Trusts and Estates
Estate Litigation
A growing area of the firm’s practice is trusts and estates litigation. Recently, our firm was joined by our Estates & Trusts partner, Donald J. Farinacci, who for many years has handled a wide range of matters, including will contests, trust contests, breach of fiduciary duty claims, petitions to remove trustees, contested accountings, discovery proceedings, guardianship proceedings, and all other related matters.
Such litigation often requires cross-discipline resources, where the depth of the attorneys’ experience both in trusts and estates litigation and in commercial litigation, when fortified by the general litigation resources of the firm, enables us to handle the most complex matters.
Estate Administration
We handle the complete administration of both simple and complex estates, including probate and administration proceedings, federal and state estate tax returns and accounting proceedings, from the date of death up until the executor or administrator is finally discharged and closing letters are received from the applicable tax agencies.
Estate Planning
The estates & trust department handles all aspects of estate planning. We provide skilled services in the preparation of wills, trust agreements, both revocable and irrevocable, life insurance trusts, GRUTs, GRATs, and QPRTs, prenuptial agreements, and family limited partnerships, and all other commonly used estate planning vehicles.
Business Succession
Our business succession capability includes the development and implementation of all aspects of a business succession plan. We can review and evaluate the client’s family business and economic circumstances and help the business owner develop a strategic succession plan tailored to the specific business of the family; and provide options for achieving their goals. Drawing on our experienced attorneys, we can assist our client with implementing the succession plan and ensuring a smooth transition. To this end, we provide clients with tax-efficient strategies through cross-purchase, entity purchase and other agreements, for transferring ownership and management of their businesses to future generations or other successors.
