Services

Estate Planning.  Our attorneys consult with clients to determine the nature and extent of their assets and their objectives in managing, conserving and distributing their wealth. We help our clients implement a variety of estate planning techniques so that their assets are distributed as they desire, while seeking to avoid unnecessary taxes, claims, and court proceedings. Our experience allows us to combine proficiency with practicality and sensitivity to both technical and non-technical issues. We often work with our clients’ other professional advisors, including accountants, brokers, financial planners, life insurance professionals, and trustees, to coordinate all aspects of their planning.

We are proud of our careful and creative drafting of estate planning documents, ranging from the short and simple to the highly complex. These documents include wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, durable powers of attorney for financial affairs and medical decisions, living wills, pre-marital and post-marital agreements, shareholders’ agreements, family limited partnership agreements, and limited liability company agreements. We prepare or review ancillary estate planning documents, such as real estate deeds and beneficiary designation forms for retirement plans and life insurance policies. We also prepare and file federal gift tax returns.

Estate and Trust Administration.  We prepare all documents required in connection with estate and trust administration, including petitions for probate, inventories, accountings and asset transfer documents. We prepare and file sophisticated estate tax and fiduciary income tax returns with both federal and state taxing authorities.

Our attorneys advise personal representatives on tax elections, marital and charitable deduction issues, disclaimers, and estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes. We also regularly counsel individual and corporate trustees on various aspects of trust administration, including income and principal allocation and apportionment issues, legal requirements relating to trust investments, discretionary distribution decisions, and the selection, resignation and removal of trustees.

Estate and Trust Litigation.  Our primary goal in handling estate and trust litigation is to secure a fair and reasonable outcome for our clients as quickly as possible. We represent personal representatives, trustees, beneficiaries, claimants, surviving spouses, heirs, and even other attorneys. Our litigation experience includes will contests, will and trust construction cases, accounting and settlement issues, and cases involving alleged breaches of fiduciary duty. We help clients obtain court approval of actions by trustees and modification and termination of irrevocable trusts. Our estate and trust litigation practice also includes guardianship and conservatorship proceedings.

Tax-Exempt Organizations.  We represent a variety of private foundations, public charities and other tax-exempt organizations. Our services include preparation of organizational documents and assistance in obtaining exempt status determination letters. We also advise our clients on management and operational issues, as well as compliance with tax laws and regulations such as excess benefit transactions and self-dealing.

Business Law.  We often provide business law advice to our estate planning clients. This includes the formation and operation of family corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies, as well as business succession planning.