Each client arrives at Ellis Page with a particular set of circumstances. The groups below describe the situations our advisers in Warsaw and Berlin meet most often.
Wealthy families ask us to help them live comfortably today while keeping capital whole for children and grandchildren. Giving to the people and causes they care about belongs in the same plan. Many of the families we serve have relatives in more than one country, so we design arrangements that satisfy Polish and German rules together, from the outset. Philanthropy, school and university fees and the care of older parents all exist inside a single conversation.
A career on the pitch or on stage pays generously for a few years and then ends, often before the age at which most people reach their peak earnings. That pattern makes planning unusual. We help sportspeople and performers convert a short earning window into security that lasts. Money earned at twenty-five has to keep paying at sixty-five, and we plan for that from the first contract. Agents and business managers remain central to a client's commercial life, and we add financial planning and advice to the support they already give.
Most owners hold the bulk of their wealth inside the company, and releasing it depends on getting the order of events right. We advise on the sale of a business, on succession within the family or management team and on passing wealth to the next generation, and we make sure each step supports the ones that follow. Where the company has operations or shareholders in both Poland and Germany, we coordinate the advice across both countries.
Senior executives build up share awards, options and deferred pay, and each comes with rules about when and how they may sell or draw it. We help executives manage those holdings, keep tax exposure under control and prepare for the day salary stops. Timing carries real weight here. We schedule the sale of restricted shares inside the broader plan so that cash arrives when the plan calls for it.
Divorce rearranges a household's finances at exactly the moment clear thinking is hardest to summon. Ellis Page brings experience of that process to help you see what you own, prepare for settlement negotiations and reach decisions you can live with afterwards. If assets or family members sit in two countries, we set out the cross-border consequences before you sign anything.
Founders accept uncertainty as part of the job, and their personal finances need to withstand it. Over many years we have helped entrepreneurs separate the risks they can plan for from the ones they can only prepare for, and put arrangements in place for both. That work covers the years before a liquidity event as closely as the years after it.
Charities and philanthropic foundations weigh today's grants against the duty to keep capital available for beneficiaries decades from now. We work with boards and trustees on financial planning, on the design of spending policies and on the control of risk within the portfolio. We also manage investments for these bodies and advise on the practicalities of running a foundation under Polish or German law, including the reporting each country requires.
People who run investment businesses hold much of their wealth in carried interest, co-investment commitments and the value of their own firm. We advise founders and senior executives of asset managers on holding those interests, diversifying away from them over time and eventually passing them on. Clients in this group know markets well, so the conversation moves quickly to structure, liquidity and tax.
Your circumstances may span several of these groups, or rest outside all of them. Either way, we would like to hear from you. Most of our clients belong to more than one.
Some services are restricted by jurisdiction or client type, and the position can differ between our Warsaw and Berlin offices. Your relationship manager will explain what is available in your circumstances.
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