Practice Areas & Industries: Porzio, Bromberg & Newman P.C.

Practice/Industry Group Overview

At Porzio, we know you have worked hard to build your estate. We are committed to working equally hard to help you retain and distribute your legacy. Our wide experience in fiduciary law enables us to:

• Evaluate your current needs and assist you in fulfilling your future intentions.

• Build estate plans that preserve your assets for your loved ones.

• Assist in minimizing your estate taxes.

• Help resolve your unique family concerns.

• Handle with sensitivity issues that surround pre-nuptial agreements, divorce, special needs or gifted children and other matters that may affect the future of your estate.

The growing complexity of federal and state tax laws makes it important to plan now and to review your plan periodically. Estate planning is an ongoing process that typically begins with creating a will. If you do not have a will, then your property is distributed according to the laws of the State of New Jersey and the results may not be what you intend.

Services Available

With our assistance, your Will can:

• Help you save on Estate Taxes. A will leaving everything to a surviving spouse may cause the surviving spouse's estate to incur a large estate tax liability that can be avoided with proper planning.

• Simplify your Second Marriage Planning. If you are in a second marriage, you probably want to provide for your spouse after your death, but also want to assure that your children are the ultimate beneficiaries of your estate. If so, it is essential that your will include a trust for your spouse's benefit during his or her lifetime, with the assets remaining at your spouse's death passing to your children.

• Provide for your Children with Unique Needs. Some children may have psychological, physical or emotional problems. Others may have credit problems, an unstable marriage, or addictive issues. Your will can be prepared to include trusts that protect your children's inheritance from their creditors but make the assets available to your children if they are needed.

• Resolve Special Considerations for IRAs and 401(Ks). If you have substantial assets in a qualified employee benefit plan such as an IRA or 401(K), then you must carefully plan and draft your estate documents in order to achieve maximum income and estate tax savings.

Estate Administration and Fiduciary Litigation
We also assist our clients during the administration of a trust or estate. We can lead you through the entire administration process¿from probate through final distribution to the beneficiaries of the estate. Our professionals can:

• Counsel executors and administrators regarding their fiduciary obligations.

• Counsel clients in making valid disclaimers and other post-mortem elections to correct oversights in a decedent's estate plan or to eliminate or reduce federal and state estate and income taxes.

• Assist executors in preparing and filing fiduciary accountings and making timely interim and final distributions of assets to the beneficiaries.

• Represent executors, trustees and beneficiaries when disputes arise during the course of estate and trust administration.

• Negotiate with the Internal Revenue Service and other taxing authorities.

• Represent clients in connection with fiduciary litigation when individuals do not properly prepare.

• Assist clients in will contests, will and trust interpretation disputes, fiduciary surcharge actions, fiduciary accountings, will reformation proceedings and federal and state tax litigation.

• Represent clients in guardianship and in competency proceedings.

Other Services
In addition to a simple or more complex will, our estate planning services include:

• Living Wills

• Powers of Attorney

• Revocable Living Trusts

• Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts

• Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts

• Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs)

• Generation-Skipping (Dynasty) Trusts

• Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs)

• Qualified Personal Residence Trusts

• Asset Protection Trusts

• Limited Liability Companies

• Family Limited Liability Companies