Wills, Trusts, and Estates

Wills, Trusts, and Estates

The estate planning practice focuses on advice and counsel regarding all aspects of wealth transfer, including estate, gift and generation-skipping tax planning for high-net-worth individuals and families.  Estate planning often involves succession planning for the owners of family or closely held businesses and asset protection planning for professionals, developers and entrepreneurs.  Estate plans may be very basic or may require complex planning ideas, techniques and solutions.  An estate plan is individually crafted for each client taking into consideration the unique circumstances of each person or family.  Trust administration, estate administration and probate matters are also an integral part of estate planning practice.

An estate plan may include the preparation of one or more of the following documents:

• Revocable trust
• Wills
• Financial power of attorney
• Health care power of attorney
• Living Wills
• Special needs trust

In addition, estates for high-net-worth individuals or families may include one or more of the following planning concepts:

• Irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT)
• Installment sale to a grantor trust (often referred to as a sale to an intentionally defective grantor trust (IDGT) or sale to an intentional grantor trust (IGT))
• Family limited partnership (FLP) or limited liability company
• Charitable gift planning
• Planning for qualified plan or individual retirement account (IRA) distributions
• Lifetime gifting strategies
• Multi-generational trusts
• Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT)