Estate Planning

We work closely with our clients to determine their planning objectives and develop plans to achieve those objectives. Depending on the needs of different clients, these services can include:

• Development of a dispositive plan for the distribution of assets and the preparation of wills, trusts, and other related documents needed to implement the plan.
• Planning for the distribution of retirement benefits, life insurance, and other specialized assets.
• Creation of revocable trusts.
• Overall tax planning through the use of trusts, the marital deduction, unified credit amounts, generation skipping transfers, powers of appointment, disclaimers, and other tools.
• Use of specialized trusts such as personal residence trusts, grantor retained annuity or unitrusts, and trusts for minors to obtain specific tax savings or provide for specific family needs.
• Charitable planning through charitable remainder or lead trusts, gift annuities, and other charitable gifting mechanisms to fulfill charitable interests, obtain tax savings, and preserve family interests in context of charitable wishes.
• Succession planning for family businesses to preserve value, provide for payment of taxes and liquidity, transfer management and/or value to succeeding family generations, and achieve equity and fairness among the family members.
• Preservation of assets for the elderly and their family through Medicaid planning; planning for those under disabilities to provide for their special needs.
• Preparation of individual and fiduciary income tax returns, gift tax returns, private foundation returns, and other specialized gift and fiduciary returns.
• Powers of attorney and health care documents.