Wealth Transfer Strategies for High-Net-Worth Families in Arkansas | Louisiana | Texas | Florida | Georgia | Oklahoma
Who Do You Want to Benefit?
Who Do You Want to Benefit From Your Wealth? Your Family, Charitable Causes, or the IRS?
Every estate plan—whether by design or by default—answers one question: Who benefits from the wealth you’ve built?
At SSG Companies, we believe high-net-worth families across Louisiana, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, and Oklahoma should answer that question with intention. Through strategic wealth transfer planning, we help you direct your assets where you want them to go: to loved ones, to causes you care about, and away from unnecessary tax obligations.
The Three Beneficiaries: A Framework for Purposeful Planning
There are only three places your wealth can go:
- Your Family – Children, grandchildren, or other heirs
- Charity – Foundations, donor-advised funds, faith-based or community organizations
- The Government – Estate taxes, income taxes, and settlement costs
Most people would prefer to maximize the first two—and minimize the third. But without a clear plan, the IRS often becomes an unintended primary beneficiary.
We Help You Align Wealth With Values
We use the Three Beneficiaries framework to guide family conversations and identify what truly matters to you. Then we design strategies that reflect those priorities.
You may want to:
- Provide for heirs in a structured, protected way
- Support philanthropic goals through charitable trusts or legacy gifts
- Minimize estate tax exposure by leveraging lifetime exemptions, discounts, and advanced planning techniques
- Balance inheritances fairly among children with different levels of involvement in the family business
- Use life insurance to equalize distributions or replace gifted assets
Every client’s goals are different. Our job is to help you express those goals clearly—and build a plan to match.
Our Approach: You Get to Decide Who Benefits
Family First, With Structure & Protection
Passing wealth to your children and grandchildren can be a gift or a burden, depending on how it's done.
We help you put structure in place, using tools like trusts with staggered distributions, incentive provisions based on life milestones, asset protection features for divorce, lawsuits, or creditors, and family education and governance support.
Our clients in places like Shreveport, Austin, and Destin often ask,
“How much is too much?” We work with you to balance generosity with wisdom—ensuring your wealth empowers, rather than overwhelms, the next generation.
The IRS as a Default Beneficiary
Without proactive planning, a significant portion of your estate could go to federal and state taxes. While Louisiana has no state estate tax, many of our clients own property, businesses, or investments in other states where tax exposure varies.
We work to reduce or eliminate this unnecessary beneficiary through lifetime gifting, valuation discounting, irrevocable trusts, life insurance strategies, and charitable giving integration.
Our goal is simple: make sure
your wealth reflects your will—not just what the tax code dictates.
Use the Rockefeller Approach to Serve All Three—Intentionally
Many of our clients use a layered strategy we call the
Rockefeller Waterfall Method—a combination of irrevocable trusts, life insurance, and asset management that allows them to provide long-term support to their family, direct meaningful gifts to charitable causes, and replenish and grow wealth across generations.
This approach recognizes that all three beneficiaries may have a place in your plan—but you get to decide how, how much, and when.
Start with the Right Conversation
Whether your priorities lie in passing on a business, supporting a cause, or educating future generations, we’re here to help you define what legacy really means to you.
Want to Dig Deeper Into Planning With Purpose?
Request a copy of It’s Your Money by John G. Griffin or explore information on the Rockefeller Waterfall strategy to see how thoughtful planning can shape a legacy that lasts.
Let’s Talk About Who—and What—Matters Most
Schedule a consultation with SSG Companies to start shaping a plan that honors your values, protects your wealth, and benefits the people and causes you care about most.