Estates, Trusts & Probate

Estate Planning

We provide estate planning for individuals, couples, and families that focuses on estate tax savings and fulfillment of the client’s testamentary wishes. We help our clients craft their estates through the use of trusts, gift-giving programs, testamentary vehicles, and asset-freezing techniques.

Probate of Estates

We offer full services in the probate of estates, which includes representation in the probate courts, preparation of estate tax returns, and estate administration.

Closely Held Businesses

We help families plan the transfer of privately held businesses for both tax and non-tax purposes. We have relationships with highly regarded professional appraisers for obtaining valuations that are required in connection with gifts of family limited partnership interests, estate tax returns, intentionally defective grantor trusts, and estate allocations.

Fiduciary Services

At the client’s request, we provide fiduciary services for clients and their families, often acting as the personal representative for estates and the trustee for trusts.  

Family Limited Partnerships

We have significant experience in establishing and administrating family limited partnerships under state law. Transfers to such partnerships may allow significant valuation discounts for gift and estate tax purposes.

Qualified Personal Resident Trusts

We have established many Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRTs), an Internal Revenue Code sanctioned method of transferring the client’s principal residence or vacation home to the next generation with a valuation discount.

We advise our clients in determining whether there is a need for insurance protection. When insurance is needed, we work with agents to ensure that such policies are held in the most tax advantaged manner.

We educate our clients on the requirements, as well as the advantages and disadvantages, of establishing the tax advantaged grantor retained income trust, grantor retained annuity trust, and grantor retained unitrust, which are trusts that may allow for valuation discounts for assets passing to a younger generation during the client’s lifetime.

Postmortem Tax Planning

When planning has been incomplete or inadequate during an individual’s lifetime, this service can produce considerable savings to reduce tax and probate costs.