We occasionally bump into an understandable question: How does The Unger Company differ from a financial advisor? And, differ, we do!
It’s not unreasonable for someone to wonder this. Our work with insurance products that are income producing can look an awful lot like some things a financial advisor would recommend and may have done at some point before you started thinking seriously about your estate and wealth transfer.
But for us, the approach, the mindset, and the goals are different than a financial advisor. Financial advisors are employed to build your wealth, while The Unger Company is entrusted to protect your wealth and enable wealth transfer to the next generation to happen without a heavy tax burden being placed on prized assets.
We work closely with financial advisors for the high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) and ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI) who are our clients to create plans that avoid taxes where possible while maximizing the wealth transfer to the succeeding generations. It might sound a bit vague, but our decades in this business have taught us that a lot of what we do is very uniquely tailored to the estate size, plans, and the beneficiaries, be they children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, trusts, or a combination of them.
In a broad sense, financial advisors are there to help you build wealth and live in a lifestyle that you envisioned early in your life. Financial advisors can be caring and helpful professionals with a deep investment in their clients’ lives. We have a tremendous amount of respect for what they do, especially those who build fantastic investment portfolios for our mutual clients. Some may sell products and take commissions whereas others will merely charge fees some of which might be dependent upon the success of the investments.
The Unger Company envisions and creates the plan that will help succeeding generations enjoy the lifestyle that grantors envision for them. We have enjoyed many constructive relationships with financial advisors, and preserve their work by using our deep knowledge in structuring insurance products to create a defense against costly estate taxes and aggressive tax collectors. Remember, tax collectors are in the business of taking your money. And, for the most part, they are very good at it.
Where is the danger? It’s not all that hard to grasp. Tax liabilities in an estate will need to be satisfied, period. If you have a very large investment portfolio and a financial advisor manages to provide a return of eight percent, you don’t want your children or grandchildren to have to sell that off and lose these investments to pay a tax bill. Also, you wouldn’t want to have them sell the family business or property that was handed down to you in order to satisfy a tax liability. This is where we construct a shield that protects the great cashflow generated by your financial advisor and your assets so your children and grandchildren can take advantage of all you’ve built.
Where a lot of this can seem depressing, our business isn’t at all gloomy. A lot of this is about the altruism of people providing for their family and maintaining their legacy – both a personal and family legacy. And, by altruism, we mean the charitable intent that many Generation 1 founders embody.
Since 1974, The Unger Company, Ltd. has served high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clients to create estate tax strategies that help a wealth transfer plan do what it’s supposed to do – benefit the next generations. We work closely with financial advisors, attorneys, and accountants to weed out estate tax issues before they become a problem. And Harold Unger, our founder, is proud to have worked closely with clients so their voice is still heard by succeeding generations even after they’re gone. Contact us through our website or call us at 212-755-4777 to learn what we can do for you.
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Harold Unger LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harold-m-unger-9453aa73/
The Unger Company Ltd. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/93617123/
The Unger Company, Ltd. does not seek to practice law for clients and these published items are intended only to be informational in nature.
