About

A boutique, on purpose.

La Presa is Spanish for "the dam." A dam holds back what should be held back and lets through what should flow. That is a fair description of good tax structuring.

The firm

Why small.

Specialist experience and direct senior attention. When you call, you reach the person who will do the work, and that person has sat in your chair: inside a $300 billion asset manager, inside a hedge fund, and inside the national tax offices of two of the Big Four. We work well alongside the large firms and their partners; many of our matters arrive through them.

How the firm is staffed, plainly. The analysis is done in-house, by a small team: Ani Khodanian, Naftali Ginsburg, and me. When a matter needs a state and local specialist, an estate lawyer, a valuation firm, or a second modeler, we bring in people we have worked with for years and tell you who they are and on what terms before they start. You get people you actually know, not a bench you never meet, and we do not take on more matters than we can carry with that promise intact.

Our clients are investment managers (private equity, credit, real estate, and quantitative funds), family offices, and private clients with complex holdings, along with the lawyers who represent them. We work alongside counsel at firms such as Akin Gump and Milbank, and we are often the second opinion. We are comfortable being the first.

What sets the practice apart is the arithmetic. Most tax advice stops at the rule; where the answer turns on economics, ours continues to the number, in a model your CFO can test.

Founder

Carlos A. Schmidt

Managing Member · MBT, MBA, CPA

Carlos founded La Presa Partners in 2022 after two decades structuring funds and transactions across every major asset class. From 2013 to 2022 he was Partner and Global Head of Tax at Ares Management, recruited to build the tax function from the ground up. He built it from three people to more than forty as the firm grew from $50 billion to over $300 billion of assets, structured the 2014 IPO and its Up-C and tax receivable agreement, and later led Ares's conversion from a publicly traded partnership to a C corporation, the first in the alternatives industry to do so.

Before Ares he was a Partner at Ernst & Young, where he helped lead about sixty tax professionals and served as the national partnership resource for the investment management group with a heavy credit focus, and a Partner in Deloitte's National Tax Office, where he built the firm's syndicated bank loan guidelines for offshore funds and CLOs and its framework for anticipatory allocations in European waterfalls. Earlier he was Tax Director at Highbridge Capital Management, structuring the funds that became the HPS direct lending and mezzanine platform, and, before tax, an equity research associate at Goldman Sachs, where he learned to build the models he still insists on.

He has taught at Wharton's Business Tax & Strategy class, Georgetown University Law Center, and the Practising Law Institute, and co-wrote the PLI treatise chapter on anticipatory allocations that changed how many alternative asset managers allocate partnership taxable income.

Education: Master of Business Taxation, University of Southern California (Graduate Commencement Speaker)
MBA, Finance, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (Goldman Sachs MBA Fellowship)
BS, Accounting, University of Southern California
Credentials: Certified Public Accountant; Master of Business Taxation; MBA
And a proud USC Trojan.
Publications: Co-author, chapter on anticipatory allocations in partnership waterfalls, PLI Partnership Tax Treatise, Practising Law Institute (2018 Supplement, Vol. 16, ch. T-14)
Speaking: Wharton Business Tax & Strategy · Georgetown University Law Center · Practising Law Institute (Pocket MBA)
Prior firms: Ares Management · Ernst & Young · Deloitte Tax · Highbridge Capital Management · Goldman Sachs
Contact: carlos@lapresallc.com · (917) 558-6393 · Los Angeles, California

Team

Ani Khodanian

Partner · J.D., MBA

Ani is a partner at La Presa, advising private equity, credit, real estate, and infrastructure fund sponsors, other alternative asset managers, and high-net-worth individuals on the tax aspects of complex structures and transactions. Before joining the firm she worked in-house at BlackRock and, before that, as tax counsel at Ares Management, where she focused on private equity fundraising, investment matters, and management company work — experience that gives her a direct view of how tax considerations intersect with investment, legal, and business objectives inside a global asset manager.

Her practice spans fund formation and structuring, investor matters, M&A and transaction tax, GP-led continuation vehicles, and cross-border planning, with particular depth in partnership and U.S. international tax. Clients value her ability to turn technical analysis into clear, workable solutions that keep a transaction moving.

Education: J.D., University of San Diego, 2014
M.B.A., University of San Diego, 2014
B.S., Business Administration (Finance and Business Law), California State University, Northridge, 2010
Credentials: Admitted to the State Bar of California
Contact: ani@lapresallc.com · (818) 434-8135

Naftali Ginsburg

Senior Tax Manager · CPA

Naftali is a senior tax manager at La Presa, advising clients across private equity, credit, and real estate on tax compliance, investment structuring, and transactions. His background spans public accounting and in-house work at a global investment manager with roughly $300 billion in assets under management, giving him a practical view of both the technical requirements and the business considerations facing investment managers.

Before joining the firm, Naftali was a member of the tax team at TPG Angelo Gordon, with a significant focus on its real estate business. He began his career at PwC and EY within their asset management practices. His experience includes partnership taxation, REIT compliance, investment structuring, and transaction-related tax matters.

Education: B.S., Accounting, Yeshiva University
Credentials: Certified Public Accountant
Contact: naftali@lapresallc.com

Selected experience

Representative matters.

Two vintages: matters handled at La Presa since 2022, and matters led as Global Head of Tax at Ares from 2013 to 2022.

La Presa · 2022–

Manager transactions & capital solutions

Tax adviser to Trimontium on its $325 million capital solution for Authentic Restaurant Brands (September 2026). Advised an alternative asset manager on a strategic minority investment by a global insurer and a $1.3 billion commitment to its funds.

La Presa · 2022–

Fund structuring

Leveraged blocker structure for a real estate fund of more than $1 billion; tax-efficient structures for two middle-market lending platforms with a combined $3.5 billion under management.

La Presa · 2022–

Renewable energy

Advised a renewable energy investor on the tax structuring of a $900 million solar project in Texas.

La Presa · 2022–

Family office & private client

A complex estate tax return under IRS audit; a family limited partnership and estate plan; a 70% sale of a well-known entertainer's business to a private equity fund; film-royalty investment structures for two institutional investors and a family office.

Ares · 2013–2022

Public markets

The 2014 IPO, Up-C and TRA; the conversion to a C corporation; ARCC's $4 billion acquisition of American Capital, including a novel revenue ruling; a private letter ruling that produced a $275 million current deduction.

Ares · 2013–2022

Acquisitions & funds

Acquisitions of Black Creek ($11 billion AUM), Landmark ($18.7 billion), SSG ($6.2 billion), and AMP Capital's infrastructure debt business ($8 billion); treaty-based U.S. lending funds from $900 million to $7 billion; the Pathfinder ABS fund and its evergreen companion (over $5 billion); more than $3 billion of Special Opportunities Fund investments including Ferrellgas, Aston Martin, and Savers Value Village.

Confidentiality

We use public information and authorized descriptions of our work.

Client names appear with permission; illustrative examples are identified as such