Michael Ward has over 16 years of experience managing the delivery of comprehensive tax and accounting services to high net worth private businesses and business owners. He works directly with clients and their advisors to create customized tax, wealth transfer, and financial strategies to accomplish their estate, financial, charitable, and legacy goals. He also provides multigenerational family financial education and is committed to preparing heirs for wealth transitions. His services include income, gift, estate, and GST tax planning and compliance, business succession planning, post-mortem planning, and charitable giving strategies.
Michael started his career at Arthur Andersen in its Family Wealth Planning practice. More recently, he was a Managing Director and Founding Member of a national professional tax services firm in its Private Client Services practice. For nearly three years, Ward lead the planning initiatives in the Beverly Hills Private Bank of a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company, coordinating use of planning resources with the local banking, credit, brokerage, investment management, and fiduciary leadership teams. Michael is currently the Southern California Private Wealth Services Practice Leader for Grant Thornton LLP.