For families thinking generationally
Wealth that transfers — not just accumulates.
The plan that determines what your wealth actually does for the people and the causes you care about. Coordinated with your attorney, explained without legalese, designed to work the way you intended it to — not the way it ended up working for everyone else who didn’t do this part.
Why families work with Premier on estate planning
If your estate plan was drafted years ago and lives in a drawer, you’ve probably wondered…
- Your estate plan is older than your kids’ current life situation.
- Your investment account beneficiary designations have never been checked against your will.
- Your attorney drafted the trust but nobody’s actually living inside it day-to-day.
- Your estate-tax exemption keeps changing and nobody’s updating the strategy.
We’re the part of the estate-planning team that makes sure the documents and your real life actually agree.
What's included
Everything one team handles for you.
Estate-plan audit
Full review of your existing will, trusts, beneficiary designations, and powers of attorney — against your current actual situation.
Multi-generational wealth modeling
A clear forecast of what passes to whom, when, and after which taxes — under your current plan AND under alternatives we model alongside it.
Coordination with your attorney
Three-way conversations with your estate attorney. We translate their structures into financial moves and translate your financial situation into structures they can draft.
Beneficiary & titling alignment
The unsexy detail that breaks more estate plans than any other — we audit every account’s titling and beneficiary against the document plan.
Lifetime gifting strategy
Annual exclusion gifts, larger lifetime exemption uses, intra-family loans, GRATs — coordinated with your portfolio, your tax situation, and your liquidity needs.
Family meetings & next-gen briefings
Optional — we facilitate family meetings to introduce the plan to heirs, on your timing, with as much (or as little) detail as you want shared.
Charitable structures
Donor-advised funds, charitable remainder trusts, family foundations — structured for your tax situation and your charitable intent.
Annual estate-plan refresh
Once a year we check the plan against the law (which changes), your life (which changes), and your portfolio (which changes). Nothing rots quietly.
How we work
The Premier Method — applied to Estate & Wealth Transfer.
The same four steps every Premier client experiences. Adapted to the specific work of Estate & Wealth Transfer.
Listen
A complete audit of your existing estate documents, beneficiary designations, account titling, and stated intentions. We map what the plan currently does versus what you actually want it to do.
Plan
A written multi-generational plan in plain English, with every structure explained, every gap flagged, and every decision documented. We brief your attorney on what we’re recommending and why.
Coordinate
Quarterly coordination calls with your attorney as documents get updated. We make sure every titling and beneficiary change actually happens after the documents are signed.
Communicate
Annual plan refresh against the year’s changes in tax law, family situation, and your portfolio. Real-time response when a life event (marriage, divorce, birth, death) needs the plan re-examined.
What it looks like in practice
Three engagements. Three different starting points.
Multi-generational trust restructuring
A $22M family trust last reviewed in 2003
A three-generation family with trust documents drafted before the estate-tax exemption tripled. The trusts were over-structured for an estate-tax bill that no longer applied, and the income-tax cost of the existing structures was punishing the next-gen beneficiaries.
Coordinated with the family’s attorney on trust modifications and decanting where allowed. Restructured for income-tax efficiency at the beneficiary level. Brought the next-generation heirs into briefings so they understood what they were inheriting.
Annual income-tax savings to the family trust of roughly $85,000 going forward, plus a plan the next generation actually understands.
Surviving-spouse simplification
Untangling a complex plan after the founder’s death
A surviving spouse, age 71, inheriting a $9M estate where her late husband had layered in multiple trusts and structures she didn’t fully understand. The attorney was processing the technical work; nobody was helping her live inside the new plan day-to-day.
Worked alongside the attorney to simplify what could be simplified. Rewrote her own estate documents to remove unnecessary complexity. Built her an annual income strategy she could actually read and explain.
A plan that fits her life now, with the technical estate structures she needs and none of the ones she doesn’t. She told us afterward it was the first time anyone had explained the documents in plain English.
Charitable legacy structure
Building a family foundation for a $30M lifetime intent
A couple in their late 60s with a clear charitable intent (~$30M lifetime, two specific causes) but no infrastructure to execute it efficiently. They were writing annual checks and losing significant tax efficiency.
Designed a structure combining a donor-advised fund for flexible annual giving and a private family foundation for the larger long-term commitment. Coordinated with their attorney on formation and with their CPA on the front-loaded giving strategy in a high-income year.
A 30-year giving plan with the tax efficiency tightened up, the family’s charitable identity formalized, and the next generation already learning to participate in foundation decisions.
How we compare
Premier vs. the alternatives.
| Premier | Robo-advisor | Big-4 brokerage | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compensation | Fee-only, AUM-based, no commissions | Low flat % (~0.25%), algorithmic | Mix: commissions + product revenue + advisory fee |
| Relationship | Same advisor & team for decades (20-yr avg tenure) | No human advisor (or paid-tier call center) | Assigned advisor; often reassigned every 18–24 months |
| Scope of work | Investment + tax + estate + business coordinated together | Investment allocation only | Investment-led; tax/estate often siloed or via product cross-sell |
| Conflicts | None — fiduciary, fee-only, no proprietary funds | Low — limited to their fund universe | Yes — proprietary products + commission-eligible securities |
Working together
How we charge, and who this is for.
How we charge
Fee-only. AUM-based. No commissions.
Transparent percentage tied to your assets under management. No commissions, no proprietary products, no soft-dollar arrangements. Discussed openly in your initial conversation and disclosed in writing in your engagement letter and our Form ADV.
Who this is for
Typically $1M+ in investable assets.
Most clients arrive with $1M or more under management. Some start smaller with a clear path — a business sale, an inheritance, a vesting event. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll tell you straight — and point you toward who is.
Common questions
Questions we get from prospective clients.
Do you draft the legal documents?
No. We’re not attorneys and we don’t draft trusts, wills, or powers of attorney. Your estate attorney does that work. We do the financial-life side of estate planning — the modeling, the strategy, the coordination, the implementation of titling and beneficiary changes after documents are drafted. Most engagements involve three-way calls between you, your attorney, and us.
How often does an estate plan need to be updated?
A formal refresh every 3-5 years is the standard rule of thumb, plus immediately after any major life event — marriage, divorce, birth, death, business sale, major health change, significant change in net worth. We do a lighter-touch annual review with every client to flag anything that might warrant a fuller refresh.
What happens if my advisor leaves the firm?
Why fee-only? What's wrong with commissions?
Commissions create a conflict of interest that even the most ethical advisor can't fully neutralize: if you're paid more for selling Product A than Product B, you'll naturally see more reasons to recommend Product A. We chose to remove the conflict structurally rather than try to manage it with good intentions. Fee-only means our compensation moves only when your assets do.
Do you work with my existing CPA and attorney?
Always. Your existing CPA and estate attorney know your history. We’re not in the business of replacing those relationships. What we DO is the coordination most firms skip — making sure your investment, tax, and estate decisions actually align with each other instead of contradicting each other in ways nobody notices until it costs you.
Becoming a client
A 30-minute estate-planning conversation, no pitch.
Bring a copy of your current estate documents if you have them. We’ll spend 30 minutes telling you straight what looks aligned, what looks out of date, and where the gaps are. No pitch for new documents. No referral spam. Just a careful read by a fresh set of eyes.
Most chosen
Schedule a conversation
30 minutes. By phone or video. No prep needed.
Lower commitment
Request the wealth guide
A 24-page PDF on what "fiduciary" actually means — and how to evaluate one.
Direct line
Call us directly
707.443.2741 · 8 AM – 5 PM PT. A human answers, not a menu.
No pitch. No pressure. If we're not the right fit, we'll tell you who is.