|
ESTATES, TRUSTS AND FAMILY WEALTH PLANNING
The firm provides sophisticated and customized advice to
individuals and families in devising plans for achieving their
personal and financial goals relative to preserving and
transmitting wealth, minimizing transfer taxes and maintaining
the viability of a closely held business.
We counsel executors, trustees and beneficiaries in the
administration of estates and trusts, and when appropriate, our
attorneys litigate will contests and other probate and trust
disputes. Our
practice members also advise clients concerning elder care
issues, providing for special needs beneficiaries and addressing
matters of particular significance to clients with international
backgrounds or family relations.
ESTATE PLANNING
In the area of estate planning, we advise clients in
implementing intergenerational transfers of property while
optimizing the use of available exemptions and exclusions under
the estate, gift and generation skipping transfer tax laws.
Our services include asset protection strategies designed
to shield personal wealth and property intended for natural
heirs and other beneficiaries from creditors, divorcing spouses
and a beneficiary’s own improvidence.
We counsel business owners with succession planning,
including advice in circumstances involving family members with
diverse abilities and levels of involvement in the enterprise.
Our attorneys advise clients relative to the most
tax-efficient withdrawal and disposition of retirement assets,
and on charitable giving.
Practice group members also address long-term care
planning and wealth preservation techniques to avoid the
depletion of a client’s assets due to infirmity.
Planning documents often adopted by clients may include a will;
revocable trust; irrevocable life insurance trust; general power
of attorney; durable health care power of attorney; and a
“living will.” In
many circumstances, additional and more complex arrangements are
called for, including such wealth transfer devices as generation
skipping trusts; special needs trusts for disabled
beneficiaries; qualified personal residence trusts; charitable
trusts; grantor retained annuity trusts; private foundations;
and family limited partnerships.
Business succession planning may involve transfers of
business interests in trust for family members or a sale of
closely held corporation stock to an employee stock ownership
plan (“ESOP”) on a tax-deferred basis.
Where a non-U.S. citizen spouse is concerned, an
otherwise taxable transfer of property for the spouse’s benefit
can avoid taxation by adoption of a qualified domestic trust
(“QDOT”).
ESTATE AND TRUST ADMINISTRATION
We advise personal representatives and trustees in carrying out
their administrative duties in decedent’s estates and under
long-term trust arrangements.
Our practitioners counsel the fiduciaries relative to
making post-mortem tax elections and disclaimers; filing
appropriate estate, gift, state inheritance and fiduciary income
tax returns; and ensuring that receipts and disbursements are
appropriately accounted for, necessary appraisals obtained,
required disclosures to beneficiaries communicated and assets
appropriately liquidated and distributed in accordance with the
governing instruments and applicable law.
Where disputes
arise, our attorneys will represent the fiduciary, or in some
cases a beneficiary or class of beneficiaries, in a will contest
or breach of trust litigation.
|
