A practical family-office framework for funding a South Florida pre-construction condominium, from purchaser selection and escrow protections to currency conversion, sanctions review, and confirmed receipt.
For a family office acquiring a South Florida pre-construction condominium, selecting the residence is only part of the mandate. Funding deserves equally careful planning: the purchasing party, escrow structure, currency conversion, banking route, and contractual deadlines must work together.
The governing principle is straightforward: a wire instruction is not evidence of completed funding. The objective is to have the required net amount received in the authenticated escrow account by the contractual deadline, with a record connecting the payment to the buyer and residence.
Whether evaluating The Residences at 1428 Brickell or another Brickell address, apply this checklist to the actual contract. It does not establish any particular project's deposit terms.
Decide before signing whether the contract purchaser will be an individual or a family-office entity. Moving the contract into a special-purpose vehicle later may require developer consent or trigger transfer fees. Do not treat the ownership structure as an administrative detail that can always be revised after the first deposit.
Ask counsel to confirm the intended purchaser, assignment provisions, and required approvals. Then align the contract name, banking documentation, and payment references. If a different party proposes to remit funds, establish what documentation the receiving agent and bank require before sending money.
Keep purchasing-entity and beneficial-owner information ready for any applicable reporting requirements. An SPV is no reason to assume that the underlying buyers will remain undisclosed.
Foreign-buyer status does not change Florida's condominium deposit protections. Those protections still require a contract-specific reading-not an assumption that every installment remains untouched until closing.
Obtain written confirmation of:
The escrow agent and the protections applying to each installment.
Any bond or letter-of-credit arrangement permitting developer access to funds.
Contract provisions allowing deposits to be used for construction.
The documentation confirming receipt and treatment of each payment.
Deposits above 10% of the purchase price may become available for construction when statutory and contractual conditions are satisfied. Counsel should explain the actual arrangement without assuming that the first 10% can never be released.
Before funding, also review refund rights, developer-delay remedies, material-change provisions, and the circumstances in which deposits become liquidated damages. The question is not simply where funds arrive, but what may happen to them afterward.
Create a single funding calendar recording each deposit amount, milestone trigger, payment deadline, and outside completion date. Do not import a familiar Miami installment schedule into a different purchase agreement.
For an acquisition under consideration at Alba West Palm Beach, the West Palm Beach location is no substitute for reviewing the specific contract. Timing must come from the agreement, not assumptions about neighboring developments.
Work backward from required receipt. Ask the sending bank about compliance preparation, currency-conversion settlement, wire cutoffs, and anticipated routing. Ask the receiving agent how receipt will be confirmed and how any shortfall should be addressed.
There is no universal transfer buffer. Bank-specific processing and compliance review must inform the plan. Assign responsibility for monitoring each milestone, authorizing the transfer, and obtaining confirmation. No deadline should depend on an unspoken handoff.
Confirm the receiving agent's required currency before arranging conversion. When considering Villa Miami in Edgewater, verify the deposit currency and permitted transfer method in the instructions applicable to the purchase before acting.
The treasury calculation should distinguish the contractual deposit, the FX spread, and transfer charges. Correspondent-bank deductions can leave escrow short even when the outgoing instruction appears to cover the deposit.
Discuss the charge allocation explicitly:
OUR means sender-paid charges.
SHA means shared charges.
BEN means beneficiary-paid charges.
Request OUR where available, but do not treat it as a guarantee against every intermediary deduction. Confirm how charges will be handled and reconcile the amount actually received. A favorable exchange rate does not resolve an underfunded deposit.
Request wire instructions directly from the escrow agent. Verify routing and account numbers by calling an independently sourced telephone number, rather than relying solely on contact details accompanying the instructions.
For closing, confirm the title company's or closing attorney's escrow account as the destination; do not assume funds should go directly to the seller. For construction-stage deposits, authenticate the designated escrow arrangement separately.
Include the buyer's legal name, contract number, and unit identifier in the wire reference. Request SWIFT details to track an international transfer, and retain the outgoing wire record alongside the verified instructions.
These steps serve distinct purposes: authentication checks the destination, while traceability connects the transfer to the purchase. Neither replaces written evidence that escrow received the required amount.
Sanctions review cannot stop at the account holder's name. Property in which a blocked person has an interest generally must be blocked when it is in the United States or in a U.S. person's possession or control.
OFAC's ownership rules also matter. A wire involving an entity at least 50% owned by a blocked person can constitute blocked property. The same exposure can arise when a U.S. bank acts solely as an intermediary, without a direct relationship with that entity.
Ask counsel and the banks to address relevant ownership and routing questions early. A potential screening match requires investigation; it is not automatically a confirmed blocking obligation. Clearance by the sending institution does not mean a transfer cannot encounter an issue farther along its route.
FinCEN geographic targeting orders have covered certain non-financed residential purchases by legal entities in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. Coverage depends on the applicable order and transaction criteria. Have the closing team determine the requirements effective on the actual closing date, rather than treating an earlier framework as permanent.
For a covered transaction, supply the covered title insurer with the required purchasing-entity and beneficial-owner information. A 25% beneficial-ownership collection threshold, where applicable, serves a different purpose from OFAC's 50% ownership rule. Do not conflate the two.
Finally, obtain written escrow confirmation, reconcile the net receipt against the contractual schedule, and retain the supporting wire records. Repeat the process for each installment and final funding. This checklist supports coordination; it does not replace transaction-specific legal and banking advice.
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Begin a quiet conversationForeign-buyer status does not change those protections. Counsel should still review the escrow structure and contract provisions governing the particular purchase.
Deposits above 10% of the purchase price may become available for construction when statutory and contractual conditions are satisfied. Review any bond or letter-of-credit arrangement as well.
Yes. A later assignment from an individual to a family-office entity or SPV may require developer consent or trigger transfer fees.
Obtain instructions directly from the escrow agent and verify routing and account numbers by calling an independently sourced telephone number.
FX spreads and correspondent-bank deductions can create a shortfall. Reconcile the net U.S. dollars received against the contractual deposit rather than relying on the outgoing amount.
No. OUR designates sender-paid charges, but intermediary-fee handling still needs confirmation and the actual receipt must be reconciled.
There is no universal buffer. Start compliance review and transfer preparation early, using the banks' processing requirements and the contractual receipt deadline to build the calendar.
Yes. Blocking exposure can arise when a U.S. bank acts only as an intermediary, including for a wire involving an entity at least 50% owned by a blocked person.
No. A potential match requires investigation and is not itself a confirmed blocking obligation.
No. For a covered geographic targeting order transaction, the covered title insurer requires purchasing-entity and beneficial-owner information; the closing team should confirm the regime applicable on the closing date.
