Estate Planning For Families

Estate Planning

As the definition, scope, and complexity of “family” has changed over the years, we’ve expanded our services to encompass a wide range of needs and issues. We prepare wills and trusts including durable powers of attorney and health care powers including living wills. Our specialists understand the sensitive issues that arise in family estate planning for second marriage couples who have children from prior marriages. We represent clients in guardianship and conservatorship proceedings including contested proceedings, and our on-staff certified adoption specialist provides counsel and representation to clients who’ve made this important, and increasingly frequent, choice.

Estate and Gift Tax Planning

Estate tax reduction strategies have led us to implement qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTS), and various types of QTIP arrangements including contingent QTIPS, Clayton QTIPS, conventional QTIPS, and lifetime QTIPS. We often utilize life insurance to ensure the liquidity of estate trusts; depending on the circumstances, we may employ irrevocable life insurance trusts, including Dynasty trusts in various states.

Seniors

In addition to estate and tax planning services, we provide consultation regarding needs specific to seniors and their families, including Medicare, Medicaid, insurance, and retirement issues.

Charitable Giving

We advise clients relative to traditional methods of giving, including gift annuities and charitable trusts, as well as specialized means to achieve specific philanthropic goals, including establishing and administering family foundations.

Fiduciary Administration

In representing fiduciaries, our job quite simply is to be above reproach. To that end, we don’t provide trust services or investment advice; we neither sell nor promote investment products of any kind. We do not sell tangentially-related products or services, nor do we have relationships with financial product providers. We have built a strong reputation relative to the preparation of federal estate and gift tax returns, particularly with respect to high value estates; as needed, we represent clients in disputes with the Internal Revenue Service.

Litigation

We work with members of our litigation practice to defend and contest trusts, wills, deeds, and other conveyances for improprieties due to undue influence, lack of mental capacity, and other issues that could call the validity of the instrument or conveyance into question.