Estate Planning Attorneys

Our general estate planning services include the preparation of wills, revocable and testamentary trusts, durable powers of attorney, health care powers of attorney and advance directives for a natural death (living wills). We also advise clients who have family members with disabilities on the creation of special or supplemental needs trusts.

Our trust and estate planning lawyers work closely with individuals and families to understand their needs and then craft comprehensive, tailored estate plans. We help our clients decipher the income, estate and other taxes on their wealth transfers to their chosen beneficiaries and assist them in making thoughtful choices. We have the depth of experience required to work with complex and larger estates, and advise clients on creative tax and charitable strategies as well as addressing beneficiaries with special needs.

Trusts are among the most important and powerful estate planning tools available today. Trusts help protect your assets and help your family avoid expense, time and the probate process. In addition, trusts help avoid some of the cumbersome paperwork when your estate settles. The estate planning attorneys at Blanco Tackabery can help determine if a trust is the right instrument for your needs.

We counsel clients on sophisticated wealth transfer techniques, designed to minimize or eliminate estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes. This may include the creation of irrevocable trusts for generation-skipping or other tax planning purposes, or trusts for specific assets, such as life insurance or personal residences. We also provide advice on the creation of family partnerships and limited liability companies to provide for family management of assets and facilitate gifting. These lawyers are skilled at negotiating a wide array of family dynamics by implementing creative strategies through trusts to protect assets being passed between generations and assisting with the efficient transfer of business ownership.

Charitable gifts are one of the best ways for individuals or families to help out others while managing your tax exposure. Gifts can be an effective means of reducing estate and other taxes. For clients with charitable objectives, we assist with the creation of private foundations and charitable trusts, as well as advise them on other charitable giving techniques. We provide comprehensive guidance on the most effective ways to implement charitable donations. We can help to see that your gift is set up to perform optimally from a philanthropic and tax-planning perspective.

We are experienced in advising closely-held business owners on the transfer of ownership and management to the next generation in a tax efficient manner. We often recommend and assist with the creation or restructuring of corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies to achieve these planning objectives. Having a well-designed business succession plan in place is important to your company’s long-term health as well as your own. We help business owners develop and implement comprehensive business succession plans that protect against any number of disruptive events like death, disability or disputes with business partners.

In addition to helping clients prepare their estate plan, we assist individual and corporate executors and trustees with all legal aspects of the estate and trust administration process. This includes preparing and filing inventories and accountings for the estate, negotiating and paying claims, preparing federal estate tax returns, and assisting with the sale of assets and distribution to beneficiaries. We are also well prepared to counsel clients on the implementation of an estate plan after death with guidance to personal representatives, fiduciaries and trustees. Our Trusts and Estates Practice Group includes dedicated estate administration paralegals that are able to navigate the judicial red tape of probate filings and inventories.

We represent clients in a variety of cases involving trusts and estates, including trust disputes, will contests, and proceedings to terminate or modify irrevocable trusts.

We recognize our clients’ lives are unique. Our attorneys have extensive experience in developing estate plans tailored to accomplish your philanthropic and tax reduction goals, and manage your legacy beyond your lifetime. Our trust and estate lawyers are well situated with our other practice groups as colleagues who provide industry and asset-specific knowledge applicable in tailoring an estate plan, funding trusts and addressing other business needs.

We believe all of our clients need individualized estate plans to prepare not only tax and wealth transfers at death but possible incapacity – our trust and estate lawyers are here to help and guide. Contact one of our attorneys to schedule an appointment to learn more about our estate planning services.

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