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The release of tax reform legislation by Finance Committee Chairman Hatch marks the next significant step in the legislative effort to overhaul the US tax system. There are political hurdles to overcome for Congress to enact sustainable reform of US tax law providing a more competitive tax system for business taxpayers and improved economic opportunities for individuals and families.

The tax changes proposed by the “Unified Framework” for Tax Reform released on September 27, 2017 by the Trump Administration and Republican Congressional Leadership potentially affect the choice of entity in family business and investment structures. Under the current tax regime, passthrough entities (for example, LLCs or LPs taxed as partnerships), rather than “C” corporations, tend to be the preferred entity for families, especially for ownership of investment assets.

You’ve built a valuable and successful business through hard work, long hours and countless decisions. You want to plan for transitioning the company, and the wealth you’ve created to future generations, but you aren’t ready to cede control. As the company grows in value, the issue becomes acute. What do you do? You’re not alone.

Many powerful trends are taking place in 2017. While much is still unknown in regard to what actions the new Trump administration and GOP-led congress will take towards the estate tax, planners have many opportunities to provide clients structures for both the short and long term. Additionally, planners will need to continue to factor in the recent development by the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. Lastly, international families continue to establish trusts in the United States at a record pace, both with and without family members and/or assets in the United States.

The White House joined Congressional Republican leaders in announcing a new framework for tax reform, which they hope to enact before the end of 2017.

Trusts have grown enormously in popularity since the mid-1990s as a result of the development of modern trust laws, the dramatic increase in wealth and evolving family needs and goals.

The Trump Administration recently released its "Unified Framework for Fixing our Broken Tax Code" to flush out its tax reform priorities for individuals and businesses. The nine-page document is similar to the single-page bulleted outline the Administration rolled out in April, and it reiterated its position that taxes on corporations and individuals are too high. There is a lot of work ahead to come up with a tax bill that can ultimately be passed and signed into law. It’s a process that will take months and could very likely extend in to 2018.

In this collection of tax alerts and articles, we provide legislative and regulatory insights to help family offices address their concerns in the following areas: estate and gift tax, charitable giving, partnerships, tax planning for non-resident entering the U.S. tax system, and tax treatment in the financial services industry.

The raison d’être for families to form a Private Family Trust Company (PFTC) is to maximize their lawful control over their wealth held in trust. A cynic might suggest families want that control just to inflate current distributions to family members, but in practice that isn’t what motivates families. What motivates them is that control gives them the capability to devise and implement a strategic plan for managing and deploying their wealth in the ways they believe give them the best opportunity to realize multigenerational hopes and aspiration.