SERVICES
Estate Planning for Business Owners
in the Midwest
If most of your wealth is your business, your estate plan is your business succession plan.
We treat them as the same problem - because they are.
The Real Risk of an Outdated Estate Plan
Each of these are preventable. None of them are preventable by hoping the existing documents are still good enough.
RISK - TAX EXPOSURE
A plan drafted when the business was worth a fraction of today's value. Current tax exposure is catastrophic and the plan does not address it.
RISK - FAIRNESS
A plan that treats all heirs equally - without recognizing that the business cannot be divided equally between heirs in and out of the business.
RISK - FORCED LIQUIDATION
A plan that funds estate taxes by liquidating the business - destroying decades of work when the right insurance funding could have prevented it.
RISK - NO SUCCESSION
A plan that does not name a clear successor - leaving the company rudderless if the founder dies or becomes incapacitated unexpectedly.
WHAT IT MEANS
What Estate Planning Means for a Business Owner
Estate Tax Assessment & Reduction
Knowing exactly what your estate would owe if you died today, and structuring ownership to reduce that amount legally and substantially.
Funding What Cannot Be Reduced
What remains after every legitimate reduction strategy needs to be funded - usually with life insurance designed for this purpose - so the business does not have to be sold. Underwriting property is essential for the risk involved.
Stewardship Across Generations
Building structure so the next generation inherits responsibility along with the wealth. Wealth that arrives without stewardship destroys lives. With stewardship, it blesses families for generations.
Coordination With the Legal Team
Sales transactions, trusts (including IDGTs), gifting strategies, recapitalizations, and buy-sell agreements all have to fit together. We work alongside your attorney to make sure they do.
OUR APPROACH
Why Our Approach is Different
For closely-held business owners, the technical side of estate planning is well-served by Omaha's strong community of estate planning attorneys. We work with them, not against them.
What we bring that is harder to find is the family stewardship work - the part of estate planning that determines whether the wealth, once transferred, helps the next generation or harms them. David Nabity has experience working with families on both sides of the transaction.
