Structuring Private Family Trust Companies and SPEs for High Net Worth Individuals and Families
Evaluating Benefits and Risks, Ownership Structures, and State Law Considerations

Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
Intermediate
- work Practice Area
Estate Planning
- event Date
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
- schedule Time
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
-
This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
This CLE course will provide estate planning counsel and advisers with a practical guide to structuring private family trust companies (PFTCs) and special purpose entities (SPEs) for high net worth individuals and families. The panel will discuss the benefits and risks of PFTCs and other separate entities, describe ownership structures, and detail state law considerations in setting up PFTCs and other incorporated vehicles for holding family wealth.
Faculty

Mr. Flinn is a private wealth services attorney in Holland & Knight's Nashville office. Business owners and entrepreneurs, corporate officers and executives, and investors and families with inherited assets seek advice from Mr. Flinn for the purpose of ensuring financial stability and continued prosperity. Serving clients with trust and estate as well as wealth preservation needs, he helps craft and deliver strategies that reflect the client's values while capturing the tax benefits available under their given circumstances. He also works with assisting business owners in succession planning and other issues often encountered by closely held companies. Mr. Flinn offers advice to clients on how to protect and retain wealth through strategic planning related to income, estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes. Tax-exempt and nonprofit organizations also rely on him for day-to-day guidance in relation to taxation and governance matters. Mr. Flinn also assists trust officers and other fiduciaries in the administration trusts and decedents' estates, and works with ultra-high-net-worth families with regard to all facets of Private Family Trust Companies in Tennessee, including the migration of trusts and other administration issues.

Mr. Aiello helps business owners solve legal problems to secure revenue flow and reduce business risks. As a lawyer and business owner he has firsthand experience handling complex commercial litigation and transactional matters for his clients. Mr. Aiello's client base spans a broad spectrum of businesses including household-name consumer brands, banks, construction companies and family ventures. As legal counsel he advises personal family foundations on managing and protecting their wealth. While each of Mr. Aiello's clients may take on a unique shape or size, they all face complex legal and business challenges, which is precisely where he has focused his commercial legal practice.

Mr. Olson advises high-net-worth individuals and families on estate and tax planning matters. His practice includes designing tailored estate planning documents, advising on wealth-transfer planning and family business succession, and counseling on trust and estate administration. Mr. Olson regularly advises clients with respect to the formation, structuring and operation of private trust companies in various jurisdictions. He recently co-authored the Wyoming 2019 trust company legislation.
Description
A powerful estate planning tool for ultra-wealthy families, the PFTC is a separate entity, frequently state-chartered, designed to provide fiduciary services to family members. Generally structured as limited liability companies or corporations, PFTCs are authorized under state law to serve as fiduciary for families.
Several states have well developed legal structures to accommodate PFTCs. These states have relatively similar definitions of family members eligible to be served by the PFTC and the extent of services and transactions a PFTC may provide. These companies can operate in conjunction with, or in place of, family offices and provide privacy, asset protection planning, flexibility, succession stability for families with significant wealth, and liability protection for trustees.
PFTCs share significant similarities with SPEs and trust protector corporations (TPCs) structured to work with directed trusts. SPEs permit a family to retain control over specific aspects of trust administration while relying on corporate fiduciaries to attend to all other administration tasks. Estate planners should know how to structure and use these stand alone entities to serve high net worth clients.
Listen as our experienced panel discusses the benefits and risks of PFTCs and other separate entities, ownership structures, and state law considerations in setting up PFTCs and other incorporated vehicles for holding family wealth.
Outline
- Characteristics of PFTCs
- State-chartered entity
- Authorized to serve as a fiduciary
- Exempt from SEC registration requirements
- Limited to serving one family
- PFTC formation considerations
- Capital requirements
- Public disclosures
- Domicile or physical presence
- States with PFTC statutes
- Transitioning from family office structure to PFTC
- SPEs/TPCs as alternatives to PFTC structures
Benefits
The panel will review these and other key issues:
- Capital requirements and state regulatory burdens to consider in forming a PFTC
- Traditional family office vs. PFTC structure
- How PFTCs allow for family members to have greater involvement in structuring investment management policies and decisions than is permissible with an individual or corporate trustee
- Operational and corporate governance issues to be addressed before establishment of a PFTC
- Ongoing compliance issues to be addressed after establishment of a PFTC
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