Seamus (63) is a prominent orthopedic surgeon in the Chicago area and Margaret (60) is the president of a local non-profit foundation. Both maintain dual U.S. and Irish citizenship. They have four grown children and nine grandchildren spread out across the U.S. and Ireland. Seamus still has a full-time practice but plans to start partial retirement over the next five years so he can spend more time with his large family and travel the world with Margaret. He plans to live on the income that is produced by his investment portfolio, real estate holdings, and royalties from several patents on medical devices that he helped develop. Margaret, a first-generation Irish immigrant in the U.S. paid her way through nursing school and is committed to fully funding the college education of her nine grandchildren.
Challenges
- Seamus is an avid investor and student of modern portfolio theory who has grown increasingly frustrated with the solutions provided by his financial advisor to optimize the income that is produced by his portfolio.
- He is also the owner of an outpatient surgical center and pays significant malpractice and liability insurance premiums to cover himself and his staff. Seamus has grown increasingly anxious about his liability exposure after a colleague lost a major malpractice case during the covid years.
- He is searching for new sources of positive alpha to improve the risk adjusted returns of his investment portfolio.
- In addition, he is looking to collaborate with an investment specialist who can integrate options strategies to hedge some of his other exposure to financial risk.
- He is unsure about what else he can do to protect his medical practice and intellectual property from future litigation.
- Margaret is also heading the search committee to add a new investment manager to oversee her foundation’s endowment fund.
- They both plan to gift most of their assets to their children and grandchildren and want to minimize their tax liabilities and those of their heirs.
- One of their daughters works for a U.S. company but lives in Ireland and they would like to assist her with the financial planning challenges of dual citizenship.
Solution
LFA can offer Seamus and Margaret the ability to optimize their portfolio’s geographic diversification and generate alpha by taking advantage of international investment opportunities. Through our network of Swiss banks, they can explore asset protection and gifting strategies and hedge currency risk.