Apheta is a Southern California based insurance consulting firm with a strong emphasis in estate planning and risk management. Over the past 18 years, Apheta and its Principals have collaborated with professional advisors to provide innovative planning solutions to ultra high net-worth clients, their families and related entities.
Apheta utilizes a multi-disciplinary team of legal, tax and financial professionals, who analyze, guide and manage each client's unique planning needs. We understand the expectations and personal touch necessary when working with ultra high net-worth families, and have built a team that can provide unparalleled service to this marketplace.
Apheta's approach begins with a detailed understanding of a client's principles, values and long-term objectives. Our professionals then analyze the necessary data to provide relevant direction, management and tailored solutions for clients, which in turn adds tremendous value to our clients.
Apheta has built a reputation by seamlessly collaborating with CPAs, Attorneys and Investment Managers to implement unique, sophisticated solutions. Clients’ desires and best interest remain our core focus, and we continually strive to ensure transparency and coordination between all parties while working to satisfy clients’ needs.
For further information, call us at +1(310)402-2020.
We are committed to providing exceptional service and a world-class experience to both our network of independent advisors and end clients. That commitment begins with sourcing, guiding and empowering a staff that is the primary foundation of our business. As a team, we continually strive to marry education and creativity to create the best solutions for advisors and clients, and continually excel in the marketplace.
Mr. Pattanaik is co-founder and Managing Partner of Apheta. Mr. Pattanaik has been instrumental in growing Apheta from a boutique organization to a well recognized Business Management firm on the West Coast. Mr. Pattanaik builds value in the enterprise as an advisor to high net-worth families, physicians, business owners, professional athletes, entertainers, and their professional advisors, in the area of structured finance and insurance. The company acts as a service provider to numerous CPA firms, law practices, brokerage houses, and pension administration firms. Mr. Pattanaik serves as the primary liaison between the internal team and Apheta’s institutional affiliates. Prior to founding Apheta, Mr. Pattanaik was President of its predecessor firms since 1994.
Prior to his tenure with Apheta and its predecessor firms, Mr. Pattanaik worked within the Private Client Services and Structured Equity Group at Northern Trust Company in Chicago. There, he focused on derivatives and synthetic securities, serving institutional and ultra high net-worth clients at the $500 billion investment management and trust company. In the early 1990’s, as new regulations allowed banks and trust companies to begin offering mutual funds, Mr. Pattanaik worked as part of a team with Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Northern Trust Company’s Senior Management to convert several billion dollars of client investment funds from Northern Trust’s regional offices into their Benchmark group of mutual funds.
Mr. Pattanaik has 19 years of experience covering insurance strategies, product development, securities, and financial engineering. He also serves on the Board of Directors of RN India, a healthcare staffing company specializing in the placement of nurses in hospitals in the U.S., Australia, Canada and the UK.
Mr. Pattanaik is a graduate of the University of Michigan, School of Business Administration (Ann Arbor), where he received his degrees in International Economics and Finance. As a resident of Los Angeles, Mr. Pattanaik is an avid Lakers fan and proud father of two children.
Lalit Pattanaik, JD is a California licensed attorney and Senior Partner at Apheta. Mr. Pattanaik has years of experience in reviewing and structuring complex wealth and estate planning strategies. He is currently responsible for developing Apheta’s Foreign Nationals business, targeting ultra high net-worth families and business owners in India and the Middle East.
Prior to joining Apheta, Mr. Pattanaik co-founded RN India, an international healthcare staffing organization with offices in the U.S. and India; and founded the full service law firm of Pattanaik & Associates. During the course of his career, Mr. Pattanaik has represented Fortune 500 companies, health care employers and employees, and foreign nationals in a wide variety of occupations.
Mr. Pattanaik has practiced law with several prominent regional and national law firms including Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati in Silicon Valley.
Mr. Pattanaik earned his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and participated in the Management Development Program for Entrepreneurs at the UCLA Anderson School. He is a member of the American Bar Association and California Bar Association, and is regularly cited for his expertise in immigration, cross-border business and entrepreneurship. Mr. Pattanaik holds an undergraduate degree in Business Economics from University of California, Santa Barbara.
Mr. Pattanaik, his wife and son split their time between Los Angeles and Mumbai.
Laban Pattanaik is co-founder and Senior Partner of Apheta. Mr. Pattanaik spearheads Apheta’s Corporate Strategy and is responsible for evaluating and creating valuable long-term opportunities and relationships domestically and internationally for the firm. Mr. Pattanaik also builds value in the enterprise as an advisor to high net-worth families, physicians, business owners, professional athletes, entertainers, and their professional advisors, in the area of structured finance and insurance. The company acts as a service provider to numerous CPA firms, law practices, brokerage houses, and pension administration firms. Mr. Pattanaik serves as a liaison between the internal team and Apheta’s distribution channels.
Concurrently, Mr. Pattanaik is the President of RNI Group of Companies, a diversified global healthcare and education services organization based in Los Angeles, California with offices located throughout India.
Prior to his involvement with RNI and Apheta, Mr. Pattanaik worked in Corporate & Investment Banking with Bank of America Securities; and later, in the Corporate Strategy and Planning Group for Sun Microsystems Corporation.
Mr. Pattanaik received his Bachelors Degree in Business Economics and his Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He has held his insurance license for over 13 years; and on several occasions has been invited to the Million Dollar Round Table.
Mr. Pattanaik resides in Santa Monica, CA with his wife and daughter.
Mark Hathaway serves as Senior Business Development Officer, International & Advanced Markets at Apheta. Mr. Hathaway serves as a liaison between the internal team and Apheta’s distribution channels, where he specializes in family governance and inter-generational wealth transfer. Mr. Hathaway brings a diverse background to the Apheta team.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Hathaway was President of The Leading Information Technology Institute, USA; the US subsidiary of a $300M Japanese venture capital fund. From his LITI, USA post, Mr. Hathaway oversaw all of the firm’s development activity outside of Japan, including the launch of the firm’s development offices in Shanghai, China.
Mr. Hathaway leverages his 15 years working in venture capital and middle market turnarounds to understand the needs of business owners in succession planning.
Mr. Hathaway graduated cum laude from Wake Forest University with a degree in Economics. He is passionate about the dire state of public education in California; and is a founder and executive board member of The Foundation for Las Virgenes Schools.
Mr. Hathaway and his wife live in Calabasas, California where they raise their three children. Mr. Hathaway loves virtually all outdoor sports and actively coaches his children in many of them.
Lane Harrison serves as Senior Business Development officer of Apheta. Mr. Harrison has over 30 years of sales, business development and consulting experience. He has developed many long-standing, trusted relationships during his tenure working extensively with the professional advisor community.
Prior to joining Apheta, Mr. Harrison was Founder and President of Affluent and Corporate Insurance Services, Inc. and Capital Preservation Insurance Services, Inc. The firms provided insurance and consulting services to professional advisors, corporations, small business owners and high net-worth families. Mr. Harrison and his firms, relied on, and utilized, Apheta and it’s predecessor firms’ significant talents and expertise, especially in the area of plan design, product review and selection, policy implementation and client and advisor case support and ongoing client case management.
Mr. Harrison has also provided business development and strategic planning consulting to professional advisors, investment bankers and emerging growth companies over the years. He has advised large multi-national corporations such as Bicoastal Corporation (Formerly Singer Corp.), where he served as Director; and Bicoastal Financial Corporation, where he served as President/Director.
Mr. Harrison is a graduate of Salem State College, with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Welfare. He is also listed in “Who’s Who in American Colleges” and “Who’s Who in Executives and Professionals”.
Mr. Harrison is single and resides in Laguna Niguel, California.
Kip Barton is a Senior Business Development Officer within the Insurance Advanced Markets for Apheta. Mr. Barton brings a unique combination of a highly technical perspective, advanced market expertise, as well as a highly service oriented approach to agents, advisors and their clients.
Kip has over 20 years of experience in the life insurance industry of which 11 years of experience as a Director of Advanced Markets within the life insurance brokerage community. Prior to that, he worked for 8 years with a boutique Estate Planning firm in Del Mar, CA. Mr. Barton honed his advanced markets knowledge and experience in a practical manner actively working with some of the top business & estate planners in the country.
Mr. Barton brings an abundance of real world experience, creativity, as well as a wealth of personal relationships with key insurance company executives, and finance industry players. In high stakes cases, this can be a significant advantage. Kip has served on the Life Advisory Board for major institutions such as Allianz and Genworth.
Kip’s focus is on developing new business as well as maintaining long-term relationships while making sure that clients are taking full advantage of the best of breed resources at Apheta.
Kip is a graduate of San Diego State University, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing. He lives in San Diego, CA with his wife and daughter. He is an avid golfer and sports enthusiast.
Erica currently serves as a Manager of Administration for Apheta. Her primary functions includes overseeing our internal administration team, and acting as a liaison between internal and external vendors and third party advisors. Erica strives to assure that our clients and their advisors are seamlessly integrated with Apheta’s team in order to most effectively manage client affairs.
Prior to joining Apheta, Erica spent 12 years in the financial services industry with tenure at AIG|American General, American Funds and Pacific Life. Erica holds a BA in Business Administration, with an emphasis in Marketing, from California State University, Fullerton. In her free time, Erica loves to go wine tasting, walk her dog at the beach and volunteer at local animal shelters and food banks.
Alex Arias joined Apheta as a Marketing Support Officer, Advanced Markets in November 2012. His primary functions include utilizing advanced insurance and financial concepts to help design solutions that conserve clients’ assets for future generations.
Mr. Arias has worked in the life insurance & financial services industries for over 10 years. Aside from his life insurance license he also possesses his Series 6 & 63 securities licenses. He has worked with highly recognized retirement firm MullinTBG where he helped administer tailored executive benefit solutions for some of the largest Fortune 1000 companies and other emerging growth corporations. He also spent time at Highland Capital Brokerage, a life insurance wholesaler/general agency, where he worked as Sr. Marketing Associate.
Alex possesses a strong background in graphic design, having published his own Spanish language periodical, Mundo Latino, for a number of years. He is very proficient with technology and brings this acumen to Apheta at an opportune time while the industry is truly going digital.
In his spare time, Alex enjoys reading, listening to music and staying current in the world of technology.
8581 Santa Monica Blvd.
Suite 430
Los Angeles, CA 90067
Apheta's headquarters is located in Century City; Los Angeles' premier business and legal hub. The office is located on Avenue Of The Stars, and is conveniently accessible:
✔ 25 minutes from LAX
✔ 45 minutes from the Valley (Westlake Village, Calabasas, Thousand Oaks, etc.)
✔ 1-hour from Orange County
At Apheta, our internal team and independent marketing consultants are the foundation of our business, and deeply valued.
If you are up to the challenge of joining our case design, case management, lending, marketing support or administrative teams; please submit your cover letter, resume and salary history to casedesign@apheta.com
If you would like to discuss the opportunity and benefits of being an independent marketing consultant for Apheta, please email us your contact information, and a partner will contact you.
To view/download the Professional Advisors’ Brochure on your computer or tablet device, please click on the following link: PDF of Professional Advisors’ Brochure
To view/download the High Net-Worth Families’ Brochure on your computer or tablet device, please click on the following link: PDF of High Net-Worth Families’ Brochure
Have you properly planned to ensure your business and personal assets are preserved for your family and future generations? How do you want your legacy to be remembered? Did you know that Federal and State governments may assess an estate tax based on the value of your net estate? It’s never too late to begin the estate planning process.
We represent several families on the Forbes 400 Richest Americans List as clients who turn to Apheta for their estate planning needs. We work collaboratively with your existing professional advisors as part of a team to create a unified roadmap for the future and your legacy.
Our team is dedicated to understanding your long and short-term wealth planning objectives so that the most appropriate strategies and tools are structured within your estate plan. Where beneficial, we recommend capitalizing on opportunities in the marketplace based on changes in laws, macroeconomic variables and the like.
Whether your needs include specific trust and entity planning for your family and future generations, or an organized and specific business or personal asset transfer strategy, we can help design and oversee the process from beginning to end. We pride ourselves on having a multi-disciplinary team that can tackle basic wills and trusts, to broad creative planning initiatives involving family governance, multiple family branches and generations. Our clients can leverage our “idea bank” based on years of experience implementing large creative estate plans alongside top-tier, well known law firms.
We integrate your tax, financial, non-profit and insurance planning so that your estate planning or succession planning needs are coordinated efficiently and progresses toward your wealth planning objectives.
Insurance can solve multiple purposes, including but not limited to: providing estate tax liquidity, succession planning liquidity, supplemental future cash flow needs, planned giving opportunities, debt reduction planning, income replacement and property replacement. If designed and implemented correctly, insurance can significantly enhance and supplement your estate and financial plan.
We analyze existing portfolios of coverage regularly to see if they are cost efficient and still meet family goals. We have discovered that over the past 20+ years as people live longer, the costs of coverage have decreased as much as 30-50%. Simultaneously, insurance carriers have refined product structures to meet the exacting needs of certain planning objectives. Thus, by reviewing existing insurance portfolios, we have saved our clients tens of millions of dollars by providing cheaper, more efficient alternatives. Our team has placed over $10B of coverage for some the most successful companies and wealthiest families worldwide.
Our team is a resource to CPA firms, investment management firms, and law firms who use us to develop insurance programs for their clients. In certain disruptive macroeconomic climates (such as sustained low interest environments), we identify pricing aberrations and non-traditional funding patterns in the actuarial models which allow our clients to build "portfolios" of insurance as a non-correlated guaranteed asset class with very strong internal rates of return.
Insurance should not drive your planning objectives, rather insurance is a tool to help solve your wealth planning needs when designed and implemented appropriately. Exploring and understanding your insurance needs is a necessary component of any successful and well-organized plan.
The global explosion in wealth, specifically in South East Asia, brought about by the outsourcing boom, strong equity markets, real estate and entrepreneurship has created a need for advanced life insurance planning that did not exist even a decade ago. Unfortunately, the financial planning infrastructure within these countries has been slow to respond to the growing needs of these high net-worth individuals and families. With our expertise and relationships amongst top U.S. insurance carriers, coupled with our ties in the region, Apheta can now fill the void in the marketplace by offering life insurance to foreign nationals with streamlined underwriting, and often times financing. Using life insurance to protect wealth is a welcome opportunity to wealthy business owners who generally viewed life insurance as very limited tool in their home countries. Our commitment to this space is evident by the opening of our Mumbai office in 2010.
Have you properly planned to ensure your business and personal assets are preserved for your family and future generations? How do you want your legacy to be remembered? Did you know that Federal and State governments may assess an estate tax based on the value of your net estate? It’s never too late to begin the estate planning process.
Our team is dedicated to understanding your long and short-term wealth planning objectives so that the most appropriate strategies and tools are structured within your estate plan.
Whether your needs include specific trust and entity planning for your family and future generations, or an organized and specific business or personal asset transfer strategy, we can help design and oversee the process from beginning to end.
We integrate your tax, financial, non-profit and insurance planning so that your estate planning or succession planning needs are coordinated efficiently and progresses toward your wealth planning objectives.
Have you ever wondered how your own private foundation could help promote your values and legacy while giving back to the community at the same time? Or why a charitable lead trust may be an excellent tool to honor a pledge or donation over a period of time using certain assets, yet enjoying the comfort of knowing that such assets will revert back to your family in the future?
These and many other accomplished planned giving strategies offer powerful incentives to minimize gift and estate taxes, leverage assets for charitable purposes and leave a legacy for your family and community to remember forever. In addition to the tax and estate planning strategies, Apheta is dedicated to helping you understand the power of your influence and success as it relates to making a difference in your lifetime. Not only will planned giving help achieve your goals, but it can also help preserve your value and opportunity in the community. Be remembered for something more than just your wealth. Be remembered for the hope, achievement, progress and leadership you inspired.
Are you looking to invest in a new venture? Are you entering into a new financing, expansion or even sale arrangement for your current business? It’s vital to thoroughly examine all the parties and structures involved in any new transaction you or your business is looking to get involved with. Apheta’s team has the financial, legal, accounting and business background to assure that any business transaction you are reviewing is fully vetted and has the best opportunity to succeed.
Do you need to sell your business? How can you access the most equity when you retire? Are you realizing that a traditional cash or installment sale is not realistic in today’s environment? Apheta has developed a proprietary platform to address these and other major concerns facing many business owners as they begin thinking about retirement. Our program:
·Allows financing business ownership transitions without limiting the new owner’s ability to finance ongoing working capital needs
·Secures assets for retirement and estate planning
·Alleviates the economic inefficiencies in transitioning business ownership
·Alleviates the limited financing and tax options for acquiring a business
Private firm had an outdated and inadequate split dollar plan that was originally implemented to assist owners acquire $120M of life insurance to pay estate taxes on their privately held stock, without incurring gift taxes. Apheta structured and implemented a significantly less expensive financed solution that performed better and eliminated the gift and other taxes they would have otherwise incurred. The owners still retained their desired $120M of coverage. In addition to the millions of dollars in cost savings, over the long run, the new plan performs to keep pace with the growth of the owners’ estates and eliminates the uncertainty of further legislative changes in the split dollar arena.
Uninsurable clients in their late 70’s (G1) with three middle aged children (G2) and an estate in excess of $100M, consisting primarily of real estate and a privately held company, faced a looming estate tax liability that could not be addressed by acquiring life insurance. Apheta implemented a sophisticated estate planning strategy consisting primarily of a Family Limited Partnership (FLP), with the two generations as partners (G1&G2). The FLP was recapitalized into common and preferred interests with common issued to G2 and preferred to G1. Using specific provisions under current law and a substantial planning and appraisal process, the preferred interest in the parents’ estate received a 70%+ discount. The clients would save $30M+ in estate taxes, and transfer tens of millions of dollars of future appreciation in suppressed real estate and other assets to their children’s estate without incurring current gift taxes. The creative structure eventually resulted in a tremendous wealth transfer to two subsequent generations without massive erosion due to estate and gift taxes.
Apheta used a proprietary platform to pre-fund the ownership transition of a successful auto parts distribution company from the founder to three key employees who helped grow the business. Apheta provided turn-key financing for the new owners without encumbering the business assets. The founder benefited from a favorable tax effect and high level of security in his exit, while the new owners received better financing than they could have obtained elsewhere. The transition economics and tax savings for both the buyer and seller were far more compelling than an installment sale, or similar approach.
Foreign national family patriarch had amassed a $400M fortune in real estate and other diversified assets over a 50 year entrepreneurial career. At age 72, with two children working in the family business and two working independently, the patriarch was retiring and had the challenge of equitably dividing his assets amongst his four children. Apheta recommended a creative estate equalization strategy whereby the business assets were transferred to those family members that were involved in running the business, while U.S. life insurance was purchased by the patriarch to create liquidity for those family members who were not involved in the business. Apheta’s solution effectively eliminated the possibility of infighting over the family assets, while perpetuating the family’s wealth rather than see it dissipate in succeeding generations.
Apheta helped organize and structure a domestic captive insurance company for over 300 physicians wanting to manage their medical malpractice insurance needs. The captive solution helped the group to control their premium costs while improving their underwriting profits and claims management processes.
Using a combination of low-cost financing and progressive equity-indexed insurance products, Apheta’s SIRP (Supplemental Income Retirement Program) offers a supplemental, tax-free income stream for younger clients who may have limited windows to generate income or unpredictable future cash flows (eg. athletes, young entrepreneurs, etc.). Apheta’s financial designs use the industry’s most conservative leverage and growth assumptions, assuring that clients can count on the safety-net income stream for their post-retirement planning.
8581 Santa Monica Blvd.
Suite 430
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Ph. (310)402-2020
E-mail: casedesign@apheta.com
