Estate Planning
Estate planning is a process whereby an individual's assets are protected and distributed to their intended beneficiaries in a manner which carries out their objectives. When planning your estate it is our job to assure that your assets will go to whom you want, when you want and in the manner you want. Some concerns which are considered in developing an estate plan are protection against future creditors, insuring competent administration of assets in the event of incapacity and minimizing estate and income taxes. Our attorneys are sensitive to your needs, whether all that is required is a basic will and living trust or a more sophisticated estate plan, including family limited partnerships, generation-skipping trusts or sales of assets to family members.

One area which is critical to many of our clients is succession planning for family owned businesses. This involves creating a plan whereby upon the death or retirement of the business owner, the business continues to operate or is sold in a manner which maximizes the value which the owner has worked so hard to build.

Charitable Planning
With respect to our clients who have charitable intentions, our attorneys are thoroughly familiar with different vehicles which enhance the amounts that will pass to charitable organizations, as a result of the tax benefits available to the client. These techniques include charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, donor-advised funds, pooled income fund and supporting organizations. In addition, our attorneys can assist you in establishing and administering family foundations.

Estate and Trust Administration
Our attorneys have considerable experience in advising our clients who are serving as executors or trustees. These situations involve probate, estates, disabled person's estates, minor's estates and living trusts. In these situations, we guide the fiduciaries through the administration process and assist them in transferring assets and carrying out the grantor or decedent's wishes. In most cases, we work with the client's accountant to make tax decisions which are beneficial for the estate or trust. Finally, estate situations are not necessarily amicable and routine. We are, therefore, able to represent both estate fiduciaries and claimants in will contests, estate claims and other adverse situations.

Representative Matters
To highlight just a few examples of the firm's work with respect to complex and sophisticated estate planning matters:

• We represented a real estate developer who sought to shelter significant personal investment assets from the claims of personal creditors. We assisted him in creating a separate limited liability company to hold most of his personal investments. He transferred a 1% managerial partnership interest to a family member and retained a 99% non-managerial interest which he transferred to a domestic asset protection trust.
• We assisted the owner of a large collection agency in transferring the control of the business to his son who is currently managing the business. We did this by recapitalizing the business into voting and non-voting stock. Gifts were then made of voting stock to the son in the business and nonvoting stock of equal value to each of the other children. A significant discount was taken on the gift of the shares for gift tax purposes. Further, the son in the business was given the option to purchase the remaining shares at a fair value upon the retirement or death of the father.