The laws governing trusts, probate and estate planning are increasingly complex. Clients need careful financial and estate planning to ensure the disposition of an individual's assets through a financial and estate plan to fulfill his or her wishes. Some of our trust and estate planning services include:

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Overview

The laws governing trusts, probate and estate planning are increasingly complex. Clients need careful financial and estate planning to ensure the disposition of an individual's assets through a financial and estate plan to fulfill his or her wishes. Some of our trust and estate planning services include:

  • Preparation of wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare and other documents
  • Development and implementation of complex gift and estate tax planning strategies
  • Probate and trust administration
  • Preparation of estate and gift tax returns and audit representation
  • Tax exemption and legal counsel to nonprofit organizations, charities and private foundations
  • Advice on fiduciary duties of trustee, executors, officers and directors, and liability avoidance
  • Counsel regarding endowments, planned giving and charitable trusts
  • Business succession and tax planning, including shareholder agreements, operating agreements, voting trusts, creation of corporations, LLCs and partnerships

Many clients also rely on our focused planning for entrepreneurs and executives, family office services, fiduciary and investment services, and assistance with succession planning, planned giving, nonprofits and private foundations.

Our Tax Litigation & Controversy practice, distinctive for its depth of prior experience in the government, efficiently and favorably handles disputes or conflicts on behalf of financial institutions, individual trustees, personal representatives and individuals.

  • Preparation of wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare and other documents
  • Development and implementation of complex gift and estate tax planning strategies
  • Probate and trust administration
  • Preparation of estate and gift tax returns and audit representation
  • Tax exemption and legal counsel to nonprofit organizations, charities and private foundations
  • Advice on fiduciary duties of trustee, executors, officers and directors, and liability avoidance
  • Counsel regarding endowments, planned giving and charitable trusts
  • Business succession and tax planning, including shareholder agreements, operating agreements, voting trusts, creation of corporations, LLCs and partnerships

Many clients also rely on our focused planning for entrepreneurs and executives, family office services, fiduciary and investment services, and assistance with succession planning, planned giving, nonprofits and private foundations.

Our Tax Litigation & Controversy practice, distinctive for its depth of prior experience in the government, efficiently and favorably handles disputes or conflicts on behalf of financial institutions, individual trustees, personal representatives and individuals.

Estate Planning

Our Trust & Estate Planning practice works primarily with individuals on their estate plans, helping them define and meet their objectives. Eight of our attorneys are Fellows of the prestigious, peer-selected American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. We represent residents of the United States as well as Americans and foreign nationals residing in Asia. 

Planning for Entrepreneurs and Executives

Perkins Coie provides specialized estate planning for owners of closely held businesses, senior officers of public companies and entrepreneurs. The planning they usually require involves managing financial resources through the strategic use of trusts, gifts, sales and other income- and wealth-transfer devices. These devices implement family and philanthropic goals while minimizing income, gift and estate taxes.

The probate or trust administration of our clients’ estates, which includes preparing necessary tax returns, facilitates the implementation of their lifetime planning to the succeeding generation of beneficiaries.

Family Office Services

Perkins Coie has a long history of representing family offices and quasi-family office arrangements.

We counsel on the securities law aspects attendant with representing these important family entities located both in the United States and overseas. Our attorneys have extensive experience assisting individuals and families who wish to establish and administer family offices or other similar structures.

As part of our counsel, we regularly help clients analyze succession issues and solve complicated legal challenges in accordance with their personal goals. To that end, we collaborate seamlessly with family members and family office advisors to support their efforts across multiple disciplines. 

International Trust & Estates Services

We recognize that the complexity of cross-border planning may challenge the intuition of U.S. domestic planners on even the most basic issues. Because each jurisdiction has its own customs and laws that must be considered in conjunction with U.S. laws, cross-border planning presents a series of unique issues that require the counsel of an experienced team.

Over the past several decades, our Trust & Estate Planning practice has helped hundreds of families navigate the succession, inheritance, and tax laws in the United States and many other jurisdictions, most notably in Asia, Canada, and Europe. We regularly advise U.S. citizens with non-resident beneficiaries or foreign assets, as well as foreign nationals with U.S. beneficiaries or U.S. assets, on their wealth transfer and tax structuring matters. We have developed significant depth of experience in addressing the unique aspects of cross-border planning to ensure that the acquisition, retention, and disposition of assets fulfill our client’s succession objectives in a tax-efficient manner.

Fiduciary and Investment Services

Our team provides executor and trustee services through Perkins Coie Trust Company. As one of the few firms in the country to offer in-house fiduciary and investment services, we help many clients with their legal, estate planning, trust and investment management needs.

Comprehensive Personal Planning Representation

Clients also seek our advice on succession plans, nonprofits, planned giving programs, tax-exempt organizations, charitable trusts and private foundations. Should disputes or conflicts arise, our national Litigation practice can help financial institutions, individual trustees, personal representatives and individual beneficiaries with a full spectrum of litigation services.

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Perkins Coie Trust Company

Perkins Coie Trust Company LLC, a trust company chartered in the state of Washington, is a wholly owned affiliate of Perkins Coie LLP. Perkins Coie Trust Company provides trust and estate administration, investment management and financial planning services. Our professionals work in concert with the lawyers of Perkins Coie LLP to help our clients navigate changing tax laws, volatile financial markets and increasingly complex investment options so that our clients can ensure their long-term financial security—and that of their families and other beneficiaries.

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