We advise individuals and families on a wide range of matters, including planning for the family’s future, estate planning, disputes (including separation and divorce), care and education of grandchildren and parents, care of individuals with special needs, retirement planning, and the like. By way of illustration, we have advised the patriarch of a well-known family on how he might help his sons get started in their own businesses.

Planning for the passing of wealth from one generation to later generations is a area of practice that we specialize in. As part of this we have dealt with problems of disability and incapacity in the younger generation and of drug abuse.

With respect to separation and divorce, we are known for our thoroughness in discovering assets—sometimes over several jurisdictions—and negotiating and drafting very comprehensive agreements. Property division and settlement agreements, in our view, need to be as carefully drafted as weighty commercial agreements.

We have helped families provide for the education and care of children and grandchildren in very unique circumstances. For example, we have helped with the creation of a large number of trusts and foundations intended to take care of these needs.

As regards special situations, we have helped create special needs trusts for invalids and other disabled individuals. For example, we have helped move a trust from the US to South Africa, while retaining the ability of a US court to supervise it.

We have made arrangements for the care and treatment of individuals living outside their “home country”, where rapid access to hospitals and doctors was an issue. This entailed planning with an air-rescue operator and a hospital in Switzerland, and establishing an account in the same city as the hospital.

We frequently help individuals plan for their retirement. Sometimes this entails planning for retirement in a “foreign” country—not the one where they currently live and work. A US individual might be retiring to the UK or Italy. A Swiss or German individual might be relocating to the US.

This work, we have found, requires listening, experience, technical skills, and, perhaps most importantly, common sense.

Clients frequently need not only the answers to their questions but help recognizing the possible issues. Stated differently, they need help with the questions as well as the answers. They also often need a counselor who will provide not just legal advice but also practical guidance.

We advise clients as to less obvious but still foreseeable legal risks. For example, after considering a family's filings in several countries over several years, we advised them as to exposures to tax liabilities and penalties for failures to file certain reports and inconsistent immigration filings. What at one time might not have been a serious problem, with greatly increased penalties and monitoring, has become a serious risk.