Mr. Ludgin's practice focuses on estate planning and administration, charitable planning and closely-held business succession planning. He has implemented numerous estate and business succession plans, having prepared irrevocable life insurance trusts, charitable remainder and lead trusts, grantor retained interest trusts, shareholder agreements and stock purchase agreements. His clients include closely-held business owners, business executives and affluent families.
Mr. Ludgin has spoken on a wide range of estate and succession planning topics. In September 2011 he made a presentation to the Mid-Atlantic Meeting of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, the topic of which was estate planning considerations for married couples in light of the increased federal estate tax and gift tax exemptions. He previously spoke before the Estate Planning Council of Central New Jersey on business succession planning and grantor retained interest trusts.
Mr. Ludgin is recognized as a New Jersey Super Lawyer for its 2006-2012 editions. He has also been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for more than 10 years.
Memberships & Affiliations
New Jersey State Bar Association
American Bar Association
American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, Fellow
Representative Matters
Dividing a Family-Owned Business
On several occasions Mr. Ludgin has coordinated the firm's representation of families in dividing an ongoing business to resolve a dispute among family members. In one instance, a subsidiary was "spun off" from its parent corporation so that each of two siblings could control and operate a separate corporation. In another instance, the firm represented a corporation and one sibling who purchased the stock of a second sibling, who then left the business. In both of these examples, positive outcomes were achieved without resort to litigation.
Estate Planning for Multiple Generations
Mr. Ludgin coordinated the firm's representation of a mother and father and their adult children to develop an estate plan that would benefit several generations. The mother was the beneficiary of several existing trusts, which were scheduled to terminate upon her death and pass to her adult children. Because the children would receive substantial trust assets and thus have less need for their mother's own property immediately upon her death, the firm implemented a plan by which the mother left a substantial portion of her estate to a charitable lead trust, thereby reducing the estate tax payable by the mother's estate. The firm also coordinated the mother's exercise of several powers of appointment in a manner that maximized the benefit to the family, while preserving the "grandfather" exemption from generation-skipping tax of the existing trusts. Finally, the estate plan incorporated generation-skipping planning into the children's own estate plan documents. The youngest members of this family now constitute the fifth generation to benefit from wealth originally created in the early decades of the 20th century.
Settlement of a Large Estate
Mr. Ludgin was the lead attorney in administering the estate of a 50% owner of a complex closely-held business with both retail and wholesale operations. The firm's work included supervising several valuation firms that appraised the decedent's business interests, interacting with family members (including counseling to avoid potential estate litigation), coordination with the family's outside accounting firm and key employees of the business, and overseeing the creation of a charitable lead trust. The value of the decedent's gross estate was in excess of $100 million.
News
09/06/11, The Best Lawyers in America Recognizes 34 McCarter Lawyers in 2012 Referral Guide
08/11/10, The Best Lawyers in America Recognizes 35 McCarter Lawyers in 2011 Referral Guide
03/22/10, 37 McCarter Attorneys Recognized As New Jersey Super Lawyers for 2010
07/29/09, The Best Lawyers in America Recognizes 33 McCarter Lawyers in 2010 Referral Guide
03/31/09, 43 McCarter Attorneys Recognized As New Jersey Super Lawyers for 2009
09/25/07, The Best Lawyers in America Recognizes 36 McCarter Lawyers in 2008 Referral Guide
11/05/2004, David Ludgin was quoted in New Jersey Business in connection with elder law
Speaking
01/01/01, Mr. Ludgin has spoken on a wide range of estate and succession planning topics, including Estate Planning for Qualified Plan Benefits and IRA's for the Muhlenberg Hospital Foundation and Business Succession Planning and Grantor Retained Interest Trusts for the Estate Planning Council of Central New Jersey. He is the author of Braun vs. Brains, which appeared in the New Jersey Lawyer and How to Stop Worrying About the Generation-Skipping Tax, which appeared in the Real Property, Probate and Trust
David A. Ludgin
Publications
05/01/11, Tax Law Changes Create New Asset Transfer Opportunities
David A. Ludgin
Family Business Magazine
04/01/2004, You Still Need an Estate and Succession Plan
David A. Ludgin
Utility and Tansportation Contractor