Our attorneys represent a diverse client base, including individuals with net worths ranging from under $1 million to over $1 billion, executives of publicly traded companies, owners of closely-held businesses and foreign individuals. The Estate Planning & Wealth Protection Group also assists our clients in estate administration, probate litigation, charitable giving, establishing private foundations, asset protection planning, guardianship matters, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements and financial planning upon retirement, sale of business, dissolution of marriage and other important economic events. The goal of the Estate Planning and Wealth Protection Group is to assist individuals and families in accumulating and preserving wealth and transferring it to others and charities in the most tax effective manner while accomplishing the client’s personal goals and desires.
The attorneys in the Estate Planning and Wealth Protection Group offer our clients comprehensive advice in a wide-variety of areas that traditionally have not been considered “estate planning.” This group has extensive experience assisting disabled persons and their families with “special needs trust” planning which, in appropriate circumstances, can enable them to maintain their eligibility for government (and other) benefits to which they may be entitled as a result of their disability conditions, while preserving the family resources to supplement those benefits. Our attorneys can provide advice in the income, estate, gift, generation-skipping transfer and international tax areas, as well as in the general business law area. For business owners, the planning might include advice regarding choice of the appropriate business entity, structure of the business, mergers and acquisitions, deferred compensation arrangements, business succession planning and buy-sell arrangements. For company executives, the planning might include advice regarding the exercise and transfer of both qualified and non-qualified stock options, the transfer of restricted or unrestricted stock, beneficiary designations on qualified and non-qualified retirement plans (including IRAs), golden parachutes, structuring of employment agreements and equity grants. For pre-IPO corporation owners and officers, the planning might include advice regarding the transfer of stock prior to the IPO, the timing of the exercise of qualified and non-qualified stock options, advice regarding hedging, monetization and diversification strategies on low-cost basis stock and advice regarding regulatory, corporate and contractual restrictions on the transferability of stock.
The Estate Planning and Wealth Protection Group also provides legal and tax advice in the traditional areas of estate planning, which may include the preparation of Last Wills and Testaments, Revocable (Living) Trusts, Custodial Trusts for Minors, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts, General Powers of Attorney and Durable Powers of Attorney for Health Care. The Estate Planning & Wealth Protection Group also provides legal and tax advice in more sophisticated estate planning, which may include Split-Dollar Insurance arrangements, Grantor Retained Trusts, Charitable Remainder Trusts, Charitable Lead Trusts, Family Limited Partnerships and Defective Grantor Trusts. The Estate Planning & Wealth Protection Group has also created and implemented inventive techniques to transfer and protect wealth that have been specifically customized and developed to meet the client’s unique needs, including cross-border estate and income tax vehicles, restructuring of closely-held businesses and the use of “transactional” estate planning vehicles.
The attorneys in our Estate Planning and Wealth Protection Group have extensive experience and education in tax and estate planning. Our Estate Planning and Wealth Protection Group includes attorneys with advanced degrees in taxation and one who is a certified public accountant. Our attorneys have published numerous tax articles and are frequent speakers at seminars on estate planning and tax law. In summary, we are committed to serving the needs of all of our clients, both large and small, by providing the highest quality of professional, careful and creative estate and tax planning.