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Experience
Personal Planning
Creation of Private Foundation
Created private foundations to hold family assets, including family foundation counseling and grant-making consultation and advice.
Establish Charitable Remainder Trusts
Advised clients on and implemented structured charitable remainder trusts to achieve asset diversification for clients with low basis marketable securities.
Estate Distribution
Advised on post-mortem establishment of a timber management company to facilitate estate distribution and qualification for deferral of estate tax payments.
Estate Planning and Investing
Advised client on the use of family partnerships and limited liability companies to hold vested non-statutory stock options in Fortune 500 companies for estate planning, investment and management purposes.
Multi-generational Estate and Asset Planning
Advising clients on multi-generational estate and asset planning of families owning large operating businesses.
Tax and Estate Planning
Provide ongoing consultation with an active multi-functional family office on a wide range of tax, estate planning and administrative matters.
IRS Private Letter Ruling 200318064
Formation of trust by state, which authorized that a binding agreement does not result in a gift under IRS Code 2511.
IRS Private Letter Ruling 200122024
Determined that changes to articles of incorporation did not affect grandfathered status of buy-sell provisions contained in the articles of incorporation for federal gift tax and generation skipping tax purposes.
IRS Private Letter Ruling 9451056
Obtained approval on structure of complex grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs) with revocable spousal annuities.
IRS Private Letter Ruling 9131006
Technical Advice Memorandum on transfers of limited partnership units to family members as gifts eligible for annual gift tax exclusion.
Estate Planning Documents in Context of Family Dynamics
Assisting clients in the preparation of their wills, trusts, powers of attorneys and healthcare documents with an eye to internal family dynamics and the family members' abilities to handle fiduciary and business decisions. This process often includes consideration as to whether non-family executors and trustees may benefit the estate or trust administration. These documents include: revocable living trusts for lifetime management of assets or out-of-state real property to avoid probate, as well as durable powers of attorney for financial and healthcare decisions, Durable Powers of Attorney (DPA), healthcare directives and living wills, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) authorizations for release of protected healthcare information, and premarital and postnuptial property status agreements that clarify status of community and separate property.
Family Office Planning
Providing ongoing consultation with active multi-functional family offices on a wide range of tax, investment management, estate planning and governance matters.
Gift Planning
Providing advice on tax efficient gifting to children and grandchildren, including drafting and implementing "Crummey" Trusts, Generation-Skipping Trusts, Residence Trusts (QPRTs), Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs) and Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILITs). We also assisted clients with education savings planning, including tax effects of 529 Plans, and provided advice on tax efficient giving to charities, including Charitable Lead Trusts and Charitable Remainder Trusts (CLATs, CLUTs, CRATs and CRUTs). In addition, we prepared estate and gift tax forecasts and plans for payment of estate taxes for business succession.
Limited Liability Companies and Family Limited Partnerships
Established limited liability companies (LLCs) and family limited partnerships (FLPs) for the management of family real estate and other assets among multiple generations of the same family.
Maintaining the Privacy of Recognizable Individuals
Working with well-known clients and families to develop and implement a variety of strategies, including title-holding and fictitious name trusts, to enable them to buy, sell and hold real estate and other assets without the risk of being identified and located through searchable public records.
Mediation
Representing clients in the negotiation of mediated agreements covering a wide variety of trust and estate disputes.
Private Foundations & Charitable Trusts
Assisted clients in establishing private foundations or charitable trusts to hold family assets. These include endowment agreements with various educational or charitable institutions. Provided ongoing family foundation counseling and grant making consultation and advice.
Probate and Trust Administration
Advising clients on estate and trust administration, probate, estate and trust dispute resolution matters and the preparation of gift and estate tax returns, including:
- Representing executors or administrators (a.k.a. personal representatives) of estates and trustees of trusts in the fulfillment of fiduciary duties,
- Representing beneficiaries regarding their interests in estates and trusts, and
- Advising and drafting nonjudicial binding agreements to modify will or trust terms or to settle fiduciary disputes
Tax Representation
Preparing gift tax returns to report taxable gifts and federal and Washington estate tax returns and represented taxpayers on estate and gift tax audits.
