A Very Busy Year: A Merger, A Deep Bear Market...Oh, and Everything Else

Given the market’s performance – and its volatility – during 2008, our clients might assume that most of the cumulative energy of the Aspiriant team had been devoted to responding to this past year’s extraordinary investment challenges or to issues connected to our merger. We did in fact have quite a few opportunities this past year to communicate with all clients about the turbulent investment times and about our merger progress:

• Quarterly INSIGHT newsletters highlighting current investment issues


• “Market Perspective from Kochis Fitz/Quintile”, January 22nd


• “Persevering Through Market Turmoil”, September 8th


• Client seminar featuring Greg Valliere on “A View from Washington as the 2008 Elections Approach”, September 18th


• “A Week for the History Books”, September 19th


• “A Change to Recommended Money Market Investments”, September 24th


• Aspiriant Annual Report: 2008, September 26th


• Conference call with Q&A, October 24th


• Conference call with Q&A, December 2nd


• “Sheltered from the Madoff Storm”, December 16th


• “A Change to Recommended Money Market Investments”, December 30th

We were, of course, also engaged in numerous other activities that impact our entire client base…and a very large number that were specific to individual clients’ situations. We thought it would be useful to compile some of these other client activities that occurred “behind the scenes”.

While not exhaustive, we hope this list demonstrates the breadth and depth of the capabilities of our wealth management team. We expect to expand on that capacity in our second year as Aspiriant! Much more about progress to date on our merger in the final article in this issue.

Estate planning

• Refinanced existing intra-family loans to reduce debt service obligations and increase wealth transfers


• Updated estate plans to better insulate clients’ heirs from creditors, divorcing spouses, and future estate tax


• Worked to transfer family vacation homes into trusts benefiting multiple future generations with minimal gift tax cost


• Facilitated intra-family loans to help clients’ children purchase first homes, while avoiding gift tax impacts


• Coordinated overall estate plan strategy; updated beneficiary designations for consistency with the plans


• Advised on disclaiming an inheritance in favor of the next generation


• Advised on strategy to give shares of privately held company stock to children to reduce estate taxes


• With historically low interest rates, implemented wealth transfer plans to reduce future estate taxes

General Wealth Planning

• Developed analyses to facilitate clients’ decisions on financial independence


• Coordinated the placement of health, life, disability and long-term care insurance


• Coordinated property risk management reviews, resulting in improved coverage and/or lower premiums


• Coordinated home mortgage financing/refinancing


• Established Uni(K) retirement plans for clients with self-employment earnings


• Coordinated establishment of HSA accounts for qualifying clients


• Assisted with deferred compensation elections, often coordinating with stock option exercises or stock sales


• Updated stock sales plan under SEC Rule 10b5-1


• Evaluated life insurance policies and made recommendations for coverage repositioning and optimization


• Assisted clients with budget development/feasibility of new and second home purchases


• Evaluated job offers and advised on negotiating strategies for employment/BOD opportunities


• Assisted clients with decisions related to early retirement opportunities


• Established Section 529 plans savings accounts for children and grandchildren to fund post-high school education


• Coordinated gifts from clients’ donor-advised funds


• Developed stock option exercise strategies


• Facilitated giving IRA distributions directly to charity


• Analyzed and made recommendations to switch from traditional IRAs to Roths


• Processed IRA required minimum distributions for affected clients


• Advised clients on tax strategies and incorporation alternatives for their new businesses


• Sent estimated year-end tax reports and final year-end tax reports to clients’ external tax preparers


• Optimized charitable gifts by establishing donor-advised accounts and funding them with highly-appreciated assets

Investment Management

• Responded to market conditions by reviewing asset allocations and making changes where appropriate


• Made diversified private equity and global fixed income allocations available to “Qualified Purchaser” clients


• Captured capital losses to offset capital gain taxes in future years


• Implemented strategies to diversify concentrated stock positions (writing covered calls, hedging, and other strategies)


• Tracked cost basis records for investment assets in all managed accounts


• Where appropriate, executed monthly rebalancing trades so portfolios would track clients’ investment mixes


• Handled cash needs for clients through wire transfers and moneylinks to outside accounts


• Protected clients’ cash investments by moving to Treasury-only money market funds and then, months later, returning to higher yielding assets

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