"Every collector of art should read this book which, intelligently and engagingly, advises on the many tax, financial, and personal factors affecting a collection."
- William D. Zabel, Schulte Roth and Zabell LLP
"Every serious collector-and his or her advisor-should hear what Michael Mendelsohn has to say. He knows how collectors think and act because he is one of them."
- Scott Small, JD, First Vice President, Mellon Private Wealth Management
"Mike's museum-without-walls idea is wonderful because the art is in your home and you're the one that's packing it up and crating it and shipping it around to different places and getting the charitable deduction-so its value is kept out of your estate. The estate tax problem is solved. There is no gift tax problem. And you get the income tax benefit."
- Roy Adams, Esq., New York
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Services for Advisors
When working with professional advisors:
Briddge works with virtually any form of collectible personal property, enabling the attorney, accountant, or other advisory professional to evaluate and appraise a collection and then distribute it, dispose of it, or leverage it so that the advisor is optimizing the value of these assets just as he or she does with the client's stocks, real estate, and business interests.
Some clients are reluctant to share everything advisors need to know about their valuable collections. If you are an advisor, we can show you how to begin a conversation with your clients in order to identify the unique collection issues that can have a monumental effect on its financial value and the clients' ability to transfer wealth.
At Briddge, we work in full partnership with you and your advisory team to analyze the individual artwork and formulate a planning strategy that will preserve the value of your client's collection using the legal and financial tools advisors work with everyday.
Many advisors are not accustomed to thinking about art as a financial asset that can be used to create income, fund a trust, or otherwise be leveraged in ways that are commonly adopted for other classes of assets. We use art assets in unaccustomed ways and structure plans that use these tools in layered or phased strategies that make your client's objectives a reality.
In effect, Briddge can become the "back office" for the planning of your client's art holdings. We can help you create current and future tax savings while ensuring that the best pieces in your client's collection stay in the family for future generations to enjoy.
We have devised a sophisticated menu of strategies advisors can use to:
- Prevent your clients from losing 70% of their collection's value at a poorly structured auction sale
- Reduce income, capital gains, gift, and estate taxes
- Create cash flow from art collections for planning purposes
- Optimize the value of your client's assets being passed to loved ones
- Keep your clients in control of their collections now and into the future
- Allow your clients to create philanthropically-based legacies
Please call us at any time to brainstorm a hypothetical fact pattern to help your clients mitigate income, capital gains, and estate taxes by using vehicles such as:
- Charitable trusts
- Irrevocable trusts
- Private and supporting foundations
- Interfamily transfers
- Borrowing using art as collateral
- "Like kind" exchanges
- Bargain sales
Services for Collectors
Services for Charities
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"I was impressed with Michael's knowledge about art collecting, both as a collector and as an advisor. He presented new and creative ideas on a very complex subject. Yet he communicated these ideas in a way that both legal advisors and collectors easily understand."
- Alan J. Mittelman, of the law firm Spector Gadon & Rosen, P.C.
"I have worked as a financial advisor for over twenty years and own and operate several art galleries. My involvement with charities in both these capacities has been considerable. With Life Is Short, Art Is Long Mr. Mendelsohn has filled a very important information void. This book can be of tremendous benefit to collectors, their heirs, charities, financial advisors, and CPA's."
- Bill Wesnousky, Senior Vice President, Morgan Stanley
"This kind of resource is very valuable to lawyers, whose knowledge of the art world is limited."
- Robert H. Louis, Saul Ewing LLP
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