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Practice/Industry Group Overview
Estate planning clients are a diverse group of individuals who include owners of closely-held businesses, shareholders of public companies, and executives of both privately and publicly owned businesses, as well as farm families, young families, and retirees. Members of our Individual Family Services, Estate and Probate Team focus on preserving our clients' family and business financial concerns in an increasingly complex federal tax environment. Estate plans are designed to accomplish the personal objectives of the client, whatever their financial status, and to assist in the final protection and security of family members. Each plan is uniquely designed to be responsive to individual client needs.
Members of the team work closely with investment advisors, accountants, pension consultants, life underwriters, and banking representatives to develop the most comprehensive estate plan possible.
Our practice is diverse and dynamic. We represent a variety of clients, from those whose net worth is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, to young families just getting started.
Tax Analysis
We analyze the effect of all types of taxes as applied to our clients' assets, including the federal gift and estate tax, the generation skipping tax, and local estate and inheritance taxes determined by the client's state of residence.
Counsel on Gifts
We provide counsel with regard to lifetime gifts, including the use of qualified personal residence trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts and trusts that take advantage of the marital deduction.
Knowledge of Charitable Techniques
We counsel and assist in the implementation of charitable deduction trusts as a means of minimizing or delaying estate and related taxes, including the use of charitable lead and remainder trusts.
Family Business Issues
We review buy-sell agreements and other business continuation alternatives for preservation of family ownership and control of the family business or the planned disposition of a business to continuing shareholders, including the impact of all taxes due on transfers.
Preparing for Difficult Times
We advise clients to plan for disability during lifetime, including asset management and attention to personal care through the use of a power of attorney or a living trust. We assist with the analysis of asset planning in anticipation of long term medical care needs and related expenses.
Life Insurance Planning
We plan with life insurance to provide for the payment of death taxes, including the use of trusts to hold the ownership of policies.
Document Preparation
We are skilled and efficient in the preparation of will and trust documents to direct the organization, administration, and disposition of the client's estate.
Estate Administration With A Difference
Estate administrators represent individual and corporate executors and trustees in the settlement of estates and the administration of trusts. Our experience includes:
- Commencing probate proceedings in Indiana;
- Providing advice regarding accounting for property interests as assets of the estate for the purpose of taxation and the valuation of those assets;
- Evaluating cash needs of the estate for payment of claims, expenses, and taxes;
- Counseling with regard to orderly payment of claims, disposition of assets, and distribution of assets; and
- Facilitating the prompt partial or final distribution of assets from the estate.
In the estate administration practice area, legal assistants contribute to the collection and assembly of information for estate accounting purposes, and assist in the preparation of income and estate tax returns so that the administration can be handled as cost-effectively as possible.
Tax Planning That Continues After Death
We counsel the executor or trustee in connection with numerous significant tax planning issues during the settlement of an estate or the administration of the trust, including:
- Income tax planning relating to appropriate deductions and selection of the fiscal year;
- Marital deduction elections under the qualified terminable interest property rules;
- Closely-held business exceptions, special use farm valuation and related installment payment opportunities for the tax on closely held business interests;
- Payment of estate taxes and expenses through special corporate stock redemption provisions; and
- Income tax consequences of distribution of assets or income from a trust or an estate.
Issues Involving Marriage
We also provide a full array of services related to matrimonial and family law matters, including:
Preparation and analysis of antenuptial agreements; and
Negotiation and related litigation regarding marital dissolutions, with emphasis on complex marital estates involving privately held businesses, professional practices, and similar properties, and including related custodial and child support issues.
Representation From Conference Room to Courtroom
The members of our team practice extensively before the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Tax Court, the U.S. District Courts, and the Court of Claims with respect to the final determination of estate tax liabilities. We have been engaged as special tax counsel, representing estates and their respective executors in appeals with the Internal Revenue Service or Indiana Department of Revenue to bring tax determination controversies to a prompt resolution.
We work with members of the Firm's litigation practice area to address and resolve contested probate or estate administration matters, including will contests, disputed claims, accountings, and other issues that may arise in connection with the settlement of an estate, as well as contested marital dissolution matters. Frequently we also counsel beneficiaries of an estate regarding their interests in the estate.
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