Estate & Succession Planning for Business Owners
The death of an employee has ripple effects on other employees, managers, your HR team, and most importantly, their family. With emotions running high, the thought of having to unwind the deceased’s financial life only adds to the stress and anxiety of their loved ones. For many, it’s an overwhelming, complicated process and something they have never done before.
What does this have to do with your organization? With Cerity Partners Beneficiary Financial Counseling, you have an opportunity to ease this stress while positively impacting your firm.
Like life insurance, beneficiary financial counseling services make a meaningful difference in the lives of those left behind — providing a sense of stability when it’s needed most.
When a client lost her husband after 40 years of marriage, she needed much more than a good investment plan. She needed a holistic, proactive, and objective team to guide her as she was confronted with important, and at times irrevocable, decisions in areas that were new to her."Sean More, Partner
At Cerity Partners, we don’t just advise. We sympathize and empathize. We listen openly to the employee’s loved ones as they talk about their memories and concerns for the future. Then we help them examine each aspect of the deceased’s financial life and identify the actions that must be taken now and in the future to distribute funds, transfer assets and settle the estate. Our support includes the following services for beneficiaries:
Our goal is to help family members survive and ultimately thrive in their “new normal.”
“What’s our role?” “Are we going to receive calls from Cerity Partners in addition to the employee’s family?” “How much time does it take to administer?” We get it. You don’t want to add a benefit that makes the jobs of your HR team even more complex.
Cerity Partners manages the Beneficiary Financial Counseling program for you. Think of us as an extension of your HR team. We work with you to design the benefit and create the launch strategy, then take it from there. We contact the family members, schedule meetings, and guide them through the entire process.
Your compensation and benefits offerings are a talent retention necessity and, arguably, your executives’ largest source of wealth creation. Executive Financial Counseling helps your senior leaders fully realize these benefits and boost your ROI in the process.
When an employee dies, the greatest gift you can give their family is care and support. Our Beneficiary Counseling Services help beneficiaries navigate the financial challenges that arise after the death of a loved one, helping them adjust to their “new normal.”
The financial life of an executive is complicated, and coordinating all the elements takes time. We serve as your personal CFO, providing a more efficient and simpler way to manage your growing wealth.
Your employees’ financial stress can have a cascading effect on absenteeism, morale, and productivity. Our comprehensive financial wellness coaching helps alleviate this stress, enabling employees to focus on their responsibilities at work.
Despite a rate hike and rising gas costs squeezing households this year, consumer spending remains resilient thanks to historically low household leverage, near-full employment, and increasingly wealthy, low-debt baby boomers whose spending is driven by asset prices rather than borrowing.
A donor-advised fund is a charitable giving account established with a sponsoring organization that allows individuals and families to support charitable causes they care about with tax efficiency. Think of it as a philanthropic savings account where the balance can be invested for growth.
As part of the Opportunity Zone program, Qualified Opportunity Funds can provide significant financial and tax benefits. At the same time, owners of these funds must be knowledgeable about the estate-planning aspects of their investment.
You’ve saved diligently. You have an IRA, a 401(k), and maybe an annuity. But there are decisions embedded in common retirement account structures that many people don’t realize until it’s too late.
The concept behind PPLI is simple: by investing inside a life insurance policy, you take advantage of the favorable tax treatment granted to life insurance. Learn more.
A growing number of international entrepreneurs are building companies that require a presence in the United States. For these founders, the move brings a distinct set of questions that differ meaningfully from a typical relocating family.
A liquidity event—whether from a business sale, IPO, merger, or other transaction—creates a unique opportunity to design plans that minimize tax exposure and shape a lasting legacy. Watch our webinar to learn more.
Plan sponsors are simultaneously confronting heightened cybersecurity and distribution-fraud risk, SECURE 2.0’s Roth catch-up requirements, and an ERISA litigation environment increasingly focused on process and meaningful benchmarking.
When going through a divorce, the process of dividing assets can be a frustrating and confusing one. Retirement assets are an important issue in any divorce proceeding, since, after the marital home, they often represent the largest category of marital assets to be divided in a divorce settlement.
A growing number of international entrepreneurs are building companies that require a presence in the United States. For these founders, the move brings a distinct set of questions that differ meaningfully from a typical relocating family.