Mark Blumenthal is the Chairman of Family Office Services group and Senior Real Estate and Private Equity/Venture Capital Tax Partner with a leading CPA/Consulting firm. He serves as a strategic advisor to affluent families, family offices, mature private businesses and private equity/venture capital funds.
Mark advises clients on buying, selling and investing in private companies and real estate; the formation of family and investment limited partnerships, family offices and private foundations; and income tax, transaction and wealth transfer planning.
Often this involves working closely with the clients themselves as well as any outside advisors, in order to create an integrated, real-world strategy to coordinate all the financial, family and business goals, while maximizing tax savings.
In addition to his real estate expertise and broad MA industry experiences, Mark has a national reputation for his unique family office practice.
Mark has been on the speaker faculty for the Family Succession Planning Institute, the Family Office Exchange, the Family Office Forum, the Family Office Management, IRR's Mastering Tax and Estate Planning, the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, the Center for Professional Education and others.
He has written articles for numerous publications, including the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, The Tax Advisor, Taxation for Accountants, the Journal of Property Management, The Real Estate Securities Journal, The Journal of Real Estate Development, Taxation for Lawyers, Real Estate Forum and The New York State Bar Association Partnership Handbook.
Mark’s most recent article entitled "Extreme Makeover" appeared in Worth (January 2006) discussing the need for family offices to embrace best-in-class management and organizational standards. He has also been quoted in Bloomberg Wealth Manager, the Chicago Tribune, Wealth Manager, the Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington City Paper and Accounting Today.
Mark received both his B.S. and M.B.A. degrees from the University of Illinois. He is a member of the Chicago Estate Planning Council, The Illinois Venture Capital Association, the JUF Professional Advisory Committee, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Illinois CPA Society.
From Deloitte & Touche, Mark merged his practice with Blackman Kallick in 2004, bringing his entire senior management team.
TOPICS:
• The Birth of The Family Office
• Exposing the Psychological Dilemma of Zero Tax Strategies
• Understanding the Psychology of Taxes on Investor Behavior
• Tax Strategies That Can Supercharge Investment Returns
• Reducing Fraud and Other Risks in the Family Office Through Effective Internal Controls
• Implementing Tax Strategies to Maximize Investment Returns
• Closing the Family Office Barn Door—Discovering Internal Controls!
• Mastering Tax Law Changes to Improve After-Tax Investment Returns
• Highlights of The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004
TOPIC DESCRIPTIONS:
The Birth of The Family Office
Mark presents a case study, that follows the Jones family through a strategic review of their company following an unsolicited offer to purchase the company; explains why the family decided to sell the company after 50 years of ownership; describes how the family was able to form a family office that can support their family mission; and reviews some of the mistakes the family office makes in year one and describes the family office's priorities for the following year.
Exposing the Psychological Dilemma of Zero Tax Strategies
Mark provides his most recent thoughts on zero tax strategies, stressing the need for investors not to overreact or underreact to taxes. Mark tells his audience that one of their most important take home ideas is to "simply understand that taxes are a significant drag on your investment returns." Mark has been a sought-after speaker on this topic for years and described the latest sophisticated tax planning ideas for investors who are focused both on public securities and private investments.
Understanding the Psychology of Taxes on Investor Behavior
Mark explores solutions for dealing with the psychological dilemma of how an investor
cannot overreact or underreact to the reality of taxes. He also discusses how to reduce the
"tax drag" on investment returns using sophisticated planning, the impact of recent tax law
changes on particular types of investments, a fresh look at Section 1031 like-kind
exchanges, an IRS and Washington, D.C., tax update, and the latest and greatest tax
planning with the Alternative Minimum Tax.
Tax Strategies That Can Supercharge Investment Returns
Mark stresses the challenge of providing long-term tax planning solutions in a short-term political world. He discusses the latest strategies for eliminating the tax drag on investment returns. He entertains audiences with his perspective on the likely future actions of congress on the affluent. Finally, he shares with attendees the secret of how to make your long-term capital gain taxes disappear and how this illusion can actually increase your net worth; this secret is not in the outline.
Reducing Fraud and Other Risks in the Family Office Through Effective Internal Controls
In his presentation, Mark discusses the positive evolution of the family office structure and how this is providing families with more choices and opportunities to access best-in-class service providers. On the other hand, many single/virtual family offices continue to face risks from fraud resulting from inadequate internal controls and poor operational practices. Through comprehensive case studies, Mark illustrates how two family offices dealt with these challenges. Mark also reviewes his recent article titled "Extreme Makeover" that appeared in the January 2006 issue of Worth.
Implementing Tax Strategies to Maximize Investment Returns
See "Mastering Tax Law Changes to Improve After-Tax Investment Returns," from January 2005 below for the main points of the speech. Mark updates this presentation and also covers new tax strategies (you can ask him about the opportunity triangle), new rules for reportable transactions and the new Circular 230 rules. Mark also expands his coverage of the important planning considerations for alternative minimum tax (AMT) on the wealthy and used real examples of some famous public figures to illustrate his thoughts.
Closing the Family Office Barn Door—Discovering Internal Controls!
In his presentation Mark defines the many different types of family offices including, Single, Multi, Virtual, and Hybrid Family Offices. He also discusses what types of families use family offices and the process that families consider when choosing a family office structure. The focus of this talk, however, was on the vulnerability of most family office's to FRAUD because of the lack of segregation of duties and family and management's ability to override controls. He defines the three conditions that must exist for fraud to occur, and how to position the family office to mitigate these factors. The highlight of his talk is a Comprehensive Case Study that critiques the general management controls and business processes of the "Jones Family Office" resulting in recommendations to improve internal controls and best practices for operations.
Mastering Tax Law Changes to Improve After-Tax Investment Returns
In his presentation Mark discusses the impact of the many recent tax law changes on investment strategies and investor behavior, including the impact of the 15% rate for Long-term capital gains and dividends; the use of debt; loss harvesting strategies; the increased cost of a short sale; the impact on certain asset classes and types of investments such as real estate, hedge funds, mutual funds, and ETFs. He also covers recent developments that impact affluent taxpayers including new penalties for failure to report tax shelters and foreign bank accounts, new airplane expense limitations for businesses, and liberalization of the use of S-Corporations for families. Finally, Mark covers in depth why the majority of wealthy taxpayers are in Alternative Minimum Tax ("AMT"), how to know what is triggering AMT, investment strategies to use AMT to actually reduce your taxes, and sophisticated charitable and AMT modeling.
Highlights of The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004
In his presentation, Mark highlights The Act's provisions that most impact wealthy families and their businesses including the extraterritorial income repeal; foreign dividends received deduction, domestic production activities deduction; deferred compensation; penalties for failing to disclose reportable transactions and foreign bank accounts, and others.
TRAVELS FROM: Illinois
FEE CATEGORY: B ($5.5 to 10k)
