About Kenneth
Kenneth Bernice specializes in tax structuring and advisory, real estate investment trust (“REIT”) tax advisory, inbound and outbound real estate investments, mergers and acquisitions, tax due diligence and compliance matters for public and private REITs, real estate funds and real estate and financial service companies.
With more than 20 years of experience specializing in real estate tax, Mr. Bernice has broad expertise in many segments of real estate, including hospitality, healthcare, industrial, office and multifamily REITs and private equity funds. He also has extensive experience advising mortgage REITs on structured debt investments, debt workouts, securitizations and excess inclusion income.
Additionally, Mr. Bernice’s experience includes structuring inbound and outbound transactions, M&A transactions, tax department integration, transfer pricing, asset management and financial companies, RIDEA tax structures, acquisition and disposition due diligence, REIT qualification due diligence, opportunity zones, public company SOX requirements, tax accounting matters and ASC 740 income tax provisions.
Prior to re-joining FTI Consulting, Mr. Bernice led the tax team as the senior vice president of Tax for NorthStar Realty Finance (“NRF”), which merged with Colony Capital Inc. (“Colony”) in 2017. While at NRF, he assisted in the structuring of NRF’s spin-off of NorthStar Asset Management Group (“NSAM”) in 2014, he structured the 2015 taxable spin-off of NorthStar Realty Europe, the 2017 tri-party merger of NRF, NSAM and Colony, as well as Colony Credit Real Estate’s spin-off from Colony in 2018. Mr. Bernice was responsible for structuring the acquisitions of more than $25 billion in equity and debt transactions during his tenure with the company.
Mr. Bernice enjoys helping clients achieve their business goals and objectives in a way that is efficient, understandable and practical.
Relevant Experience:
- Served as global head of tax for a public REIT which had $60 billion of real estate assets under management
- Designed lease model for operating company/property company (“Opco/Propco”) structures to provide for tax optimization and improved cash flow
- Structured multiple collateralized debt obligation ("CDO") and collateralized loan obligation ("CLO") transactions for various REITs
- Advised public REITs on efficient SOX requirements
Associations
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants ("AICPA")
National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts ("NAREIT")
Education
B.A., Accounting, William Paterson University
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Contact
T: +1 973 951 1298
kenneth.bernice@fticonsulting.com -
Office
1166 Avenue of the Americas
15th Floor
New York, NY 10036
United States
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Expertise
Tax
Tax Structuring & Tax Advisory Services