Estate Planning
We help clients tailor plans that best protect and distribute their assets. Because each situation is unique, we work closely with our clients to ensure that all arrangements consider not just the legal realities of their wishes, but their spirit and context as well.
Representative Client Matter: ■ An elderly couple sought to bequeath their modest estate equally to their three children, one of whom was a priest who had taken a vow of poverty. After extensive research and analysis, a unique trust was created to safeguard the son’s inheritance while respecting the formal requirements—and the principle—of the vow he had taken. ■ A client with a large real estate operation wanted to minimize estate tax. A sophisticated plan was coordinated with other advisers and resulted in a number of transactions to gift and sell assets to various irrevocable trusts using defined value mechanisms, note sale transactions, a sale for a private annuity, a tier of GRATs and other techniques.