The
Lane Group
of Companies
Meeting New Challenges Together
Offering a full range of international financial services:
The Lane Group uses the family office approach to develop and preserve fully-integrated and personalized estate and financial plans that include:
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As a tax planning and consulting group for business owners, The Lane Group provides tax and consulting services for their company's entire business cycle. Our goal is to begin aiming for our clients' exit strategy during the start-up stage, so they may harvest the maximum value from their business operations and eventual disposition. Thus keeping our clients from putting practices into place during their operating stage that will block their most beneficial exit strategies.
The various Lane Group companies help our clients determine:
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The most effective legal form for operating their businesses. |
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The best legal form for holding patents and intellectual property. |
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Precautions available to protect businesses and their owners from the premature death or disability of key personnel or other uncertainties. |
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The most cost effective compensation structures and employee benefit plans to reward owners and to attract and retain key personnel. |
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Tax efficient methods for distributing company profits to owners. |
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The most effective business practices to build and maintain value in their companies. |
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International opportunities for cost savings, enterprise expansion and tax savings. |
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Methods to attract potential financing sources and buyers for company expansion or disposition. |
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Strategies for protecting company assets and owner's estates from creditors and litigation. |
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Deal structures that maximize after-tax cash flow to founders and key personnel. |
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Estate planning tools that shelter taxes, protect cash flow and provide access to principal. |
International Tax Planning and Business Consulting: The large international accounting firms where Cheryl was trained provide most of the cross-boarder planning to the large multi-national companies of the world. Often the business owner and company employees have adverse interests to those of their company and its non-management shareholders. By definition, the advisors hired by the company represent the interests of the company and its investors. In order to obtain unbiased advice that is in their own best interest, an individual owner or employee must retain a different advisor than the one who represents the company and its investors. While The Lane Group understands the various issues from the prospective of the company, they concentrate on the financial planning needs of the people who built the company, the improvement of their net worth and the protection of their assets to prolong the benefits available for the business owner's, their families and heirs.
Many of the people who can benefit from international planning, but seldom consider it, include: Founders of pre-IPO companies; Owners of closely-held business build on sweat equity; Heirs who acquired their assets through a gifting program; Owners of Business start-ups with overseas potential; Owners of Intellectual Property with licensing or royalty potential; owners of Venture Capital or Incubator Companies;; Professionals wishing to protect their assets from capricious law suits; Parents who wish to postpone large lump sum distributions to their children until several years after their death; Potential philanthropists who need access to their principal throughout their lives; Foreign nationals planning to invest or immigrate into the United States; U.S. citizens planning to expatriate; Owners of stock in a company that is a Merger or Acquisition target.
Foreign investors who bring their money into the United States without proper planning expose themselves to excessive income taxes, can have their assets unexpectedly frozen and may lose half of their U.S. holdings to estate taxes. Some solicit advice from overseas advisors who are not U.S. tax experts and the foreign trusts and corporations they set up often become ineffective when the investor or family members make an extended visit to the United States. The Lane Group prefers to assist its clients with their pre-immigration or inbound investment tax planning, then to defend them against the taxing authorities after assets have been frozen or tax liabilities assessed.
Cheryl Lane has been providing international tax planning for business owners and executives for over 20 years. During that time she developed many contacts throughout the world to help her clients activate the procedures they must put into place to benefit from their international planning efforts.
Employee Retirement, Benefit and Ownership Design: Taking advantage of the time-value of savings is still the most effective way to build wealth. Paying expenses with pre-tax dollars and using tax-advantaged vehicles to accumulate savings can leverage the time-value of money to multiply a business owner's savings several times. The U.S. tax code provides many ways to accomplish these results as long as the funding vehicles abide by the rules set out in the internal revenue code and regulations.The rules set out in these tax provisions place substantial restrictions on access to the funds deposited into these plans and once put into place it is difficult to unwind them. It requires careful planning to take full advantage of the tax vehicles provided by the U.S. tax codes without hindering the business owners access to the working capital required to continue current operations. The Lane Group combines its tax expertise with its knowledge of financial products to help business owners develop the most effective plan to maximize the use of pre-tax and tax-deferred dollars with an eye on the company's working capital needs.
The Lane Group helps the company chose among tax-advantaged employee benefits such as: stock option and other employee ownership plans, health and disability plans, expense reimbursement policies, deferred compensation plans, pension and retirement plans as well as other insurance and savings plans. Their comprehensive knowledge of the tax law combined with their knowledge of the financial vehicles gives The Lane Group the ability to develop plans that will combine available tax benefits to pay many company costs on a tax efficient basis while keeping sufficient funds available to meet working capital needs. We help our clients install retirement savings plans with an eye on their exit strategy by providing an analysis of the current tax benefits against the cost of unwinding or transferring the benefit packages upon the owner's retirement. We pay close attention to the effect the benefits may have on the company's value in the event of a financing or capital event.
Pre-IPO and Merger and Acquisition Advice: Pre-IPO and Merger and Acquisition Advice: There are many tax and business planning strategies that can be used to improve the business owner's after-tax cash flow and protect his/her share of the value of they built in their company. It is generally best to put these strategies into place while the company is still under the control of its founders.
Business owners who are building their companies in a rapid growth mode, often become so involved in their business operations and their constant search for new capital, that they fail to install the strategies that will protect their interests and reap the maximum after-tax value from the companies they have built. After a company takes on a substantial debt obligation or accepts capital from outside investors or a venture partner, the funding documents place substantial restrictions on their entrepreneurial activities. It becomes much more difficult to install tax and financial planning structures that can benefit the business founder and its upper management, once their financial benefactor is calling the shots.
The Lane Group works with business owners to integrate their company's growth plans with their personal financial and estate plans and helps them to arrange their capital structure in a way that will attract capital without exposing them to excessive tax liability or depleting their share value.
Wealth Transfer and Business Succession Planning: There are many issues both financial and personal that must be addressed in order to accomplish a smooth and cost effective transfer of wealth from an owner to his/her beneficiaries. The tax cost of transferring wealth is substantial and if not done carefully and with sophisticated knowledge can reduce the value of the assets passed to beneficiaries by as much as 80%. The temporary transfer tax exemptions that are available to U.S. citizens are not available to non-citizens. When assets are transferred due to death the transfer taxes on an estate must be paid within 9 months of the decedent's death, even if it is not possible to liquidate the inheritance for full value within that time period. It could take years before an estate that passes through probate is available to heirs.
There are many strategies available to avoid or mitigate the tax cost of transferring a personal estate and to expedite the transfer of funds to beneficiaries. Some strategies restrict the owner's access to the capital funding the strategy and other's must be put in place well before the owner's death. Some strategies are only available to business owners and their successors.
The Lane Group helps business owners develop a plan for the transfer and care of a business owner's assets in the event of their death or disability. They help business owners identify a successor for business operations and develop a cost effective plan for the method and timing of that transfer as well as a comfortable method for relinquishing control over operations. They help their clients develop the means for taking care of other family members and creating an equitable division of assets among heirs who will not be running their business. We help our clients determine cost effective means for placing spendthrift restrictions on distributions from their trusts and estates and identify resources for the management and administration of their assets in the event of their death or incapacity. The Lane Group combines its knowledge of trusts, corporations, LLC's, family limited partnerships, family corporations, family foundations, and the financial products required to effectively fund them, to help their clients provide a smooth and cost effective transfer of their family business and other assets to heirs and beneficiaries.
Asset Protection and Investment Planning. The United States is one of the most litigious societies in the world. Our newspapers are full of stories about
There are a number of structures under U.S. and/or state laws that protect a limited amount of assets from creditors. Additional protection can be obtained by organizing some of these structures in jurisdictions that are unfriendly to creditors. The Lane Group, develops investment strategies for its clients to help protect their assets from frivolous lawsuits. We show our clients how to take full advantage of the types of entities that are afforded protection from creditors under U.S. statutes and regulations. Where appropriate we also help our clients develop international strategies to improve their protection from creditors or to protect more assets than they can move into U.S. protected vehicles.
When combined with other legal structures or financial products, the proper use of foreign entities may offer: a.) Incomparable privacy in financial matters; b.) Wealth protection from civil claimants; c.) Deposit safety through highly capitalized international banks; d.) Tax-deferred accumulation for long-term savings; and e.) Estate Planning benefits for heirs.
Trust Management and Administration: The Lane Group, CPA firm provides customary accounting and tax filing services required for trustees to meet their reporting requirements to the courts, beneficiaries and various government authorities. The Lane Group LLC provides asset management and investment advisory services to help trustees perform their fiduciary responsibility to heirs and remaindermen.
International Trust and Banking AssistanceInternational Trust and Banking Assistance: Most legitimate offshore planning strategies require the services of a major international bank or trust company. To attain the strongest asset protection and the highest benefit from offshore planning, The Lane Group will often advise its clients to chose among several of the large international banks who have purposely avoided opening branches or soliciting business in the United States. Most of them will only accept clients that have been introduced to them by trusted advisors outside of the United States. The Lane Group may refer clients who require such services to its affiliate located in the British West Indies. Le Groupe Lane Internationale has developed relationships with many of the world's oldest and best capitalized banks and trust companies and can use these relationships to provide introductions for its clients.
Risk Management and Insurance Analysis: Business enterprises are exposed to numerous types of risk that may jeopardize the efficient operation of their business. Business owners will often require various types of insurance to stabilize the company's future and position them for maximum growth. Certain insurance products have some of the most attractive tax benefits allowed by the U.S. tax code. A thorough understanding of the tax attributes found in insurance products allows The Lane Group to combine a company's insurance needs with other sophisticated tax structures to increase after-tax cash flow and preserve the value in their companies without purchasing excessive coverage.
Lane and Associates offers risk management and insurance analysis to help their clients reduce the cost of providing: Attractive employee benefits, Protection for business operations, Assurance of continued operations for interested bankers and investors, Tax-deferred income plans and Tax-advantaged funding for several cash flow needs as well as discounted dollars for payment of death taxes.
Financial Seminars and Continuing Education Courses: There are so many tax planning strategies and such a wide variety of financial products available that most people have not even heard of them all. Many people who could benefit from substantial savings have never met with a financial advisor and do not have a plan in place. The Lane Group has developed a curriculum of financial planning subjects to teach a number of strategies that students can use to save taxes, to protect their wealth, to build their net worth and pass more of it on to their heirs. Some subjects are eligible for continuing education credit for CPAs, attorneys and other financial professionals. The courses are taught in the offices of The Lane Group or a nearby location and students are charged a nominal fee for enrollment. All course fees are waived for clients of The Lane Group and their invited guests.
San Francisco Headquarters
781 Beach Street
Suite 300
San Francisco CA 94109-1245
Telephone: 01 (415) 771-LANE
FAX on demand: 01 (415) 921-5240
info@lanegroupusa.com