Exit Strategy from Private Foundations

Mark Powell (Partner, Albrecht & Barney) recently authored an article entitled Terminating or Reorganizing a Private Foundation: Getting a Client Out Isn’t as Hard as You May Think, Prob. & Prop., Nov./Dec. 2008, at 58.

Here is an excerpt from the introduction to the article:

Sometimes the  best advice you can give a client is to get out – out of a bad marriage, out of a bad business deal, out of any bad situation that is not going to get better.  When it comes to private foundations, a client may want out for many reasons. * * *

* * * With this article in hand, an adviser should be ready to start the conversation with a client who wants out of a private foundation – although the clever adviser will tell the client straightaway that getting out of a private foundation will require the services of an accountant (to handle the tax returns), an attorney (or maybe two – to handle the corporate filings and possibly the creation of a new tax-exempt organization if reorganization turns out to be a better answer), and a financial adviser (to coordinate the transfer of assets from the foundation to the recipient beneficiaries).