Closely Held Family Businesses: Turning Prudence into Profitability—GHB Helps a Family Patriarch Transfer Wealth and Save on Estate Taxes

Careful planning, smart investing and a frugal lifestyle created great wealth for one of Stephanie Gaitten's clients. However, punitive estate taxes threatened to deplete years of amassed wealth. The 90 year-old patriarch's intent to transfer his assets to his dependents was in jeopardy. Working with estate planning attorneys, Stephanie helped to create a family limited partnership to enable the transfer of wealth to the clients' 60 year-old daughter, his grandchildren, now in their 40's, and his great grandchildren. Through the creation of a family limited partnership, $8 million in assets were transferred to the succeeding generations at a significant discount, which saved the patriarch roughly $2 million in estate taxes.