Possessing wealth exponentially increases your range of choices in life. What it also increases is the impact of the choices you make, in the short term as well as the long term. Greater opportunities, greater risks, greater responsibility. Financial planning is simply essential – and hassle-free, if you engage the support of United. Our experienced and knowledgeable experts help you make sense of all your choices, and how they influence each other. We then combine your choices into a coherent financial plan.

It all begins with your story. In a personal and confidential intake session, we take stock of your assets and your circumstances. We discuss your ambitions, your constraints and the level of involvement you prefer.

Then, using the extensive range of solutions at our disposal – from the establishment of trusts and foundations to investments and charitable giving – we put together a solid financial plan that matches your situation and intentions. One that honours your reputation as well as ours.

As a wealthy family, you have a different approach to asset management than individuals. Your ambitions reach far beyond traditional investment horizons. You are interested in perpetuating your wealth for the benefit of generations to come. Moreover, you need to protect and balance the rights of all your family members.

This is a huge responsibility. One that can cause stress or even discord. United can support you in dealing with it. Our specialists have many years of experience managing the assets of wealthy families. We can set up a Family Office for you to orchestrate family financial business.

It starts with your story. In a personal and confidential intake session with family members, we take stock of your family’s assets and circumstances. We discuss your ambitions, your constraints and the level of involvement you prefer. Based on your needs, our experts develop family-friendly solutions for the issues that you and your family face in relation to your wealth - legal, accounting, tax, investment, real estate, migration, education or personal pension issues, to name a few.

This leaves you free to devote your attention to what really matters to you. Meanwhile, United’s specialised Family Office software enables us to keep you up to date with clear, accurate and efficient reporting: all assets and accounts captured in one seamless net worth statement.

If you own a business, you’ve worked hard to build it and make it a success. And you may still be actively contending with its day-to-day challenges. Don’t let this distract you from a supremely important issue: succession planning. When do you want to pass on your business? To whom? And how? Unfortunately, this is not an issue you can postpone till you are close to retirement. A good succession plan should be part of your business’ contingency plan and forms the cornerstone of your private estate plan.

United’s specialists have many years of experience serving family businesses. We know that each handover involves a unique set of circumstances and personal dynamics. Based on your story and your needs, we can develop a succession plan for you, with expert ownership structuring that protects your assets and guarantees a smooth transition.

Having a succession plan in place, however, is just the beginning. Succession planning, to us, is an ongoing process. We sit down with you annually to review your succession plan and adjust it to changing circumstances if needed.

If you possess wealth, your first focus, and rightly so, is putting it to use now for what matters to you - whether this is a beautiful home, a business venture or a charitable project. Nevertheless, it is highly probable that your assets will one day outlast you. That day can be many years away, or it can be tomorrow. Your financial plan should therefore always include provisions for what happens after that day to your estate.

United’s experts have many years of experience with estate planning. Based on your unique story, we structure your estate – using elements such as trusts, foundations and lifetime giving - to protect your assets and ensure minimum stress for your next of kin. As your estate planners, we manage the transition with three key aims:

• Minimising potential for conflict between beneficiaries
• Ensuring estate assets end up the hands of the intended beneficiaries
• Protecting the estate assets from claims by unintended recipients

But effective estate planning is not just about the transfer of wealth. The reality is that we are living longer. In developed countries, the 85 and over age group is growing rapidly, and a fair number of these people eventually become legally incapacitated. In your estate plan, in line with your intentions, United will take measures guaranteeing that you or your surviving partner will always receive the care you desire. The plan will prevent conflicts between family members by appointing one party to represent your interests, along with checks and balances to ensure that in your lifetime, your assets will always be used as you intended.

Having an estate plan in place, however, is just the beginning. Estate planning, to us, is an ongoing process. We sit down with you annually to review your estate plan and adjust it to changing circumstances if needed.

Besides caring for your own, as a wealthy individual you may also have charitable ambitions. United can help you maximise your donation to charity without short-changing the people you love.

At United we have extensive experience organising charity. Through our own United Foundation, and by having supported many clients over the years with their charitable initiatives. A structure tailor-made for you by our specialists allows you to donate to the organisation of your choice in a systematic and well-considered manner, and it can give you more influence on how your money is ultimately spent. As part of your estate plan, charitable giving not only benefits your chosen charity, but with the right structuring it will have no negative impact on the net inheritance you leave to your beneficiaries. This mutually beneficial arrangement – engineered by our specialists – gives you the ultimate peace of mind.

Establishing asset holding structures (from holding companies and investment vehicles to trusts and foundations) is a complex process involving numerous external parties - and a great deal of paperwork. Let the experts of United coordinate this process for you. We act as a single point of contact for all parties involved, taking the lead and pressing ahead until the process is complete.

Single point of contact
When we establish a legal entity for you, we:

• Advise you on the type of entity you need to structure your assets or operations
• Review the documentation
• Coordinate the process with service providers
• Open an account with our bank or the bank of your choice
• Assist the legal advisor with the actual registration process
• Help nominate a statutory auditor
• Ensure full compliance with the relevant laws and procedures (e.g. substance issues, KYC, ALM)

Alternatively, you can choose just what you need from this range of modular solutions

Once your legal entity has been created, whether it is a company, an investment fund, a trust or a foundation, it will need to maintain a registered office. The baseline services of this office are to house all files and records and receive correspondence. In your particular case, you may want a registered office that can do more – for example accommodate a staff.

Whatever you choose, United can help you meet your legal and practical requirements. If necessary, we can provide an appropriate office environment, complete with office furnishings. Our experienced IT experts can set up and maintain the IT systems you need. And we can provide you with the right people, from secretaries to board members or trustees.

Human resources are key

Do you want board members or trustees who manage proactively? United can provide them. Our picks are well-practised administrators, experts in their fields. They are also formally qualified and approved for regulated entities.

We can usually recruit your trustees or board members from United’s own staff. When an independent individual is required, we recommend proven experts from outside United. Routinely, we analyse your entity’s purpose—and provide the right leadership.

Depending on the complexity of your legal entity, the day-to-day management and administration can be quite time-consuming. United offers the support you need, so you can concentrate on what really matters to you. As your entity’s administrator and corporate secretary, and depending on your needs, we:

• Handle your day-to-day payments and administrative matters
• Prepare and publish your statutory accounts and annual report, in your preferred format (IFRS, USGAAP …), as well as other reports for regulators and other stakeholders
• Assist in the audit of your annual accounts
• Prepare your income tax return and VAT returns (if applicable)
• Coordinate information flows with service providers
• Organise your annual meeting and any extraordinary meetings
• Draft the meeting minutes

Alternatively, you can choose just what you need from this range of modular solutions.

Today, transparency and substance are more important issues than ever. The BEPS project launched by OECD and G20, aimed at protecting tax bases as well as offering increased certainty and predictability for taxpayers, has raised the bar for corporate entities. United is eager to help you in meeting the new requirements.

As an alternative to domiciliation, United Office Solutions offers you “ready-to-go” workspaces, with the widest possible range of complementary support services available on demand. In short, we offer you all you need to start working and do business immediately.

Our workspaces are equipped with state-of-the-art communication and IT solutions. You decide what else you need in terms of furniture and other equipment (telephone, computers, printers, etc.) – and you decide whether to purchase or lease it. A limited number of your subsidiaries can also opt to have their registered office at their parent company’s registered office.

Once you are up and running, United can offer additional support to you and your employees. Our helpdesk can arrange reception services, courier services e.g. to a notary, the apostille etc. or even driver services. Of course we can also arrange for food and beverage if desired.

Your advantages at a glance

• One bill with all charges included
• A customisable office space equipped with everything you need and operating the latest technology
• Option of office sharing with related group companies
• Dedicated specialist support from our helpdesk

United, via its fully-licensed bank in Curaçao, can support you and your activities with a comprehensive range of financial and payment services, including:​

• Commercial financial services
• Private wealth services
• Securities services
• Treasury services
• Carbon services
• Structured finance services

These services supplement our trust activities and makes us a one-stop shop for trust clients.  But we can also work seamlessly with your other service providers, building a relationship of trust with all parties. 

Relocation

As a company or a wealthy individual, you have a global perspective, but nation states still define the legal environment in which you operate. To protect your assets or to improve the performance of your investment, you may one day want to relocate your legal entity (company, investment vehicle, trust or foundation) to another country. But migrating a legal entity is a complex proposition. United can handle your migration for you. Our seasoned experts fully understand the rules and regulations in the new local environment. We have the necessary operational processes at our fingertips and follow through with fully compliant financial and legal solutions that ensure you a seamless experience.

Winding up your legal entity

Your legal entity may at some point need to be dissolved or formally liquidated. This can be a concise or lengthy process, depending on the complexity and financial status of the entity at the time. In every case, United is committed to winding up the process as quickly and efficiently as possible. This service includes every component of the process, from realising any remaining assets and liabilities to arranging for the notarial deed.

Intellectual property is an asset created by the mind – a work of art, a brand name, or an invention for instance. As the creator of such assets, you deserve to reap the financial benefits. That is why the value of intellectual property is protected by patents, copyrights and trademarks.

United is uniquely qualified to help you realise the value of your intellectual property. Our founder Gregory Elias has extensive experience in the music industry (in non-performing roles!), gained both before and after he established United. He has intellectual property of his own in this connection. His first-hand experience with intellectual property strengthens the capabilities of our talented team.

Solid structuring

With you, we discuss the details of your intellectual property, what agreements are already in place, and whether there have been any infringements of your IP rights that need to be resolved. Based on your story and your needs, we develop a solid and fully compliant legal structure that ensures your intellectual property is safe and related income flows are optimised.

United is an authorised escrow agent. Whatever kind of transaction you are engaging in, we can open an escrow account for you, where cash, securities, title documents etc. are held in escrow until both parties in the deal have met their obligations.

Escrow is a very versatile solution used in a wide range of situations, such as:

• International trade finance
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Project finance
• Capital raising
• Litigation settlement funds
• Real estate and construction
• Pension scheme funding

Using our escrow services means that United takes over your counterparty, banking, country and compliance risk. Also, since escrows are non-credit facilities — with no capital costs, low fees and unlimited capacity — they are a cost-effective alternative to credit-based risk solutions such as standby letters of credit.

With United as your escrow agent, your transaction gets settled faster. Our competent and dedicated staff typically get the account set up in 24 to 48 hours. We draw on our range of standard contract templates that are valid under a variety of governing laws and tailor the chosen contract to your specific escrow structure. Our international network guarantees short lines of communication with local parties. The result: a fast and flexible solution that blends seamlessly with your own processes.

Custody

Besides escrow services, United can also offer a longer-term solution for holding assets such as stocks, bonds, precious metals and cash. As your custodian, we guarantee the safekeeping of your assets and perform various related administrative duties, such settling purchases and sales, collecting dividends and coupons and settling withholding tax. Followed, of course, by faultless reporting.

For a private owner, a yacht or an aircraft spells adventure, relaxation, and refuge. For a company, it can be a useful asset for customer relations or business travel purposes. But whether you have work or play in mind, ownership means responsibility.

Are you considering buying a yacht or an aircraft? Let United deal with the responsibility, while you enjoy the benefits of ownership. We have been active in this very special market since 1998 and our connections ensure short lines of communication and seamless processes.

We sit down with you to discuss your situation and your wishes as well as the financial, legal and fiscal aspects. We ensure that the yacht or aircraft is properly acquired, registered in the agreed jurisdiction, well-structured as an asset, duly insured. We can arrange financing for you through our own bank. And through our preferred partners, we can also plan for the yacht or aircraft’s ongoing operation – providing everything from maintenance to fuel and crew.

United can handle all your ownership issues - or you can choose just what you need from our range of modular solutions.

• True know-how
• Establishment of suitable ownership structures
• Initial registration, either private or commercial
• Ongoing administration

At United, we understand the complexity of cross-border real estate structures and can offer you a one-stop shop solution. Cross-border (bilingual) communication with asset managers, property managers and authorities, cross-border tax issues, substance and reporting are our daily business. With United as your partner, you can be sure that you make the most of the real estate transfer tax blocker and trade tax benefits.

Our team of professionals has extensive real estate experience in markets around the world. We have a sound knowledge of complex transactions such as large portfolio sales and purchases (both share and asset deals).

Relating to real estate, we can offer you financing services through United Bank and fund services, as well as corporate and administrative services for special purpose vehicles (SPVs).

United manages and administers legal entities that are connected with real estate. Not just the company directly owning properties but also special purpose vehicles such as holding and financing companies. We provide full services for these entities through our own offices, or through our global network if required.