Our clients appreciate the many benefits afforded by a business boutique law firm and enjoy being able to have their personal estate planning and business legal matters met in an atmosphere dedicated to meeting their unique needs. Special planning utilizing trusts and various business entities can assure you that your family will inherit assets if, when, and how you choose. Our trusts and estates practice also compliments our other practice areas by ensuring that the income, estate, and gift tax consequences of a transaction or litigation matter are minimized and that asset protection options are maximized. Below is a brief description of the major areas of our trusts and estates practice:

Estate Planning - Helping you reach your goal of minimizing taxes and preserving assets for future generations is a vital part of the estate planning process. In finding creative solutions to your tax, estate planning, and business succession problems, we utilize advanced planning techniques including charitable lead and remainder trusts, grantor retained interest trusts, family limited partnerships, qualified personal residence trusts, qualified domestic trusts, life insurance trusts, generation skipping trusts, gifting trusts, and Florida intangibles tax trusts. You also need to be sure that your children or other family members receive assets in the manner that affords them the most good. Sometimes this entails restricting access to assets, leaving distribution decisions to a trusted friend or family member, requiring a child to attain and maintain some level of personal success in order receive distributions, or giving a beneficiary maximum control of the property while safeguarding those assets from the reach of his or her creditors (including a divorcing spouse). Proper planning should always start with the question "In a perfect world, what result do I want to achieve?" From this starting point, we find creative solutions to meet your goals and objectives in a timely and efficient manner.

Family Business Succession Planning - By combining the efforts of the trusts and estates and corporate departments, we are able to assist business owners in addressing their business succession planning needs. Through the use of stock purchase agreements, implementing gifting programs, structuring business recapitalizations, and using various trusts and business entities, we can often significantly reduce your tax exposure while meeting your financial and succession goals.

Probate and Post-death Tax Planning - On the death of a client or family member, we help to preserve the decedent's personal capital and facilitate the transfer of assets in accordance with his or her wishes. This includes handling probate proceedings, post-death tax planning, and preparation of income and estate tax returns.

Probate / Fiduciary Litigation – Our trusts and estates department, working with our litigation attorneys, offers representation in probate and other court proceedings including equitable relief, will contests, estate disputes, and actions for removal of fiduciaries.
The goal of our attorneys is to recognize your legal needs and provide for those needs, either within the firm or by referral to outside consultants. Our trusts and estates department coordinates with our other attorneys and with outside consultants to assist you in obtaining the best available service and to keep you informed with regard to all aspects of your matter. We want you to feel confident that your matter is being handled properly and efficiently, to be kept informed of its status and to have a single attorney at the firm who is responsible and knowledgeable for all of your matters. This defines our business boutique law firm and contributes to your success and the success of our firm.

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