Six disciplines.
One integrated strategy.
Each service area reinforces the others. The tax returns reflect the estate plan. The estate plan accounts for the real estate. Nothing operates in isolation — and nothing is designed for anyone other than you.
Reduce what you owe — every year, not just at filing.
Year-round strategies that proactively reduce your annual tax burden — planned and implemented before the year ends, not reported after.
Cost Segregation — In-House, Every Acquisition
When you buy a commercial property, standard tax rules require you to depreciate it over 39 years. A cost segregation study identifies the components that qualify for 5, 7, or 15-year depreciation — and with 100% bonus depreciation now permanent, qualifying components can be fully deducted in year one. On a $3 million property, this typically generates $300,000+ of first-year tax savings. We conduct these studies internally — no outsourcing, no third-party delays, fully integrated with the return from day one.
Defined Benefit & Cash Balance Plans
For business owners, these plans allow annual contributions and deductions of $200,000 to $300,000+ per year depending on your age — far beyond the limits of a standard 401(k). The contributions are immediately deductible, the money compounds tax-deferred inside the plan, and it is also protected from creditors in most states. An owner age 55 making $1 million annually can shelter $250,000 of that income from tax each year.
QSBS Section 1202 — Up to $15M Exclusion
For shareholders of qualifying C corporations, Section 1202 allows up to 100% of capital gains — now up to $15 million per issuer — to be excluded from federal income tax when the stock is sold. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act expanded the rules: tiered exclusions starting at 50% after 3 years, 75% after 4, and 100% after 5. The qualifying asset threshold was raised to $75 million. Professional services businesses do not qualify — but technology, manufacturing, retail, and many other industries do.
R&D Tax Credits — More Industries Qualify Than You Think
The R&D credit under Section 41 reduces your tax bill dollar for dollar — not just as a deduction, but as a direct credit against what you owe. Manufacturers improving processes, medical practices developing protocols, technology firms, construction companies developing new methods — all may qualify. The OBBBA also restored immediate expensing of domestic R&D costs, significantly improving cash flow for businesses with qualifying activities.
Protect your estate. Transfer wealth on your terms.
Trust structures, gifting programs, and generational planning built around your specific assets and family situation — coordinated with your estate attorney, modeled for tax impact before implementation.
Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT)
A SLAT allows one spouse to create an irrevocable trust naming the other spouse as beneficiary. The assets permanently leave the creator's taxable estate — along with all future appreciation. The beneficiary spouse can receive distributions for health, education, maintenance, and support, so the couple still has indirect access to those assets. Each spouse can create a SLAT for the other, effectively sheltering up to $30 million using both parties' $15 million lifetime exemptions.
IDGT Installment Sale — Transfer Business Value Without Income Tax
An Intentionally Defective Grantor Trust allows you to sell business or investment interests to a trust without recognizing any taxable gain. The trust pays you back via a promissory note at the minimum IRS interest rate. All appreciation above that rate — all the growth in the business or investment — accumulates in the trust, permanently outside your estate, with no income tax owed on the transfer.
Family Limited Partnership with Valuation Discounts
An FLP holds family investment assets and divides ownership between general partners (who control the entity) and limited partners (who own economic interests). Minority interests in an FLP that lack control and marketability can be transferred at discounts of 20–35% for gift and estate tax purposes. A $10 million portfolio inside an FLP can be transferred using only $6.5–$8 million of lifetime exemption — stretching the $15M exemption significantly further.
ILIT — Life Insurance Outside Your Estate
An Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust owns a life insurance policy outside your taxable estate. The death benefit passes to your beneficiaries income-tax-free and estate-tax-free. Annual premium payments are made as gifts to the trust using the $19,000 per beneficiary annual exclusion. The ILIT provides liquid cash to pay estate taxes, equalize inheritances, or replace wealth that passes to charity — all without using your lifetime exemption.
Real assets. Real depreciation. Real returns.
Proprietary access to income-generating acquisitions with in-house cost segregation on every deal — and coordinated tax reporting from acquisition through disposition.
Proprietary Deal Access — Off-Market Acquisitions
Our real estate partner brings 20 years as an MHP broker, with market relationships and deal flow that are not broadly marketed. Mobile home parks are particularly attractive: tenants own their homes and rent the land, creating very low maintenance obligations, extremely low turnover, and strong cash flow. Commercial properties, medical offices, and self-storage acquisitions are sourced through the same relationships.
In-House Cost Segregation on Every Deal
Every acquisition includes a cost segregation study — conducted internally, not outsourced. The study is coordinated directly with the first-year tax return, ensuring every qualifying component is reclassified for accelerated depreciation. With 100% bonus depreciation permanent, this generates substantial first-year deductions against your income — whether or not you qualify as a real estate professional.
Real Estate Professional Election
If your spouse can qualify as a real estate professional under IRS rules — 750 hours in real property activities, more than any other profession — real estate losses become non-passive for your household. This means depreciation deductions from your properties offset ordinary income from any source: your law practice, your medical practice, your business distributions. For a physician whose spouse manages the family real estate portfolio, this election can convert a $300,000 passive loss carryforward into $300,000 of immediate ordinary income deduction.
Basis Step-Up vs. Transfer Tax — The Analysis That Matters
For every significant real estate holding, we model the combined after-tax outcome of two strategies: hold until death for the full step-up in basis (eliminating all accumulated capital gain and depreciation recapture) versus transfer during life to an irrevocable trust (removing future appreciation from the estate but losing the step-up). The right answer depends on the specific property, projected appreciation, and your overall estate situation. Most advisors never run this model. We run it on every significant holding.
Access your wealth without triggering taxes.
Structured borrowing against appreciated assets, basis step-up planning, and the generational wealth architecture that keeps compounding working in your favor — not the government's.
Buy, Borrow, Die — The Full Architecture
The buy-borrow-die strategy uses three provisions of the tax code: appreciation is not taxed until sold; loan proceeds are not taxable income; and assets held until death receive a stepped-up cost basis that can eliminate accumulated capital gain. You accumulate appreciating assets inside tax-efficient structures. You borrow against them for tax-free liquidity instead of selling. At death, the basis step-up resets all values to current market, eliminating a lifetime of unrealized gain.
Securities-Backed Lines of Credit (SBLOC)
A securities-backed line of credit allows you to borrow 50–70% of your investment portfolio's value at variable rates tied to current market benchmarks. Your portfolio stays fully invested. You receive tax-free cash. No sale, no capital gains event, no disruption to long-term compounding. For a $5 million portfolio, this typically provides $2.5–3.5 million of available credit at any time.
Art as a Strategic Asset
Fine art acquired with documented investment intent appreciates outside traditional markets, can be borrowed against at 40–50% of appraised value through specialty lenders, and receives the full step-up in basis at death under current law. Donated to a museum that will use it in furtherance of its charitable mission, it generates a full fair market value charitable deduction — eliminating the capital gain and producing a deduction against ordinary income. For a painting acquired at $200,000 now worth $3 million, the charitable donation strategy eliminates $784,000 of capital gains tax and produces a $3 million deduction.
The planning before the transaction determines the outcome.
Pre-sale estate planning, QSBS qualification, deal structure optimization, and charitable integration for business owners approaching a sale or transition.
The 90-Day Rule — Why Sequence Is Everything
Once a letter of intent is executed or a purchase and sale agreement is signed, most pre-sale planning strategies are no longer available. The IRS can characterize subsequent transfers as anticipatory assignments of income. The practical deadline for most meaningful pre-sale planning is 60 to 90 days before closing. We engage early — ideally months or years before a planned transaction — so the strategies are in place before the event crystallizes.
QSBS Section 1202 — Pre-Exit Analysis
For qualifying C corporation shareholders, up to 100% of capital gains — now up to $15 million — can be excluded from federal income tax on exit. QSBS eligibility must be analyzed before the sale process begins. We review the entity structure, holding period, gross asset history, and business activity to determine whether the exclusion is available — and what corrective steps, if any, are needed before the closing.
Asset vs. Stock Sale — The After-Tax Math
The difference in after-tax proceeds between an asset sale and a stock sale can be $400,000 to $700,000 on a $5 million transaction. Buyers prefer asset sales for the stepped-up basis. Sellers prefer stock sales for uniform capital gains treatment. Personal goodwill — the value attributable to the owner's personal relationships and expertise — can be allocated and sold separately, producing capital gains treatment for that portion even in an asset sale. We model both structures with real numbers before deal terms are set.
Every filing your structure requires — one team, one strategy.
Complete tax compliance for complex structures — individual, trust, estate, gift, partnership, pension, and entity returns prepared in coordination with your overall wealth strategy.
Why Compliance Is Strategy, Not Just Administration
The gift tax return that documents a transfer to an irrevocable trust starts the statute of limitations on IRS challenges — or does not, if filed incorrectly. The estate return filed after a death captures the portability election, or misses it permanently. The 1041 for a grantor trust must be consistent year to year or it raises questions. For complex structures, every return is a strategic document. Filing it correctly requires understanding what the strategy was designed to accomplish.
Form 709 — The Most Important Return Most Clients Undervalue
We prepare gift tax returns with proper qualified appraisal documentation for FLP interests, business interests, and other transferred assets. The 709 documents exemption usage, establishes the gift's value for future reference, and starts the statute of limitations running on IRS challenge. A well-prepared 709 is the primary line of defense when planning strategies are examined years later.
Form 706 — Estate Tax Return & Portability Election
Filed within nine months of death, the 706 estate tax return determines estate tax owed — and for estates below the $15 million exemption, should often still be filed to make the portability election. Portability allows the deceased spouse's unused exemption to be transferred to the surviving spouse's estate, potentially doubling the available exemption for the survivor. Missing the portability election is a permanent, irrevocable loss of the unused exemption.
Full Entity and Trust Compliance Coordination
Form 1041 trust returns with distributable net income analysis and K-1 preparation for beneficiaries. Form 1065 partnership returns with capital account maintenance and basis tracking for all FLPs and real estate entities. Form 5500 pension plan filings coordinated with the plan actuary. Form 6765 R&D credit calculations integrated with the business return. Every return prepared in coordination — no gaps between what was planned and what was filed.