For Advisors
Working with your clients’ CPAs, financial advisors, and counsel
Founder and family planning works best when everyone advising the client works from the same facts. Vickery Law handles the legal structure. You keep your role, and with the client’s consent, we keep you informed.
Advisor calls run 30 minutes. There is no charge for them.
Referring professionals
How the relationship works
Most founder planning reaches us through an adviser who spotted the issue first: a CPA looking at a cap table, an RIA whose client just took secondary, a corporate lawyer who does not want to take on the estate side. If that is you, here is how the relationship works.
We stay in our lane
We do not take over the tax return, the investment relationship, or the company’s corporate work. The engagement is scoped to the trust and equity structure, in writing.
Your client hears the whole answer
Including when the answer is that the stock does not qualify, or that the structure is not worth its cost. You will not be handed a client who was sold something.
Co-counsel is available
On multi-trust builds we will work as co-counsel or alongside a consulting reviewer where that is the better structure for the client.
Who we work with
Founders, and the families behind them
Founders holding stock that may qualify under Section 1202, and the families behind them, in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Washington State. Also families whose Maryland or DC estate tax exposure has outgrown a will-based or unfunded plan.
Timing
When to bring us in
Founders
Incorporation or conversion to a C corporation; before a priced round or once a term sheet is signed; before a secondary sale or tender; as tranches approach the three, four, or five year mark; before a move between Washington and Maryland or DC; and as early as possible before a sale.
Families
Maryland or DC estate tax exposure, a Maryland inheritance tax question, a new child or grandchild, a trust that was signed but never funded, or beneficiary designations that no longer match the plan.
Earlier is better, but it is rarely too late to do something useful.
Scope
How the work divides
You keep the client’s returns, including trust fiduciary and gift tax returns, which we do not prepare. We coordinate with you on valuation, transfer timing, and gift reporting so the return and the structure tell the same story.
You keep investment management. We prepare the retitling and transfer paperwork, work with custodians where they will accept us, and track each account until it is confirmed funded.
You represent the company; we represent the founder and family. We coordinate early on transfer restrictions, board and investor consents, certificates, and the cap table.
Our commitments
What you can expect from us
- A plain-language summary of the structure and why it was chosen, shared with the client’s written consent.
- A funding schedule showing every asset and its status.
- Notice when a change in Section 1202 or the trust rules may affect a structure we built for a shared client.
- A straight answer when the stock does not qualify or a structure is not worth its cost.
Referrals
Referring a client
Send a short note with the client’s name, the company, and its approximate stage. With the client’s permission, we will include you in the first conversation. Every engagement is quoted as a flat fee, in writing, before work begins.
Reciprocity here is non-monetary: co-authored guidance, a speaking slot for your clients, or a referral sent back. Nothing is paid for a referral.
Advisor calls run 30 minutes. There is no charge for them.