CASE STUDY
Business Succession
How your professional legacy can be destroyed!
You could lose millions of dollars unnecessarily!
Every day, people lose their inheritances in the family business as a result of death of the owners.
You spend a lifetime building a business, you plan to leave it to your heirs, but instead they get to inherit a massive tax bill, probate fees, and legal fees that eat up the bulk of your estate's value. UNLESS, you are STS protected! Business owners and entrepreneurs are generally independent, self-reliant people. As such, they too often leave little or no clear instructions to their heirs and business successor on how to continue managing a thriving financial empire. Unfortunately, a simple division of assets is not always the answer, especially when one heir does not wish to work in the family business. For this and other reasons, our Specialized Trust Strategy, revolves around the pivotal concept of estate planning.
Was the Joe Robbie story really such a rare occurrence...?
Poor [Business] Estate Planning sent Storm Clouds over Sun Life Stadium
If only the former owner of the Miami Dolphins, Joe Robbie, would have completed his estate plan before he died…! Joe Robbie is Florida’s greatest example of dealing with the consequences of not having a proper estate plan or business succession plan in place. Joseph Robbie was the owner of the Miami Dolphins and founder of the Joe Robbie Stadium. Upon his untimely death in 1990, his estate was valued at $100 million. 9 months after his death, he owed approximately $47 million in estate taxes. The family was forced to sell the Dolphins and the stadium at a bargain-basement price, at just a fraction of the team’s real value. In 1994, Financial Planning magazine reported, “the year’s biggest loser in the National Football League is the Robbie family, the former owner of the Miami Dolphins.”
BY CONTRAST: New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who had bought the Major League Baseball team for $10 million in 1973, died at age 80 in July 2010 — but there was no federal estate tax bill because it was off the books for that year. He was able to leave the team, valued by Forbes at $1.6 billion that year, to his family without a massive tax bill. No doubt he was protected by a complex STS program, and did not lose a nickel to probate, taxes, or legal fees!
Successful Business Succession Planning? OR... Out of Business?
FREE Business Transfers to Your Heirs!
First, complete privacy and impenetrable asset protection is achieved. Any lawsuits against the heirs personally are completely repelled and serve to insulate the business from asset predators or family feuds. Using constitutional and contract law precedents, the STS operates completely outside the prying eyes of predators, statutory and government agents, and all creditors.
Second, the STS eliminates estate taxes (capital gains) and probate fees upon the contractor's death (e.g. trust grantor equivalent in statutory terms) because the contractor does not "own" the assets at the time of death, thus there is no deemed disposition of assets that can trigger tax consequences. The trust owns the assets but the contractor "controls" the assets privately as an appointed trustee. Succession planning is seamless because the heirs are appointed in advance as successor trustees according to the predefined wishes of the contractors. Trust certificates (corporate beneficial share equivalents in the statutory realm) are split on whatever shared basis the contractor desires. Trust income and / or assets are distributed at the discretion of the trustees and paid pro-rata as K1 distributions back to each certificate holder.
There are many other benefits to the STS program we offer to citizens in the US, Canada, and around the world, but the key takeaway is that succession cases are sorted out ahead of time with each heir (successor trustee and / or certificate holder) having had their roles and responsibilities predefined by the contractors. There is little or no room for bickering or expensive legal battles and probate, because the STS is a private contract not subject to outside influence or review. The terms of the agreement require internal self-arbitration procedures that exclude the statutory legal arm from meddling in the contract which, by the way, is entirely protected by the Article 1, Section 10, Paragraph 1 of the US Constitution: "No state shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contract".
Imagine a worst-case scenario: your parents leave you and your brothers the family business that has gained millions in value since it was started 50 years ago. The death of your parents triggers massive capital gains taxes on the estate that need to be paid before you inherit a nickel. Further, your brothers want to liquidate a thriving business to pay the taxes, but you don't want to. They hire lawyers to fight you over the estate and 5 years goes by before the dust settles. The unpaid taxes force a liquidation of the business, and the lawyers get to take the majority of the rest to cover the legal fees. You could lose millions of dollars unnecessarily! Every day, people lose their inheritances in the family business as a result of death of the owners. DON'T be a financial victim of a poor business succession plan caused by the mere death of the owners.
Protect Yourself in advance with the STS program. Remember, if YOU don't OWN anything in your own name, then NOTHING can be taken from YOU. The STS program protects your financial equity and inheritance plans before your death. In succession, death of the owner triggers taxes, probate, and legal fees; but the equity can be protected with this strategy.
Learn the secrets of the ultra-rich and protect yourself with the same strategies they use every day.