At Sadis, we are trusted counsel to all kinds of family offices.
We appreciate that the decisions that come with significant family wealth are complex and require sensitive and sophisticated legal guidance. Our relationships with our clients are built on mutual trust and our deep understanding of their legal, business and personal concerns.
We are not just lawyers to our clients; we are trusted advisers. Our clients include the full spectrum of family offices, including: investment advisers who have converted their third party advisory business into a private investment business, multi-family office investment advisers providing services to multiple clients, families who have been investing privately for years and families who have generated recent wealth through the sale of a business. As the backgrounds and specific needs of each client vary, we use all of our internal resources and practice groups to serve our clients to help them achieve their objectives.
As a result of our broad experience in representing asset managers, high net worth individuals, and institutional investors, we are highly skilled in navigating our family office clients through the various challenges they face. We advise our clients through all phases of their existence and provide customized counsel, using our wealth of knowledge and experience in this area. In many instances, we become integral to every aspect of the family office.
Our services to our family office clients include the following:
Structuring the Family Office: We work with clients to structure entities taking into account tax, estate planning, business, regulatory, governance, family dynamics and other considerations. We develop the documentation for the family office structure and suggest best practices for day-to-day management, as well as advise regarding the appropriate staffing and use of external resources. We counsel families in equalizing assets among family members working in the business and those who are not involved, as well as addressing concerns of the different generations within the family structure.
Business and Succession Planning: We work closely with our clients to create business continuity and succession plan models to ensure that the business survives the death or disability of the key persons. These plans range from preparing employment agreements, structuring stock appreciation rights plans, sales of interests in family offices, and recapitalizing the family office, as well as addressing control issues.
Investment in Qualified Plan Assets: Some of our family office clients are owned through a qualified plan, such as an ESOP, while others may invest qualified plan assets alongside taxable assets, which can involve considerable planning and structuring to comply with ERISA rules.
Investment in Private Funds: We represent clients in making investments in all types of private funds, including hedge, private equity, SPVs, SPACs, venture capital, real estate and other types of alternative funds. These investments range from a simple, passive investment to a highly-structured controlling investment.
Seed Transactions: We advise clients in all kinds of seeding transactions and guide them through the various structuring options and the negotiations and documentation surrounding these arrangements.
Venture Capital: We represent clients in making venture capital investments in emerging technology and startup companies as co-investors or lead investors, whether in angel or seed rounds or late rounds in various industries, including technology, internet, biotech, e-commerce, renewable energy and consumer products.
Joint Ventures/Energy: We regularly counsel clients investing in joint ventures. In structuring investments made in highly technical areas, such as technology and energy, we draw upon our collective understanding of these areas to provide cutting-edge advice.
Regulatory and Compliance: We counsel clients on structuring their offices in a manner to manage regulatory and reporting burdens. Specifically, we guide our clients with respect to SEC, CFTC, and state reporting requirements, registrations and exemptions, as well as various 1934 Act filings, such as Forms 3, 4 and 5 and Schedules 13D, 13F and 13G.
Residential and Commercial Real Estate: Our representation of clients in the real estate universe includes advising on the full range of real estate transactions, both on the investment side and the management side. In particular, we represent clients in the formation of ownership structures, property acquisitions, development and construction, leasing and ongoing maintenance.
Finance and Lending: We counsel clients in connection with obtaining credit facilities and other terms of financing secured by various assets.
Litigation/Dispute Resolution: We advise clients in connection with all kinds of litigation, disputes, tax and real estate controversies and regulatory defense. Our litigators are focused on getting our clients the best results, which often means counseling our clients on the best ways to avoid costly litigation. Our litigators have tried many cases in state and federal court, and in arbitration. But they measure success in how well they help clients achieve their goals. By drawing on our firm’s expertise in advising family offices, our litigators are able to efficiently advise clients towards obtaining the most favorable outcomes.
Tax: We regularly counsel our clients on matters involving local, U.S. and international tax matters, including asset protection and complex asset structuring.
