Legal Entities are, in effect, legally binding documents of ownership, beneficiary, or control rights, that under the law  entitle specific privileges when obtaining (buying), disposing (selling) or inheriting assets or liabilities. Generally, it’s something that can operate in the business sphere, can enter into contracts either as a vendor or a supplier, and is something that can sue or be sued in a court of law. When asking what the meaning of a legal entity is, the simple answer is “something that can be held responsible for the legal obligations of a company.” Differences in ownership, beneficiary, or control rights are used by Wealth Advisors to minimize the tax (income, estate or both) burden of a given advisory relationship in order to maximize the after-tax return for the beneficiaries. 

 

Salentica Engage comes pre-delivered with 30 entity types and we recommend that you use this entity to track your high-level documentation and important attributes related to each legal entity structure.  We don't recommend that you use these entities to transcribe trust or partnership articles, rather to use the entity to track key features to quickly reference and share with colleagues.

 

Default Legal Entities

Legal Entity Hierarchy

Portfolios -1:N > Legal Entity - 1:N > Financial Account (in certain cases 1:N Financial Assets and 1:N Financial Liabilities)

 

Navigation by Entity Type

Common attributes:

Depending on the Entity Type, there are subtle navigation differences, based on common ideas within the Wealth Management industry.

Charitable

• Related List: Agent
• Entity Types: Foundation, DAF  

Corporate

• Related List: Agent & Ownership
• Entity Types: Corporation, LLC and Non-Profit

Custodial

• Related List: Agent & Beneficiary
• Entity Types: UGMA\UTMA

Estate

• Related List: Agent & Beneficiary

• Entity Types: Charitable Lead Trust, Charitable Remainder Trust, Grantor Retained Annuity Trust, Grantor Retained Unitrust, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust, Irrevocable Trust, Revocable Trust, Special Needs Trust or Supplemental Trust, Spousal Trust & Generation-Skipping Trust

Individual/Joint

• Related List: Agent
• Entity Types: Community Property, Community Property (WROS), Individual, Joint Tenant & Joint Tenant (WROS)

Partnership

• Related List: Agent & Ownership
• Entity Types: General Partnership, Limited Liability Partnership & Limited Partnership

Retirement

• Related List: Agent & Beneficiary
• Entity Types: 401k, IRA, Roth 401k, Roth IRA, Profit Sharing Plan & Employee Stock Ownership Plan

 

Related Objects

Agents

• Lookup to Contacts - Used to assign Grantor/Settlor, Trustee, Successor Trustee, Authorized Agent & Managing Member 
• Start and End Dates for agent
• Also denotes required signatory 

 

Beneficiaries

• Lookup to Contacts OR Legal Entity - Used to assign primary or contingent beneficiary and % claim
• Start and End Dates for beneficiary

 

Ownership

• Lookup to Contacts OR Legal Entity - Used to assign % ownership
• Start and End Dates for ownership