What Does Rick Do For Our Family Clients?

Rick provides a comprehensive review of existing Property, Casualty, and Liability coverage for our client families (including adult children if desired).  Rick’s review of current coverage is then augmented by Story’s thorough understanding of the client’s current circumstances and prospective risk issues.  Rick will then be in an empowered position to ask a few additional targeted questions about the family’s overall exposures and preferences and then he will execute a highly informed, comparative analysis of current coverage laid against proposed alternatives.  If current coverage is in great shape, Rick’s review will reflect that in his findings.

What is Rick's Expertise?

An astounding number of our client families are served by long-standing, wonderful professionals who “captively” represent companies like State Farm or Farmer’s where the agent is an employee of the insurance company.  Rick is completely independent of all Property, Casualty, and Liability companies which allows him to singularly represent the interests of our family clients and NOT a specific carrier.  Further, Rick has underwriting relationships with all the specialty carriers who uniquely serve the diverse needs of executive and high-net-worth families. Frequently, multiple carriers are utilized in fully serving a client family.

Why Does Story Enjoy Collaborating With Rick?

Rick and his team are as polite and service-oriented as possible.  He fully understands the busy schedules of our clients and he has worked out a system in our collaborative process to minimize the distraction and time involved in executing a comparative analysis in this vital area of asset protection.  Proper P&C coverage is THE foundation of proper Asset Protection for our client families.

What Does Angela Do For Our Family Clients? 

Part of improving the quality of life of our family clients is being able to help them reduce stress by organizing just about anything one can imagine (be that finances or one’s closet!).  Angela and her team can either take over a process like bill paying on behalf of a family or, if preferred, Angela’s team can teach a family member how to most effectively execute a process of record keeping, bill paying, and financial organization. Recent research indicates that spending money to free up time and create peace of mind, has a more lasting and satisfying impact on lifestyle than buying more stuff.  Angela and her team help our clients enhance life satisfaction by “delegating and decluttering” wherever satisfaction can be generated. Angela’s team also helps provide administrative services for some of the specialized estate and charitable planning techniques utilized in Story’s consultative process.

What Is Angela's Expertise?

Angela is a CPA, formerly affiliated as a senior Manager in the Private Client Services group of WIPFLI, LLP, a prominent local Accounting firm. Angela’s team does not do income tax compliance work, but they help a cadre of clients to organize financial information to make tax preparation fast and efficient. Angela also has extensive experience managing a multi-client family office for a group of partners in a local Hedge Fund organization. Regardless of the complexity of a situation, Angela’s team can cut through the clutter.

Why Does Story Enjoy Collaborating with Angela?

Angela is a super organized, sponge for information and she can get to the nub of an intricate issue in record time.  We often turn to Angela to assist with complex issues like researching assisted living options and managing the financial mechanics for the parents of our clients, which is a process somewhat affectionately known as “Parenting Parents” for clients who are simultaneously parenting their children and their parents. Using a third party like Angela to record keep and pay bills can help to maintain family unity in difficult circumstances.

What Does NBW Do For Our Family Clients?

In the world of Legacy Planning, Asset Protection, Charitable Planning, and Sophisticated Tax-Free Investment Management (with Private Placement Insurance products), the many varieties of Life Insurance and a firm’s ability to independently underwrite the coverage with a multitude of carriers becomes essential. NBW’s primary market has been underwriting extremely large insurance policies on the lives of our region’s notable entrepreneur families through their family offices, individuals of ultra-high-net-worth, and senior executives.  Their unique expertise has frequently come to the aid of Story Capital and Story Family Institute when comparative analysis of existing insurance is required. NBW has been involved in underwriting over $200 million dollars of coverage on one life.

What Is NBW Expertise?

Three factors distinguish NBW’s unique position in the industry:

• NBW’s two principals hold the following degrees between them: 2 CLU, 2 JD, 1 MBA, and 1 CPA. The firm’s knowledge base is unmatched in the Upper Midwest.
• NBW is a Partner firm of the Nation’s oldest and largest Co-op of insurance underwriters known as The M Financial Group out of Portland Oregon.  The M Group’s market niche and international productivity has allowed them to negotiate institutional pricing with many of the nation’s largest carriers. Institutional pricing is a major product benefit for our client families.
• Because of NBW’s vast knowledge of insurance products, combined with their independence from any one company, and their exhaustive knowledge of estate planning; family offices, attorney’s and CPA’s across the Upper Midwest seek them out and this knowledge uniquely serves the needs of Story family clients.

Why Does Story Enjoy Collaborating With NBW? 

We enjoy collaborating with NBW because of the integrity and knowledge of its principals.  NBW is “the best” at what they do.  For full disclosure, Story Capital is an affiliated firm of M Holdings Securities and M Holdings RIA through our relationship with NBW.  Story Family Institute is NOT affiliated with NBW or M Holdings.

What Do Attorneys Do For Our Family Clients?

Within the context of Story Capital and Story Family Institute, though we have several attorneys on our internal team, Story does not draft legal documents.  We need attorneys to create the legal framework which enables great ideas and concepts to make the leap from conception into reality.

Broadly speaking, the most frequently encountered areas that require outside drafting are:

• Core or foundational estate planning documents.  These documents are the starting point for all great estate and legacy planning.  Creating great “foundational” documents is the first step which allows our clients to build nicely upon this new foundation as their goals, objectives, and tolerance for complexity come into greater focus. Two of every ten clients have perfect foundational documents; eight of ten do not and they are thrilled to take this first step in “getting things in order.”

The Story team will collaborate with any attorney the client desires yet; as is said in medicine: “There is no such thing as minor surgery, only minor surgeons.” We prefer collaborating with a select group of practitioners with whom we have worked in the past, many of whom will provide an institutional discount to the client because of our extensive existing knowledge of the client and because of the past introductions made to many of these practitioners.  Story never receives referral compensation from attorneys.

• Advanced or Phase II estate and legacy planning documents. There exists another universe of estate and legacy planning; one might also say that there exists another palate of colors to draw from beyond “foundational estate planning” which have immense tax, social, and family benefits. As a client’s net worth skyrockets due to acceleration through stock options or other circumstances, there arises a need to apply new color and fresh thinking to more fully accomplish Family Objectives. What is true in athletics is also true in the law; almost any kid with athletic ability can play middle-school basketball, but to step on a court with Michael Jordan or Lebron James requires serious skills!  Advanced legacy planning, where we are creating a Family Bank, or drafting a trust in another jurisdiction like South Dakota or Nevada, require a certain skillset which most core estate planning practitioners simply do not possess.

• Asset Protection Planning. This is the most arcane, and least often utilized aspect of Family Legacy law, yet it can be the most powerful aspect of retaining assets in the family bloodline, away from the reach of creditors, outside the reach of state income tax, and well beyond the reach of Federal Estate Tax as assets pass from one generation to the next.  Practitioners in the art of Asset Protection are like great baseball pitchers: “they are as scarce as hen’s teeth.”

Many of our clients are first generation wealth creators and as such there exists a preexisting mindset that legal fees are something to minimize or avoid.  In reality, legal fees are a direct investment in the family.  Legal fees are not something to be avoided.  In reference to the kind of legal implementation both Story Capital and Story Family Institute are focused upon, legal fees are the very breath which gives life to creativity, inspiration and vision. 

Why do we like to use attorney's in our sphere of influence?

• They are friendly
• They speak English, not legalese
• They draw pictures which illustrate complex legal concepts
• They interface with our technology platform
• Like sub-contractors, they want to keep our clients happy, which keeps the Story Team happy. We call this quality control.