Page 11 of The Estate
“If you’re not up for this assignment, Rachel, tell me right now,” Seth said.
Her eyes snapped open. No way. She going to take this opportunity and use it to show Seth and everyone else what she was made of. “No sir,” she responded, relieved that her voice sounded even and calm when her insides were anything but that.You can do this.“I can handle this. I won’t disappoint you. And,” she paused, tightening her stomach as she sat a little straighter in the chair. “I appreciate you being candid with me. I’m excited to show you what I’m capable of.”
Seth offered her a smile and then checked his watch again. Standing, he said, “We’re going to have to walk and talk.”
Rachel grabbed a notebook and pen and followed him from the office. When they turned into the hallway, Seth handed over the file he’d been carrying around. “Now, these are new clients to us. The important thing to know is that they have called us in to consult on a personal asset. We want to wow them, so they consider bringing us on board for their business. They run a stock brokerage firm and that would be a significant get for us to be working with both their personal and business interests. Dare to dream that if we have a good relationship, they might even recommend us to their clients or throughout their professional network.”
“Wow,” Rachel said a little breathlessly. She needed to up her cardio. Granted, Seth was tall at well over six feet, but his legs seemed extra-long. For each step of his, she had to make a stride and a half to just keep up.
“Yeah,” Seth replied. “That’s why this matters so much. This project is a trial run that will hopefully lead to more and bigger business. As they are stockbrokers, they requested an early meeting time. They wanted to have this done so they can be back in their office before the stock market opens. Did I mention they’re married?”
“Oh no, you didn’t say that.” Rachel tried to flip through the file as they continued walking, she assumed, toward the conference room. It was too hard to walk, listen and attempt to read, so she gave up and closed the file.
“Yeah, they’re married, and this is some generational farm or something similar,” Seth commented as he slowed down. He was obviously trying to cram as much information as possible before they reached the meeting. “Because they work in the financial world, I will assume we don’t need to explain a lot about the numbers and such, but we’ll take our cues from them.”
He looked up the hall and swore under his breath. “I should have anticipated they’d be early. Sorry to throw you in the deep end, Rachel.” Rachel followed his gaze and saw a couple walking behind the company receptionist on a direct path to the conference room.
Both were professionally dressed, he in a suit and she in a blazer and skirt. The husband was tall and lean and distinguished with graying hair around his temples. She’d place him in his fifties or sixties, perhaps. He would be the picture of elegant sophistication if not for the furrow of his brow and his scowl as they approached. His wife didn’t seem any happier to be there. She wasn’t openly frowning, but her mouth was set in a firm line.
Pushing down another jolt of nerves, she tightened her stomach again and made sure to breathe. No matter what, shewas determined to make this project a tremendous success. She had to. Glancing over at her boss, she dipped her head. “We’ve got this, Seth,” she said with a smile.
Seth returned it before turning to their new clients. “Jay and Celeste Fitzgerald, I assume?”
It took a few minutes, but before Rachel could process everything, they were all seated and the Fitzgeralds were going over the project. Rather than trying to steal peeks at their file like she wanted to, Rachel kept her focus on the couple trying to read their body language while listening to their expectations.
“So the property has been in my family for years,” Celeste was saying. “When my father passed away, frankly, we didn’t know what to do with it. So it sat empty for several years. Currently our son, Alaric, is in charge of the property.” She glanced at her phone. “I apologize. Alaric should be here by now.” She caught her husband’s eye; the two of them shared a knowing look.
Rachel sensed that was something to be aware of with potential to impact the project. Family drama meant complications and, more often than not, confrontations. She quickly wrote a note to assess any implications.
“We find ourselves,” Celeste continued, with no more mention of their son. “Faced with decisions concerning the property’s future. We are dedicated to serving the estate’s best interests, which is why we’ve asked your firm to consult. This is my father’s and grandfather’s legacy.
“There is a trust fund for the care and upkeep of the property. The last payment from the trust is coming up, which is pushing us to address the long-term viability of the asset.
“As we see it, we have three options. We can take the last trust payment and put it into the estate to upgrade the kitchen and continue down the path of using it for functions.
“Although,” Jay spoke up. “Thus far, the profitability margin of that approach has not been what we were hoping. So we need to determine if there is a substantial upside to following this path.”
“Understood,” Rachel said, taking notes. “We can certainly assess the potential profitability of that business model.”
“Our second option,” Celeste continued. “Is to keep the property but work with a developer and convert the estate into a golf course and perhaps a few luxury homes. We’d utilize the trust payment to convert the property, retaining the majority stake in the estate.”
“We don’t wish to prejudice your findings, but I, for one, am all about a golf course,” Jay chuckled, surprising Rachel. It was the first time he seemed to relax since the meeting started. Seth laughed as well before agreeing wholeheartedly.
Celeste smiled at her husband, shaking her head. Shifting her focus back on Rachel and Seth, she said, “Well, he’s not wrong. I may not live to play golf, but I play enough to see how transforming the location into a golf course would be profitable. We spend a good deal of time on golf courses, networking, meeting, and entertaining clients. We understand this option a lot more than any others.”
“I understand why you would,” Rachel said. “But rest assured,” she looked at Jay. “We won’t let anything influence our assessment of what to recommend as the right choice for the property. Ultimately, it will still be your call, but you can count on our firm to give you an honest opinion, backed by data, as to the best option.”
She was pleased to see both Jay and Celeste nodding along with her. They didn’t say it, but she felt like her declaration had impressed them.
“Finally,” Celeste continued. “We can sell the land to a developer but keep a small section and allocate the trust payment towards building a house. In this way, we don’t have the headache of converting or retaining the entire property, but we have a piece of it that remains in the family. We can pass the house down to our sons.”
When Celeste paused, Rachel checked her notes. “Forgive me, when you spoke about using the property to host events, am I correct that this is something you’re currently doing?”
“Oh yes. Sorry,” Jay added. “That’s what our son is doing with the property now. He’s been operating it as an event venue for the last two years. While his business is profitable, we had anticipated it to be more profitable by this point. That’s why we’re doubtful as to the long-term financial viability of that business. But Alaric was adamant about doing it, so we gave him a time frame and spelled out the financial expectations.”
“Well—” Seth jumped in. “In order to provide in-depth analysis, Connor & Associates will need to start with a thorough review of revenue, expenses, assets, and liabilities. Rachel will then develop financial and cash flow forecasts that identify important trends for each option. But it also means we can recommend some potential that could jack up the profitability of the event business.”
“Many times with start-up ventures,” Rachel added. “There’s room for streamlining or outsourcing that is easy enough to do but significantly affects the bottom line. Even new technology, such as software, can have a tremendous impact.”
