Life driven solutions that make all the difference
We understand the unique needs of LGBT individuals or same-sex couples and have the knowledge and experience to help you focus on achieving your life’s goals. Our financial experts have years of dealing with the special considerations of LGBT individuals and nontraditional families, from co-owned or commingled assets in civil unions, domestic partnerships or marriages to relationship dissolutions, death of a partner, and complex family dynamics. While success can bring added financial complexity – especially when certain tax advantages and legal rights afforded to others are simply unavailable to you – Northern Trust can help you clearly navigate a path to achieving your financial goals.
The Situation
Our client wanted to ensure that his partner of more than 20 years was well provided for should he predecease him. He owns a successful landscaping business — where his partner’s adult daughter works — and a significant investment portfolio. Knowing that his partner is not financially sophisticated, and that his business lacked a plan for the future, this client turned to Northern Trust for help.Customized, integrated solutions
Meeting with Northern Trust financial professionals helped our client clarify both his immediate and long-term goals. Financial security for his partner was the priority, but he also wanted to make his partner’s daughter his successor in the business, support his favorite charities during his lifetime and minimize his wealth transfer taxes. Our team of experts devised an integrated wealth management strategy driven by the clients’ objectives. We assisted by:
- Working with his estate planning attorney to fund a Charitable Lead Annuity Trust (CLAT) with assets from his individually held investment portfolio. Northern Trust was selected to invest those assets. The client can take an immediate income tax deduction, and the CLAT will pay named charities each year over the client’s remaining lifetime. At his death, all remaining assets distribute to a trust for the benefit of his partner, with Northern Trust named as trustee.
- Creating a succession plan with his estate planning attorney that funds a five-year Grantor Retained Income Trust (GRIT) with 49 percent of his business units. During the GRIT’s five-year term, he is entitled to receive the income, if any, from the trust; at the end of the five-year term, his partner’s daughter will receive the units, including the value of any appreciation over those five years.
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John McGowan |
John McGowan
John McGowan, Senior Vice President, is the National Practice Leader for the LGBT & Non-Traditional Family Practice. John ensures appropriate financial planning expertise and solutions are brought to Northern Trust's relationships with LGBT individuals, same-sex couples and LGBT-based not-for-profit organizations. He is also responsible for seeing that Northern Trust's services remain effective as the legal and tax landscape for the LGBT community evolves at state and national levels.
Prior to his current role, John was a member of the Wealth Management Group, where he saw the delivery of investment advisory, investment management, custody, private banking, fiduciary and tax services to U.S. and international families of substantial wealth. John has been with Northern Trust for 12 years.
John holds his B.S. in Mathematics from Loyola University of Chicago, and his M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Chicago. He is a Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®).
John is on the board of the Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago. He is also affiliated with The Nature Conservancy, Lambda Legal, Center on Halsted, Howard Brown Health Center, and Financial Planning Association.
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Mark Braun |
Mark Braun
Prior to his current role, Mark was a Private Banker in the Wealth Advisory group where he focused on bringing sophisticated lending and depository solutions to successful families and individuals. Mark has been with Northern Trust for 27 years.
Mark holds his B.S. in Business Management from Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Mark has affiliations with Lambda Legal, AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Point Foundation, Howard Brown Health Center, Equality Illinois, Juvenile Diabetes Association, and Realtor Association of Chicago. Mark is also on the board of directors of Sit Stay Read, a local literacy organization that assists inner city children with learning using dogs in a classroom setting.
