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Practice/Industry Group Overview
There's no question that today's rapidly shifting estates and trusts laws have made business succession and retirement planning, as well as wealth and asset preservation, more complicated. Businesses and families, large and small, must navigate complex regulations and tax laws when it comes to transferring estates, businesses, and assets from generation to generation. More than ever, it is crucial to have experienced and trustworthy legal guidance when it comes to planning for your financial future.
Saul Ewing's Personal Wealth, Estates and Trusts (PWET) Department provides this crucial assistance. We advise clients on all aspects of estate planning and business succession. Collectively, our attorneys bring decades of experience in estate planning and estates and trusts administration. One of our attorneys has been named to Worth magazine's "Top 100 Attorneys" list from 2005 to present; another was named one of the Top 50 lawyers in Maryland in Baltimore magazine's 2007 Maryland Super Lawyers list. Members of our PWET team serve on the boards of directors for national and state estates and trust associations and estate planning councils, as well as on the boards of highly regarded charitable trusts and giving councils.
Our Services
- Business Succession Planning
- Charitable Giving
- Estate Planning
- Fiduciary Litigation
- Retirement Planning
- Special Needs Trusts and Guardianship Trusts
Our Clients
- Families and individuals with significant assets
- Corporate and individual executors, trustees and guardians
- Family-owned businesses
- Charitable and educational institutions
- Financial services providers
- Trust and estate beneficiaries
Representative Matters
- Saul Ewing’s Personal Wealth, Estates and Trusts Practice Group won a tax case against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) involving the taxation of disability payments from a retirement plan.
Our client, a now-retired accountant, was injured in an accident. Because he had returned to work for a short time after the accident, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) questioned whether he was sufficiently disabled to fall within the statute and cases, and therefore wanted to tax the disability payments from his retirement plan. After more than a year of proceedings on two levels of the IRS, the Service conceded the case due to the evidence presented.
- A Philadelphia library and museum housing one of the country's finest collections of Union Civil War artifacts and documents had fallen on hard times, and its board of directors proposed to raise funds through a long-term loan of a major portion of the collection to a museum in Virginia. On behalf of the organization of descendants, our Personal Wealth, Estates and Trusts attorneys filed suit, contending that there were significant historical and legal connections among the collection, Philadelphia, and their group that prevented the board from acting on its plan. The museum board was also sued by Pennsylvania's Attorney General, a state senator and a state representative to block the loan. With a trial date nearing, the parties reached a court-approved settlement agreement that will keep the collection intact in Philadelphia, and improve the museum's management and finances. This pact and the steps leading up to it have been widely praised in the press. The corporate structure has been completely reorganized, and our client is guaranteed permanent seats on the new board. The board is developing plans for significant fundraising, as well as for enhanced conservation, curatorship, and display of the collection. Ultimately, it is expected that a vastly improved museum will open in a new location in Center City Philadelphia, possibly near Independence National Historical Park.
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