About Riches & Guards
About
Riches & Guards specializes in Succession Liquidity for entrepreneurial families, business owners and internationally connected families.
The founder
Ghassan Obeid
Founder, Riches & Guards
Through years of working with successful families, Ghassan Obeid repeatedly observed that the challenge during succession was not always the amount of wealth a family owned. In many cases, the missing element was liquidity. Legal structures can determine how ownership transfers. Tax advisers can identify potential obligations. Banks, trustees and family offices can each manage different parts of the structure. But one question can still remain: How will the financial transition be funded? This observation led Ghassan to create Riches & Guards around a dedicated focus on Succession Liquidity. Today, his role combines leading the firm with continuing to educate founders, families and advisers about the financial dimension of succession and the importance of preparing liquidity before it becomes urgent.
The observation
Riches & Guards was founded around one specialist question: How do families fund the transition of wealth from one generation to the next? Substantial wealth does not always mean that sufficient liquidity will be available when succession occurs. A family may own businesses, property, investments and sophisticated ownership structures, and may already work with experienced lawyers, tax advisers, trustees, family offices and private banks. But when succession begins, one financial question can still remain: Will the required liquidity be available at the right time? That liquidity may be needed for Inheritance Tax, banking obligations, business continuity, a buyout, family equalization or another financial requirement connected to the succession process. This is the specialist area around which Riches & Guards was built.
Our Specialist Focus
Riches & Guards does not replace the founder’s lawyers, tax advisers, banking relationships, trustees or family office.
We help identify potential cash shortfalls during succession and coordinate a funding strategy with the founder’s existing advisers. Our focus is specific: the financial liquidity required to support the transition of wealth from one generation to the next.
Each has a different role in the succession process. Our role begins when that process creates a liquidity requirement that needs to be identified, quantified and funded.
Depending on the founder’s objective, our work may focus on one specific issue or extend across a broader part of the relevant financial structure.
The objective is to understand the liquidity need and build a funding strategy around it while remaining aligned with the arrangements and advisers already in place.
Point of view
Succession is not only a transfer of ownership.
It is also a financial transition.
And a financial transition requires liquidity.