Estate & Succession · Tucson, Arizona

You won't be there to explain what you meant

Your attorney drafted the trust. Your CPA filed the return. Your insurance agent sold the policy. None of them talked to each other — and the gaps between them are where money quietly disappears. We coordinate the professionals you already have.

Your trust is unfunded.

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Estate Planning Business Planning Retirement Planning Charitable Gift Annuities Insurance ESOP Structures Serving Tucson Since 2009 (520) 360-8177 Estate Planning Business Planning Retirement Planning Charitable Gift Annuities Insurance ESOP Structures Serving Tucson Since 2009 (520) 360-8177

What We Do

What is planning coordination?

Global Investment Strategies is a Tucson, Arizona planning firm that coordinates the work of your existing attorney, CPA, and insurance professionals. We do not replace them. We review your estate documents, business succession, insurance, and retirement income together, and identify where they contradict each other. Founded 2009.

Doug McClure, founder of Global Investment Strategies, Tucson, Arizona

Who You Would Be Working With

He has been on your side of the table

Doug McClure spent 25 years as a land developer, a television station owner, and a turnaround specialist for underperforming businesses. He has made payroll, carried debt, and sold companies. He founded Global Investment Strategies in 2009.

Doug is an independent broker. He represents life insurance, annuities, and investment options from a range of carriers rather than a single firm’s product shelf. He is not your attorney and not your CPA — which is exactly why he can sit between them and ask the questions neither one is being paid to ask.

25+

Years working with business owners

2009

Global Investment Strategies founded

$100K – $500M

Range of estates served since founding

Case Example

A distressed real estate family

One of the largest distressed real estate buyers in the country came to GIS with a substantial estate and a tax problem. An employee stock ownership plan was considered and rejected on cost analysis. The structure that worked was multiple Safe Harbor captive insurance companies under IRS code 831(b) — mitigating risk, creating tax savings, and adding benefits for key employees. Orchestrated in six months.

Case Example

A developer with 30,000 apartment units

Working alongside the client’s third-party administrator, GIS funded a high-cash-value life insurance policy using money already in place. It paid dividends, secured funding for the defined benefit program, covered the estate, and addressed long-term care — without new capital.

Two Paths

Which conversation are you having?

The questions are different. So is the work. Start where you actually are.

For Business Owners

You are planning an exit

The structure of your exit sets your tax bill, what your family receives, and whether the business survives the handoff. Most owners plan the sale and discover the consequences afterward.

Buy-sell agreements that are actually funded
Valuation before you need it, not after
ESOP, installment, or outright — and what each costs
Succession that matches your estate documents

Take the exit readiness scorecard

For Families

You are protecting an estate

Your documents were drafted correctly. That is not the same as being coordinated. Trusts go unfunded. Beneficiary forms outrank the will. Policies sit inside the taxable estate.

Trust funding — is anything actually in it
Beneficiary forms that contradict the will
Insurance owned inside vs. outside the estate
Plans built under tax law that has since changed

Run the estate coordination audit

Why GIS

Why families and business owners choose GIS

You work directly with partners, not a call center

Clients are never account numbers. GIS works with a small group of families and business owners, which is what makes each conversation private, unhurried, and focused on the long term.

Built for owners and multi-generational families

GIS is intentionally not built for the mass market. The work is narrow on purpose: business owners planning an exit, and families coordinating wealth across generations.

Independent, not captive

Doug represents life insurance, annuities, and investment options from a range of carriers rather than a single firm’s product shelf. Nobody upstairs sets a quota on what he is supposed to recommend.

Coordination, not another report

Most firms hand you a recommendation and leave the execution to you. GIS gets your attorney, your CPA, and your existing advisors into the same conversation, and stays until the pieces actually line up.

Seven Pillars, One Plan

Pull one thread and the whole thing moves

Estate. Tax. Insurance. Succession. Income. Giving. Liquidity. Change one and you have changed the others — whether anyone accounted for it or not. Select a pillar below to see what it moves.

Seven pillars, one plan

Each of these areas is usually handled by a different professional, in a different year. Select a pillar to see the ones it quietly changed.

Estate planning

Moves 3 other areas

Change the estate plan and insurance ownership, tax exposure, and the business handoff all move with it.
Insurance

Moves 3 other areas

A policy you own personally sits inside your taxable estate. Ownership is an estate question, not an insurance one.
Tax strategy

Moves 4 other areas

Tax is downstream of everything. The trust type, the sale structure, and the gifting plan set the bill.
Business succession

Moves 3 other areas

How the business transfers sets the tax, the buy-sell funding, and what the estate actually receives.
Retirement income

Moves 3 other areas

What you draw and from which account changes your bracket, your estate, and what is left to transfer.
Charitable giving

Moves 2 other areas

Giving is a tax lever and an income lever at once. In isolation it is just generosity.
ESOP structures

Moves 2 other areas

An ESOP is a succession, tax, and liquidity decision at the same time. It fails when treated as only one.

Business stewardship assessment

How Prepared Are You to Exit Your Business?

Answer 10 focused questions to identify strengths, potential planning gaps, and the next areas to review before transitioning from operator to steward.

About 3 minutesTen straightforward questions

Immediate scoreSee where your plan stands today

Private by designNo financial figures are required

Educational use only. This assessment does not provide legal, tax, investment, or individualized financial advice.

In their words

Trusted across Tucson for two decades

4.9 18 Google reviews

What stands out about Doug and Jay is their commitment to education before recommendation. Their process is focused on helping clients understand their options rather than simply selling financial products.

Sal Cabibo

Former Banking Executive · Tucson

One of Doug’s greatest strengths is taking complex planning challenges and explaining them in a way that is practical and actionable. He tells people what they need to hear, with honesty and respect.

Suzette Hrubes

Entrepreneur · Southwest

As the owner of White Stallion Ranch, I’ve worked with many professionals over the years. Doug and the GIS team stand out for their thoughtful, coordinated approach to wealth and legacy planning.

Russell True

Owner, White Stallion Ranch · Tucson

Their approach is thoughtful, educational, and focused on helping people understand how the different parts of their financial life work together. They’ve earned their reputation by genuinely caring about the people they serve.

Jon Ritchie

President, Latitude 36 Nursing

Read all reviews on Google

Move From Complexity to Clarity

Have one conversation before you need to

No pitch and no product. A private review of what you already have, and an honest read on where the pieces don’t line up. You leave knowing more than when you walked in — whether or not you ever work with us.

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Confidential · No obligation · Tucson, Arizona