Effective estate planning in today’s economic and tax environment is a long-term, lifetime process. The Firm’s Trusts and Estates Department advises and assists clients in all stages of this process, including the increasingly important area of Elder Law. In addition to wills and traditional trusts, the Department prepares insurance trusts, charitable trusts, private foundations, generation-skipping trusts, and trusts designed to facilitate lifetime transmission of family wealth at substantial tax discounts. The Department provides a full range of services in connection with the establishment of family limited partnerships and the transfer of interests in closely-held corporations.

The Trusts and Estates Department has extensive experience in probating and administering decedent’s estates, serving as counsel to executors and trustees and providing a wide variety of administrative and fiduciary accounting services to individuals, estates, trusts, family businesses and private foundations. The practice includes preparation of estate tax and fiduciary income tax returns and post-mortem tax planning as well as the representation of fiduciaries in federal and state tax audits. The Department also represents fiduciaries and beneficiaries in probate, trust, and tax disputes in state and federal courts including the U.S. Tax Court.