Family Limited Partnerships

Family Limited Partnerships UMass

Related Matters Newsletter
Summer 1995

by Ronald P. Weiss, Esq.
Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas
Springfield, Massachusetts

You pay a fortune in taxes. You pay income taxes on what you earn and on what your investments earn. You pay taxes on what your employees earn. You even pay taxes on inflation. And the income tax rules are so complex, so you have to spend days and incur substantial fees just to pay your income taxes. Then, when you die, the government plans on taking a substantial portion of the wealth you have left after all the income taxes. If you are in the highest income and estate tax brackets, this means that for every dollar you earn that is taxed at ordinary income tax rates, your children will inherit only 27 cents.

The laws of our country are designed to make it difficult for you to transmit a substantial estate relatively intact to your children. In response, estate planners have created a number of techniques to help you leave as much as you can to the next generation. Unfortunately, the most common techniques, outright gifts and placing assets into irrevocable trusts, will most likely put assets outside of your control. This may make you uncomfortable if income producing assets, especially your family business, are involved. These methods may also give rise to estate and gift taxes based on the full value of what has been transferred. More…

Form a Family Limited Partnership

Form a Family Limited Partnership

The University of Connecticut
by B. Patrick O’Donnell Jr., J.D., L.L.M., C.L.U.

For owners of family businesses, the issue of succession invariably becomes a terrible dilemma: How to transfer assets to the next generation while simultaneously maintaining controlover major decisions and avoiding crippling estate tax liabilities.

Growing numbers of owners are discovering a suitable answer in an estate and financialplanning technique known as a Family Limited Partnership (FLP). In an FLP, control lies withthe general partners, who can have a tiny equity ownership (as little as 1%, although 5% is morethe norm) while still retaining control and deciding how much partnership income goes to thelimited partners. The general partners are the decision makers and the limited partners hold mostof the equity. More…