The emphasis of this practice area is to assist individuals, families and businesses to create and implement a plan to pass accumulated assets and wealth to heirs and/or charitable organizations in an orderly and efficient manner. We provide our clients with the estate planning tools available to achieve estate planning goals such as Wills, Trusts, Financial and Health Care Powers of Attorneys and Living Wills for individuals; Buy-Sell Agreements for corporate stockholders and/or partners; as well as organize Family Limited Partnerships, Limited Liability Companies, Private Foundations and Charitable Trusts in order to implement the planning strategies. Emphasis is placed on minimizing the potential burden of estate taxes, gift taxes, generation skipping taxes and other imposed inheritance taxes. The potential impact of income taxation is also considered with respect to tax basis adjustments that occur with certain assets as a result of death. We provide assistance with the review of beneficiary designations of life insurance policies and retirement accounts to coordinate with the implementation of the client’s estate plan. Deed preparation and filing with the local land records office is provided as part of the estate planning process. The firm also provides advice regarding effective domestic asset protection planning strategies designed to protect accumulated wealth and assets from threats of creditors by utilizing various trusts and entities.
