1,800+
Estate Plans Drafted & Administered
Across the firm's history since 2008.
§ I
The Penhallow Method
The 7-Layer
Dynasty Audit™
A structured, repeatable diagnostic instrument — not a checklist — applied across more than 1,800 engagements to map the architecture of generational estates and locate the structural inefficiencies that quietly erode them.
§ II — Anatomy of the Instrument
Seven Diagnostic Passes, Sequenced for Resolution
Each engagement is conducted through seven distinct, sequential diagnostic layers. The audit is not a form — it is a deliberate, layered examination of the structures that already exist, the exposures that have accumulated, and the architecture required for the next generation.
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01
Asset Inventory & Title Reconstitution
A granular reconstitution of every titled and untitled interest — operating entities, partnership units, real property, retirement accounts, digital assets, and beneficial interests — mapped against current titling, beneficiary designations, and jurisdictional situs.
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02
Transfer-Tax Exposure Modeling
Forward projection of federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer-tax exposure across two planning horizons, including scheduled exemption sunsets, state-level decoupled taxes, and GST allocation shortfalls.
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03
Entity Architecture Review
A forensic read of the existing entity stack — LLCs, FLPs, GRATs, IDGTs, dynasty trusts, charitable structures — assessed for drafting integrity, valuation defensibility, and alignment with the family's stated objectives.
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04
Trust Sequencing & Distribution Waterfall
Tracing of the actual administration path: trustee succession, distribution standards, decanting feasibility, and the precise order in which assets would reach each generation under current documents.
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05
Beneficiary Alignment & Class Integrity
Reconciliation of named beneficiaries, remaindermen, and discretionary classes against the principal's intent — identifying drift, omission, and unintended inclusions created by unupdated instruments.
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06
Family Governance & Decision Architecture
Examination of the human infrastructure: family constitutions, governance councils, succession protocols, and the documented procedures by which the next generation will inherit not merely wealth but stewardship.
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07
Contingency Resilience & Continuity
Stress-testing the entire structure against incapacity, premature death, jurisdictional challenge, creditor exposure, and the dissolution of any single holding entity — the questions that only surface at the moment of crisis.
§ III — Measured Track Record
The Audit, in Numbers
A framework is only as credible as the engagements it has actually reshaped. The figures below are drawn from Penhallow's administered book of business through Q4 2024.
$250M+
Client Assets Under Active Planning
Aggregate across 38 U.S. jurisdictions.
32–58%
Typical Transfer-Tax Reduction
First restructuring cycle, new engagements.
$412M
Projected Estate-Tax Savings, 2024
Secured for clients in the prior fiscal year.
§ IV — Calibrated, Not Generic
An Instrument Built for Estates of a Certain Scale
The 7-Layer Dynasty Audit™ is not designed for the modest estate that a single will and a revocable trust can comfortably resolve. It is engineered for principals whose holdings — operating businesses, concentrated equities, multi-jurisdictional real estate, legacy charitable structures — have accumulated a complexity that template drafting cannot honestly address.
Our median client carries $14.3 million in administered assets; the principal is fifty-eight; the structure has typically been amended, in places, over three decades. By the time such a family reaches us, the document stack has thickened faster than the underlying plan has been reconsidered. Inconsistencies accumulate between the LLC operating agreement drafted in 2003, the trust restated in 2011, and the beneficiary forms updated only in 2019. The Dynasty Audit exists to surface exactly these tensions — and to convert them, systematically, into a coherent architecture.
We do not accept every inquiry. The audit is calibrated for families whose estates warrant diagnostic-grade review; it is not the appropriate instrument for a $2 million book of investments held in a single revocable trust. If, after a confidential intake, we conclude that the Penhallow method is not the right fit, we will say so plainly and refer you to a firm whose scale matches your requirements.
"The audit is not the deliverable. The audit is the diagnostic that makes a deliverable possible."
§ VI — The Engagement Arc
From First Call to Delivered Findings
The Dynasty Audit proceeds through four deliberate stages, each terminating in a written deliverable before the next is initiated.
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I
Concierge Intake
A discreet, unrecorded conversation with the firm's concierge — typically forty-five minutes — to establish whether the engagement warrants the Penhallow method. No documents are required at this stage.
45 minutes · by telephone or in person -
II
Engagement Letter & Document Assembly
A fixed-fee engagement letter is issued for the audit cycle. The firm's intake team works with your existing advisors to assemble the document stack — typically four to six weeks.
4–6 weeks · fixed fee -
III
Diagnostic Cycle
The seven layers are conducted in sequence by a senior estate strategist, supported by an in-house tax analyst. Findings are documented as they emerge; nothing is held for a single terminal reveal.
8–12 weeks · sequenced -
IV
Findings Presentation
A bound written report is delivered, followed by a private presentation at the firm's Boston or Greenwich office. The findings are yours to keep, irrespective of any subsequent engagement.
Half-day · principal + spouse
The audit typically precedes a multi-year implementation engagement — but it is not contingent on one.
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