5 Ways C-Suite Executives Can Bulletproof Their Legacy Planning

5 Estate Planning Moves Every C-Suite Leader Should Make

For many C-suite executives, wealth is only part of the legacy. What truly matters is how that wealth serves family, community, and long-term values. Yet too often, legacy planning is approached as a one-time legal exercise. Effective legacy planning is an ongoing, strategic process—one that evolves with your wealth, your family, and the law.

Avion Wealth managers work with senior executives to ensure every aspect of their plan aligns with long-term purpose, values, and family goals. Here are five advanced strategies that form the backbone of how Avion helps clients protect, preserve, and pass on their wealth with intention.

1. Build a Living Legacy, Not Just an Estate Plan
Traditional estate planning focuses on what happens after death. Legacy planning focuses on what happens during your lifetime and beyond.

Integrate family values and philanthropic goals into your planning.

Consider funding donor-advised funds (DAFs) or private foundations during your lifetime.

Create mechanisms for educating heirs on stewardship and responsibility.

Our wealth managers help design philanthropic strategies and legacy education tools that align with both tax strategy and family mission.

2. Use Trust Structures to Manage Risk and Protect Privacy
Trusts aren’t just tax tools, they’re vehicles for governance, control, and protection.

Use irrevocable trusts to shield assets from future creditors or liability.

Consider Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs), Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts (SLATs), or Dynasty Trusts for intergenerational planning.

Use directed trusts to retain investment control while delegating administrative duties.

Avion wealth managers coordinate directly with estate attorneys to ensure trust strategies reflect both legal rigor and personal intent.

3. Review Executive Compensation in the Context of Estate Exposure
RSUs, stock options, deferred compensation, and SERPs all carry estate and income tax implications.

Model how these assets will be treated upon death or transfer.

Coordinate with your advisor to mitigate potential tax spikes from vesting or lump-sum payouts.

Consider life insurance or liquidity planning to cover estate tax obligations.

Our team specializes in modeling complex compensation structures and integrating them into your broader wealth transfer strategy. We ensure executive comp doesn’t create unanticipated tax burdens or liquidity issues.

4. Centralize Advice to Eliminate Strategic Blind Spots
Many executives work with multiple professionals: an investment advisor, CPA, estate attorney, insurance broker. But if they aren’t collaborating, gaps are inevitable.

Consider consolidating under a lead advisor or family office model.

Use shared planning software and reporting tools to ensure alignment.

Conduct annual strategy reviews with all key professionals present.

Avion acts as your lead advisor, coordinating with other professionals to create a single, integrated plan. Our wealth managers serve as the strategic hub—so nothing is left to chance or miscommunication.

5. Plan for Governance, Not Just Distribution
Wealth transfer without clear governance often leads to conflict, waste, or litigation.

Establish clear rules for distributions, decision-making, and dispute resolution.

Use letters of wishes, family charters, or governance structures within trusts.

Hold family meetings or legacy retreats to communicate intent and expectations.

Our wealth managers help clients implement customized governance frameworks, fostering continuity, reducing risk, and preserving family harmony for generations.

Legacy planning isn’t about controlling from the grave—it’s about leading with clarity, purpose, and structure. For C-suite executives, the complexity of compensation, tax exposure, and multigenerational goals demands more than a one-size-fits-all approach.

Avion Wealth managers bring together estate design, tax strategy, family dynamics, and philanthropic purpose into one cohesive process. If your legacy matters, your planning should reflect that.

Avion Wealth

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