Estate and Gift Planning

 
 
The mission of our trusts and estates practice is to assist our clients in creating and implementing estate plans that will accomplish lifetime financial and charitable goals as well as facilitate the orderly disposition of assets at death.

Virtually every plan begins with a basic set of documents: a will, a power of attorney, a health-care proxy, and often a revocable trust. A revocable trust is a vehicle that permits the client to maintain control over his or her assets during life and to avoid probate due to death or disability. For clients with larger estates, a revocable trust will also contain tax planning provisions intended to minimize estate taxes.

We have particular expertise in crafting comprehensive plans for clients needing more sophisticated strategies to transfer wealth while minimizing estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes. We employ a number of creative tools depending upon each client's unique circumstances. Our comprehensive estate plans may include, for example:
  • Irrevocable life insurance trusts to keep policy proceeds out of the client's taxable estate.
  • Qualified Personal Residence Trusts to transfer residences to the next generation on a discounted basis.
  • Grantor-Retained Annuity Trusts to transfer cash or business assets to the next generation on a discounted basis.
  • Charitable Remainder Trusts to satisfy charitable goals while still providing income to family members in a tax-efficient manner.
  • Private Foundations to facilitate strategic family philanthropic planning.
  • Family Limited Partnerships and Family Limited Liability Companies to manage and transfer real estate and business assets in a tax-efficient manner.
Our attorneys have the special expertise necessary to represent clients who are in nontraditional relationships, including same-sex marriages and domestic partnerships. We also help our clients plan for changes of domicile and for other life transitions such as an upcoming marriage or recent divorce, the birth of a child or grandchild, retirement, or any significant change in the client's business or financial situation.

Representative Matters
  • Created a private foundation for and counseled a client on how to carry out philanthropic goals.
  • Represent a disabled man whose disability has led him and his family to improve access to services for the disabled. Most recently, he started a website, http://thetravelingwheelchair.com/, where visitors may write reviews and rate local venues on their wheelchair accessibility.
  • Advised an unmarried couple on creative and tax-efficient strategies to dispose of property on death.
  • Created an estate plan for the parents of a disabled child that is sensitive to the child's possible ongoing need to qualify for public benefits.
  • Created a plan to keep a century-old house in a family for multiple generations.
  • Created a plan for a serious collector of antiques who wishes to donate a portion of the estate to preserving antiquities.