Trusts and Estates
Our Trusts and Estates practice is substantial and among the
most well-respected in the nation. Combining our knowledge
and technical expertise with attention to each client’s unique
personal issues, we assist a broad group of individuals and
families in accomplishing their estate-planning goals by tailoring
creative and tax-sensitive estate plans designed with an
appreciation of each client’s unique objectives, family dynamics
and values. While we have handled many large and complex
projects for some of the nation’s wealthiest and most well-known
individuals and families, most of our clients are entrepreneurs;
family business owners; professionals, such as doctors, accountants
and lawyers; corporate executives; investment bankers; real estate
developers; authors; and artists. Our lawyers also have
expertise and experience advising high-net-worth US and non-US
persons with respect to the US and international estate, gift and
generation-skipping tax consequences of their US and non-US
investments.
We regularly represent financial institutions and individuals
who serve as executors, trustees and personal representatives in
connection with the administration of estates and trusts and with
litigated or contested matters. Members of the Trusts and
Estates practice have decades of experience in all aspects of US
and international estate planning, estate and trust administration,
and related litigation.
Areas of Focus:
- Counsel individuals regarding their estate plans and prepare
wills, trusts and other documents that carry out individual wishes
in a tax-efficient manner, taking into account current and
anticipated changes in the tax law.
- Create business succession plans for family-owned
businesses.
- Advise on the use of lifetime gifts and generation-skipping
transfer tax planning.
- Implement clients’ charitable intent through creation of
remainder trusts, lead trusts and private foundations.
- Prepare and file complicated tax returns each year, including
federal and state estate tax returns, income tax returns for
estates and trusts and gift tax returns. Our lawyers have
handled hundreds of audits initiated by the Internal Revenue
Service and various state tax authorities.
- Represent fiduciaries, beneficiaries and other interested
parties in litigated matters, including tax disputes, will and
trust construction cases, will contests, contests of trust
instruments and contested accountings.
- Negotiate and draft pre- and post-nuptial agreements. Plan for
distributions from IRAs, qualified retirement plans and
non-qualified plans.
- Assist clients who have alternative life styles, who can
benefit from estate tax reduction methods not available to married
couples.
- Devise and implement plans for clients who have used or are
using assisted reproductive technology, taking into consideration
the future use and disposition of frozen embryos and other genetic
materials and ensuring the inheritance rights of their
children.
- Design estate plans for clients with multinational ties, taking
into account the unique tax rules that apply.