“Clients seek us out because they have learned how we have guided other entrepreneurs and their families through many of the important decisions they faced. Though they are brilliant, they feel they don’t have the passion, desire or expertise to manage their personal wealth with the same intensity and focus they applied to building their businesses.”
— Ken Shapiro, Senior Vice President–Wealth Management
Seeking to maximize a founder’s post-sale proceeds with proper planning
The situation
We developed a relationship with our clients, the founder of a digital communications company and his wife, years in advance of the sale of the company. Over this time, we showed our clients our entrepreneur’s total-wealth optimization process (ETOP).
ETOP is a proprietary process developed by our team to help provide successful entrepreneurs and their families relevant advice and solutions, both before and after an exit from their business, so they can spend more time doing what they love.
Concentrated stock strategy: Helping entrepreneurs protect their wealth
The situation
Our client is the former founder and CEO of a leading technology company. His company was acquired by a publicly traded competitor. When the deal closed, virtually all his net worth was in this concentrated equity position. He was retained by the acquiring company that limited his ability to diversify this holding. As a novice investor, our client relied on our advice in order to pursue his objective of participating in some of the stock appreciation potential while seeking to preserve the value of his concentrated stock position.
Helping our client acquire a European corporation to expand their global business
The situation
Our client, the founder and CEO of two global businesses headquartered in the US and South America, confided in us that he intended to participate in an auction to acquire another significant company in his industry located in Europe. This client has been a valued relationship of ours for many years, and in addition to helping him manage his liquid assets, we often serve as a sounding board on other important decisions he is contemplating.
Over the years we have helped him borrow funds at attractive rates, implemented commodity hedging strategies, covered call writing programs that seek to generate cash on concentrated stock holdings and developed and executed hedging strategies on concentrated equity positions.
Upon being notified that he had partnered with a private equity firm to participate in this auction, we strategized with our client on the most optimal approaches to fund his share of the bid.
Helping an entrepreneur solve their post-exit needs
The situation
Our client, the former founder and CEO of a leading technology company, sold his company in a stock transaction to a publicly traded competitor.
We were introduced to the client by the attorney negotiating his employment contract with the acquiring company. He believed the client would benefit from our experience working with entrepreneurs preparing for and experiencing liquidity events. Virtually all of the client’s net worth was concentrated in the acquirers stock. His concerns included:
“We believe entrepreneurs value the guidance, perspective and experience that we are able to employ on their behalf. Our goal is to help them have confidence that we are managing their wealth with the same passion they applied to creating it.”
— Tom Livaccari, Senior Vice President–Wealth Management