Estate and Trust Planning / Tax and Business Succession Planning.

Represents individuals, business owners, executives, physicians and other professionals in developing their estate plans and their business succession plans. This includes:

• Creating trusts and wills to provide for the management and transfer of assets at death to heirs and other beneficiaries.
• Establishing gifting plans through the use of trusts and other strategies in order to transfer assets during lifetime to younger generations in a tax advantaged manner.
• Developing plans to transfer closely held family businesses and other assets during lifetime to the next generation in a tax advantaged manner, while at the same time maintaining a stream of income for the transferor. This may involve the use of grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATS) or other types of trusts, sales to grantor trusts, and other techniques.
• Recapitalizing businesses into voting and nonvoting interests, establishing buy-sell agreements and deferred compensation arrangements, and preparing employment contracts and other agreements, for the purpose of transitioning ownership of a business to the next generation.
• Forming family limited partnerships (FLPs) and family limited liability companies (FLLCs) in order to provide for the management of assets, and to provide for the transfer of assets to one’s heirs or other beneficiaries in a tax advantaged manner.
• Creating life insurance trusts for the purpose of providing liquidity to pay estate taxes, while at the same time providing for the exclusion of the subject life insurance proceeds from one’s estate for estate tax purposes.
• Creation of multi-generation trusts to preserve assets for future generations, and to protect those assets from estate taxation and creditors.
• Developing asset protection trusts and plans.
• Developing agreements to pass the family cottage or family vacation property to future generations.
• Counseling clients in connection with transferring IRAs and other retirement plans to heirs in a tax advantaged manner.
• Preparing prenuptial and postnuptial agreements.
• Creating special needs trusts for disabled individuals in order to protect their inheritances and lawsuit settlement proceeds, and to maintain their eligibility for governmental benefits.
• Creating gifting plans, qualified domestic trusts (QDOTS) and other types of trusts for married persons (one of whom is not a U.S. citizen) in order to eliminate or minimize estate and gift tax liabilities.

Probate Estate and Trust Administration.

Represents fiduciaries and beneficiaries in the area of trust estates and probate estates. This includes:

• Commencing decedent estates in probate court, and counseling personal representatives in administering probate estates in probate court.
• Assisting individuals in being appointed as guardian or conservator for minors, incapacitated persons, or disabled persons, and counseling guardians and conservators in administering guardianship and conservatorship estates in probate court.
• Representing and counseling trustees in administering trusts.
• Representing trustees, personal representatives and beneficiaries in trust and will disputes.
• Preparing estate and gift tax returns.
• Representing fiduciaries in IRS audits of estate and gift tax returns.

Business and Corporate Law

• Forming corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships and joint ventures, and representing those entities with respect to legal issues and tax issues that arise in the course of business.
• Preparing buy-sell agreements, shareholder agreements, stock-restriction agreements, employment agreements, leases, deferred compensation agreements, non-compete agreements and confidentiality agreements.
• Providing legal and tax representation to individuals and entities in selling their businesses, including asset sales and stock sales.

Nonprofit Organizations

• Forming nonprofit organizations, and representing those organizations with respect to legal and tax issues that arise in the course of their activities.
• Assisting nonprofit organizations in obtaining approval of 501(c)(3) tax exemption and other tax exemptions from the Internal Revenue Service.
• Assisting nonprofit organizations in obtaining solicitation licenses and other licenses.