Estate & Gift Tax Law

Based on our thorough assessment, we develop tailored estate and gift tax strategies designed to optimize your tax position while achieving your wealth transfer objectives. This includes evaluating appropriate lifetime gifting programs that leverage annual exclusions and lifetime exemptions, considering sophisticated techniques such as family limited partnerships, grantor retained annuity trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, or qualified personal residence trusts. We identify opportunities for charitable planning that provide both tax benefits and philanthropic impact. For business owners, we develop succession strategies that facilitate tax-efficient transfers while maintaining operational continuity. Throughout this planning process, we carefully balance pure tax considerations with your broader estate planning goals, ensuring that tax strategies complement rather than dictate your legacy objectives while providing clear explanations of the benefits and limitations of various approaches.

With a clear strategy established, we meticulously execute all necessary steps to implement your estate and gift tax plan. This includes drafting comprehensive legal documents such as wills, trusts, family entity agreements, and business succession plans with precise tax provisions that support intended tax treatments. We coordinate proper asset titling, beneficiary designations, and entity formations to align with your tax strategy. For lifetime gifts, we establish proper documentation, including contemporaneous valuations, gift tax returns, and supporting materials that substantiate claimed discounts or tax positions. We work closely with your financial advisors, accountants, and valuation experts to ensure consistent implementation across all aspects of your planning. Throughout this process, we develop robust documentation that establishes clear intent and compliance with technical requirements, creating strong support for your tax positions in the event of future IRS scrutiny.

Estate and gift tax planning requires continuous attention to maintain optimal results in a changing environment. We provide comprehensive support for ongoing compliance requirements, including preparation or review of gift tax returns, generation-skipping transfer tax allocations, and tax elections. Our team monitors legislative developments, regulatory changes, and evolving case law that may impact the effectiveness of your established strategies. We conduct periodic reviews of existing structures, comparing actual performance against projected outcomes and identifying potential improvements. When tax laws change significantly, we proactively analyze the impact on your planning and recommend appropriate adjustments or new strategies to preserve tax advantages. Through this ongoing relationship, we help ensure your estate and gift tax approach remains optimized as tax environments evolve and your personal and financial circumstances change over time.