Empowering entrepreneurs and each generation of their families

“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.

The strategy
In the years leading up to the sale of the company, we had many conversations with our clients. These were focused on their primary concern of having proper planning in place to address a number of issues upon exit, including:

  • Tax minimization strategy upon sale
  • Seeking to mitigate risks from potential creditors
  • Multigenerational planning to help ensure future generations of their family are cared for

We advised and educated our clients on a number of planning strategies that could help them achieve their desired goals. Despite their agreement on the appropriateness of these strategies, they chose not to move immediately forward.

Two weeks prior to finalizing a purchase and sale agreement to sell his company, our clients called to ask if we could quickly implement the planning strategies we had discussed. In response, we immediately formed an experienced team consisting of a member of the UBS Advanced Planning Group, a Trust & Estates attorney and an ultra high net worth-focused accountant, both of whom we had worked with in the past.

We coordinated the process with their team and addressed our clients' need to manage creditor risk and capital gains taxes, ultimately saving them millions of dollars. In addition to this, we took our clients through our Plan-for-Life Liquidity Process and clarified how much liquidity was needed from the stake in the company to help meet their family’s future expenses. Our Plan-for-Life Liquidity Process helps us understand your current financial picture against what you may need to fund the future you envision.

The result
Through the use of our ETOP and SELL processes, we were able to help our clients to position their family to maximize their economic benefit from the $148 million sale of their company. We were able to manage the moving parts of this process to allow our clients to focus on running the business, closing the sale and spending time with their family.


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.

The strategy
Our client is a sophisticated investor. We sought to educate him on the risks of holding a highly concentrated equity position, options for liquidating and/or helping to preserve this position and the tax consequences of these strategies. After working with UBS’s Equity Solutions team, we presented the client with the strategy that we thought best fit his needs, a Pre-Paid Variable Forward (PPV). He agreed with us that this would assist with his twin objectives of immediate monetization and hedging for this holding.

The result
Our client was very happy with the outcome from the PPV contract we implemented. The immediate liquidity from this transaction was critical to his subsequent successful acquisition of the controlling interest in a significant European-based global corporation that was very complementary to the businesses he already owned. As a result of our discussions, he has taken our advice to continue reviewing diversification opportunities outside of his concentrated equity holding.


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.

The strategy
At the time our client was notified that he had won the auction, we were prepared to present various funding strategies.

Our client and his family were actively utilizing their securities-backed credit line for a number of real estate transactions. Though our client planned to pay down the balance on his securities-backed line, we determined that using this line was not an optimal strategy for funding his share of this acquisition bid.

Our client holds two concentrated stock positions with us and we presented to him strategies to use these in order to raise cash. Working with UBS’s structured solutions team, we offered two monetization and hedging strategies. We advised the client on his options and collectively determined a pre-paid variable forward contract was most appropriate for his needs.

Our team collaborated with multiple parties in different countries over three days in order to meet the funding deadline set by the auction. This included oversight of transactions from UBS’s Strategic Equity Solutions team executing the pre-paid variable contract and our F/X desk executing EUR-denominated forward wires. We were able to rapidly give him access to $11 million without resorting to selling highly appreciated stock and incurring capital gains taxes.

The result
Our client appreciated the thoughtful advice, solutions and attention to detail that we provided that helped him to successfully acquire this European company. This acquisition has the potential to increase our client’s net worth and increases the reach and growth potential of his existing business. The client valued our advice regarding a funding strategy and the expedited completion of a complex transaction.


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:

  • Determining the amount of stock he should sell with the goal of planning for the future they envision.
  • Executing a diversification strategy seeking to protect the downside risk in his stock.
  • Building a team to handle his wealth management needs.
  • Developing a comprehensive, multigenerational financial plan.

The strategy
Our first step was to build and coordinate a team of advisors including a CPA, Trust & Estate attorney, executive compensation attorney and insurance specialist. We collaborated with UBS Advanced Planning specialists along with these advisors to develop effective strategies designed to help the client minimize taxes and optimize his proceeds from the sale.

Next, we took our client through our Plan-for-Life Liquidity Process to determine how much liquidity he needed from his concentrated stock position to fund his future spending objectives. This process inputs an individual’s long-term financial goals and spending objectives into UBS’s financial planning tools.

Based on this, he agreed to diversify his stock position to help pursue his financial goals. We reduced his holding to under 5% of his net worth, mitigating capital losses as the stock declined over 70% since exiting his position.

With confidence in his financial plan and our process, the client made several real estate investments and launched a new business. We recommended a leading insurance company to do a comprehensive P&C insurance review, which led to a new coverage plan intended to improve his liability protection. Additionally, he used a life insurance consultant, who recommended that he would benefit from a large permanent life policy, which we helped put in place.

The result
As a result of developing and executing a comprehensive, multi-generational financial plan and asset diversification strategy, our client felt confident leaving the acquirer of his business to pursue new entrepreneurial opportunities and venture investments. We continue to provide him with ongoing comprehensive financial advice so he can focus on his passions.


“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