Private Wealth Services
Private wealth services coordinate the legal decisions affecting a family’s assets, business interests, and future generations. We bring estate and tax planning, asset protection, and succession arrangements into a single plan, then review it as the family’s needs and circumstances change.
The families who need this level of planning are not defined by a number. They are families whose estates may be exposed to federal or state estate tax, who own a business or real estate that cannot simply be divided, who have members with special needs or creditor exposure or unstable marriages, who hold assets or have heirs in more than one country, or who want to see wealth support several generations rather than one. What they have in common is that the pieces of their planning affect each other, so documents and ownership arrangements need to be coordinated.
Milvidskiy Law Group P.C. provides private wealth planning as a continuing relationship rather than a single engagement. Our attorneys design the structure, draft and fund the documents, serve as trustee or trust protector where the family wants a professional in the role, and review the plan on a schedule through our Client Care Program.
Key Takeaways:
- Private wealth planning integrates estate tax, trusts, asset protection, business succession, real estate, and fiduciary arrangements into one design, so that a change in one area does not undo another.
- The plan is built around the family’s actual assets and people: the business that one child runs and the others do not, the property held in several states, the beneficiary who needs protection, the marriage that needs an agreement.
- A plan of this kind requires maintenance. Tax thresholds change, trusts need administration, businesses are sold, and children grow up. Ongoing review is part of the service, not an afterthought.
What Private Wealth Planning Covers
Estate and gift tax planning
The federal estate tax exemption is large, but New York’s is far lower and carries a cliff, Connecticut imposes its own estate tax, and New Jersey taxes inheritances by beneficiaries outside the immediate family. Planning uses lifetime gifts, exemption-using trusts, marital deduction arrangements, and techniques that move appreciation out of the taxable estate. We coordinate estate tax planning with broader tax planning, evaluating tools such as spousal lifetime access trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, and sales to grantor trusts.
Multigenerational trusts
A dynasty trust holds assets for children, grandchildren, and beyond, protected from each generation’s creditors, divorces, and estate taxes. Designing one involves the choice of governing law, the allocation of generation-skipping exemption, distribution standards that balance support and independence, and trustee and protector arrangements that will function for decades.
Asset protection
Families whose members practice medicine, own real estate, run businesses, or sign personal guaranties need structures that separate what they own from what they do: liability insurance, limited liability companies for each risk, holding companies in states with strong charging-order protection, and, where warranted, domestic asset protection trusts or spousal trusts. Our asset protection practice designs those structures and integrates them with the estate plan so that the protective entities and the trusts work together.
Business succession
A family business is usually the largest and least liquid asset in the estate, and the question of who will own and run it after the founder is both a tax-planning and family decision. Business succession planning addresses ownership transfers during life, buy-sell agreements, voting and non-voting interests, equalization for children outside the business, and the liquidity to pay taxes without selling the company.
Real estate holdings
Investment property, a vacation home in another state, and the family residence each raise their own questions of entity ownership, liability, transfer tax, ancillary probate, and basis. The plan places each property in the structure that fits it and coordinates with our real estate practice for the transactions.
Cross-border families
Assets abroad, heirs abroad, non-citizen spouses, and family members who may move to or from the United States require cross-border estate planning that accounts for two or more legal systems.
Philanthropy
Charitable giving can be integrated with tax planning through charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, donor-advised funds, and private foundations, each with different income, gift, and estate tax consequences and different levels of family involvement.
Fiduciary and Protector Roles
A plan of this size depends on the people who will run it. Trustees, executors, trust protectors, and the managers of family entities must be chosen, given the right powers, and replaced when they can no longer serve. Many families want a professional in one or more of those roles, either alone or alongside a family member, to provide continuity, impartiality, and administrative discipline. Our professional fiduciary services include serving as trustee, executor, and trust protector, and administrative or distribution trustee arrangements that leave investment management with the family’s advisers.
Working With the Family’s Other Advisers
We do not manage investments, prepare tax returns, or sell insurance. A private wealth plan works when the attorney, the accountant, the investment adviser, and the insurance professional are working from the same design, and part of our role is to coordinate them: to give the accountant the trust structures that determine how income is reported, to give the adviser the account titling and beneficiary designations that make the plan effective, and to give the insurance professional the ownership arrangements that keep proceeds out of the taxable estate. Where the family has a family office or an outside coordinator, we work within that structure.
Family Agreements and the Next Generation
Wealth that passes to children also passes into their marriages, their creditors’ reach, and their own capacity to manage it. Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, trusts that hold inheritances rather than paying them outright, and provisions that bring adult children into family entities gradually are part of the design. Helping adult children understand the arrangements can prepare them for future responsibilities and reduce misunderstandings.
How the Engagement Works
- Assessment. A review of the family’s assets, entities, existing documents, tax exposure, liabilities, and goals, and a written design that identifies what should change and in what order.
- Implementation. Drafting and execution of the trusts, entities, agreements, and estate documents; funding and retitling; gift tax reporting; and coordination with the other advisers.
- Fiduciary service where the family has asked us to serve as trustee, executor, or protector.
- Maintenance. Scheduled reviews through our Client Care Program that track changes in the law, the assets, and the family, and update the plan before a change becomes a problem.
When This Level of Planning Is Not Needed
Many families are well served by a will, a revocable trust, powers of attorney, and health care directives, with a periodic review. A plan built for a taxable estate or a family business adds cost and complexity that a simpler estate does not need. We recommend private wealth planning where the estate is or may become taxable, where the assets include a business or multiple properties, where a beneficiary needs protection, where the family spans borders, or where the family wants a multigenerational structure. For everyone else, our estate planning practice provides the right plan at the right scale.
Schedule a Private Wealth Consultation
If your family’s assets, business, or circumstances have outgrown a document-by-document approach, we can begin with a review of your assets, existing arrangements, and planning priorities. Our attorneys practice in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Contact Milvidskiy Law Group P.C. to schedule a consultation.
This page is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Laws differ by state and change over time. For advice about your situation, consult a qualified attorney.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are private wealth services?
Coordinated legal planning for families with significant or complex assets: estate and gift tax planning, multigenerational trusts, asset protection, business succession, real estate holdings, cross-border issues, philanthropy, and the fiduciary roles that carry the plan forward. The service is the integration and ongoing maintenance of those pieces, not any single document.
Who needs private wealth planning?
Families whose estates may be subject to federal or state estate tax, who own a business or real estate that cannot simply be divided, who have members needing protection from creditors, divorce, or their own circumstances, who have assets or heirs in more than one country, or who want wealth to support several generations. The need is defined by complexity, not by a particular dollar figure.
How is this different from ordinary estate planning?
Ordinary estate planning produces a will, a revocable trust, powers of attorney, and health care directives, reviewed periodically. Private wealth planning adds the tax, trust, entity, and succession structures that a complex estate requires, designs them so they work together, and maintains them as the law and the family change. Many families are well served by the simpler plan.
Do you manage investments?
No. We do not manage investments, prepare tax returns, or sell insurance. We design the legal structures and coordinate with the family’s investment adviser, accountant, and insurance professional so that account titling, tax reporting, and policy ownership match the plan. Where a family has a family office, we work within it.
Can your attorneys serve as trustee or executor for our family?
Yes. Our professional fiduciary services include serving as trustee, co-trustee, executor, and trust protector, and administrative or distribution trustee arrangements that leave investment management with the family’s adviser. Many families combine a professional with a family member in these roles.
How do you handle a family business in the plan?
Through business succession planning coordinated with the estate plan: transfers of ownership during life, buy-sell agreements, voting and non-voting interests, equalization for children who are not in the business, and liquidity to pay taxes without selling the company. The business is usually the largest and least liquid asset, so it shapes the rest of the design.
What does ongoing maintenance involve?
Scheduled reviews through our Client Care Program that track changes in tax thresholds and law, in the family’s assets and entities, and in the family itself, and update the documents, funding, and beneficiary designations before a change becomes a problem. Trusts and entities also require annual administration, which we perform or supervise.
How do you address state estate taxes for families with property in several states?
By identifying which states can tax the estate, which is determined by residence and by where real estate is located, and by structuring ownership so that out-of-state property does not trigger a second state’s estate tax or an ancillary probate. New York taxes estates above $7,350,000 for deaths in 2026, with a cliff once the estate exceeds that figure by more than five percent, Connecticut taxes estates above the federal exemption of $15,000,000 at a flat 12 percent, and New Jersey imposes an inheritance tax of up to 16 percent on beneficiaries outside the immediate family, so the analysis is state by state.
Do you work with families that have assets or relatives abroad?
Yes. Assets in other countries, non-citizen spouses, heirs abroad, and family members who may move to or from the United States require planning that accounts for more than one legal system and for treaty and reporting rules. Our cross-border estate planning practice handles that work as part of the overall plan.
How does the engagement begin?
With an assessment: a review of the family’s assets, entities, existing documents, tax exposure, liabilities, and goals, followed by a written design that identifies what should change and in what order. Implementation, fiduciary service where requested, and scheduled maintenance follow.
