Article by Russ Alan Prince
Generally speaking, for many star musicians, the music business is not as profitable as it once was. The industry is changing in many ways. For example, live performances have become the primary way to generate revenues for many musicians. At the same time, a positive trend is that a growing number of star musicians are leveraging the expertise of elite wealth planners.
Elite wealth planning was once – pretty much – limited to the super-rich (net worth = US$500 million or more). It involved skillfully navigating the tax code coupled with implanting a range of strategies to protect a person or family’s wealth. Today, those who are less affluent, including star musicians, can benefit from the expertise of elite wealth planners.
According to Evan Jehle, a partner in FFO Business Management & Family Office and an authority on tax mitigation strategies for successful entertainers, “With our roster of musician clients, we take great pains to understand what they want to accomplish and their concerns. Then, we’re often able to implement state-of-the-art wealth planning solutions that address their concerns and puts more money in their pockets.”
A severe pervasive problem in the wealth planning field is that there are relatively few high-caliber wealth planners and fewer still elite wealth planners. There are a great many advisors who are simply substandard. More insidiously, there are also quite a large percentage of advisors pitching illegal or exceedingly aggressive wealth planning strategies.
“Everything we do is what’s known as a bright line transaction,” says Jehle. “All the solutions we propose are clearly set out in the tax code and therefore perfectly legal…no question about it. Our expertise in understanding where wealth planning solutions fit for each of our musician clients and we have the skills to implement them extremely well.”
In sum, more and more star musicians are taking advantage of the capabilities of elite wealth planners. Doing so often enables them to substantially enhance and protect their wealth.
Originally posted on Forbes.com, April 9th, 2018. Original Article can be viewed here