney, the CPA, and the investments has been your job, your first conversation with us shows you what it looks like when it is ours.

YOUR FAMILY CFO

  • Your attorney

  • Your CPA

  • Your investments

  • Your taxes

  • The transfer

Keeping Your Wealth Transfer Working

This is family work before it is financial work. It is about the people you love, what you hope for them, and what you want your wealth to do in their lives.

Your attorney writes the documents. We keep watch that they still match your life. We see the accounts, the names on them, and the people the plan is for, all year. When something no longer lines up, we catch it and bring you and your attorney together to put it right. It might be an old account that still names someone you would not choose today. It might be a trust that never received what it was meant to hold, or a business now worth far more than the plan assumed.

An old account that still names someone you would not choose today

An old account that still names someone you would not choose today

An old account that still names someone you would not choose today

You make the gifts when they do the most good, not only when the estate settles. We plan the tax on the transfer with your CPA before it is owed. And the decisions about your wealth stay yours. A plan that is current and understood does one more thing: it takes away the surprises families argue over.  And when the wealth reaches them, your children will not be meeting a stranger. The advisor who knows the whole story is already theirs to call.

You probably do not know whether any of this has drifted. That is what a review is for: one conversation, your documents and your accounts side by side, and you leave knowing exactly where things stand. If everything still matches, you will know that too.

When Wealth Transfer Becomes More Complex

For some families, this work is more urgent. It matters most if you:

Trust Assets

Hold wealth in trusts created years ago

Business Ownership

Own a business, or expect a liquidity event

Complex Family

Have remarried, or have children from more than one marriage

Philanthropy

Give in a serious way, and want the giving to continue

Protective Care

Have a child with special needs, or children who are still minors

Multi-Generational

Intend the wealth to reach your grandchildren, not only your children

Remarriage causes the most quiet worry. Children from a first marriage and a current spouse count on the same money, and the documents choose without saying so. We put that choice back in your hands. We lay out who would get what under the plan as it stands, then work with you and your attorney until it says what you mean. Fair and equal are not the same plan.

Fair and equal are not the same plan.

For a child with special needs, the wrong kind of inheritance can cost them the benefits they rely on. We coordinate with your attorney so what you leave arrives in the form that protects them.

Not everyone comes to this later in life, either. Some of our clients start early, moving wealth to their children while they are raising them. We plan the gifts, the timing, and how much control you keep, so the plan grows up with the family.

If you found yourself anywhere on that list, this conversation is worth having now rather than later.

Passing On a Family Business

If you own a business, the hardest conversation is the one about leaving it. Most owners put it off for years, and it can feel far away.

We help you have it early, while the options are still open. What the company is worth, and what your balance sheet looks like without it. Who runs it next and who owns it, which are different questions, and what it means if nobody in the family wants it. How a partner buyout would be funded, and how to be fair to children who are not in the business. What the business gives your family today, and what it should give them after you step back.

A family business is more than an asset. It carries your name and the people who built it with you.

  • 1

    What the company is worth, and what your balance sheet looks like without it

  • 2

    Who runs it next and who owns it, which are different questions, and what it means if nobody in the family wants it

  • 3

    What the business gives your family today, and what it should give them after you step back

  • 4

    How a partner buyout would be funded, and how to be fair to children who are not in the business

If Selling the Business Is on Your Mind

Maybe there is no successor. Maybe selling has crossed your mind, and you have not said it out loud. Most owners in that spot do not know where to start, so they tell no one.

You can look at this without starting anything. We show you what a sale would mean for you and your family: what it could provide, what the tax would take, and what life after it looks like. You see the numbers first, in private.

(206) 643-6065 | [email protected]

Getting started

Getting Started With LRVS

The first conversation is easy. There is nothing to prepare and nothing to decide. We talk about your family, what you have built, and what you want it to do. Many families come together, both spouses, and sometimes the next generation.

From there, we work through three conversations:

01

An introductory meeting

To see whether we are a good fit

02

A discovery meeting

To understand your financial life, priorities, and goals

03

A plan presentation

To review our recommendations and assumptions

After that we meet regularly to review the plan, and we are available in between whenever something comes up. The introductory meeting is confidential and carries no obligation.

Questions Families and Business Owners Ask Us

Your attorney drafts the documents and gives the legal advice. At LRVS, we work alongside them, watching that your accounts, and the people named on them, still match what the documents say. When something needs to change, we bring the right question to the right professional, with the facts already gathered.

Keeping them working. A trust only controls the assets that are in its name. And the people named on your retirement accounts and life insurance get those assets directly, no matter what the will says. We review both regularly, so what happens is what you intended.

Your spouse will not be working this out alone. They call the same advisor who has sat in your meetings, and that person can walk them through what you own, where it sits, and what happens next.

The fights are rarely about the split. They are about the surprise: an unequal choice never explained, a document nobody knew existed. We keep the plan current. And when you are ready to walk your family through it, while you can still answer their questions, we can be in that conversation with you.

No. Starting early often means more choices, not fewer: gifts can be spread across years, and the structures can grow with your family. We help you decide what to move, when, and how much control you keep.

Make that decision with the numbers in front of you. We model both paths: what a sale would provide after tax, and what keeping the business would mean for your income and your family. Then you choose, and the rest of the plan follows either way.

LRVS clients typically pay a flat annual fee for financial planning. For investment advisory services we use a tiered fee structure based on the assets held under our management. The full cost is explained at the introductory meeting.