Trusts and Estates

The firm has a highly respected Trust and Estates Practice. Since estate planning involves much more than preparing tax efficient wills and trust agreements, our trusts and estates tax attorneys regularly provide advice to clients on a broad range of both tax and non-tax issues, including business succession planning, transfers of family businesses, gifting programs, organizations and reorganizations of appropriate capital structures, buy-sell arrangements, charitable techniques, life insurance strategies, the use of partnerships, valuation issues and general tax planning. In providing these services, our tax lawyers frequently draw on the resources and experience of the firm’s other practice groups to facilitate the full integration of our clients’ business, tax and overall estate planning goals.

Our estate planning clients include the owners of closely held businesses, corporate executives, entertainers and a wide variety of other individuals with estates from hundreds of thousands of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars. We also form and represent private foundations and other exempt organizations.

In addition to estate tax planning, we also provide estate administration services, including assisting personal representatives with administration of estates, preparing state and federal estate and inheritance tax returns and representing estates with respect to any tax audits or other controversies. We provide post-mortem tax planning, including the use of qualified disclaimers, the deferral of estate taxes for family owned businesses and the proper treatment of distributions from retirement plans.

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