Life and Asset Planning

Practice Area

Working together with other related areas of the firm, our life and asset planning attorneys offer clients a big picture view of trust and estate matters, ranging from sophisticated legal solutions for high net-worth individuals, including business succession planning and family limited partnerships, to simple wills, and specialty services such as trusts for children with special needs and elder law and Medicaid planning.
Regardless of what stage of life clients are in, our attorneys help them identify their planning goals, provide advice, and prepare the necessary documents. At Harris Beach, we do not offer “one size fits all” plans, because each client’s circumstances are unique.

Many clients need only a simple Will, a Power of Attorney, and a Health Care Declaration (which includes a Health Care Proxy and Living Will). Others will need more complex planning.

Below are examples of trust services that may be appropriate for some clients:

Trust Services

Education and Support Trusts for Children
Clients with young children often need to establish a trust for education and support so that assets are properly managed if both parents pass on.

Trusts for Children with Special Needs
Trusts can be established for families where children have developmental disabilities, mental illness, a history of substance abuse, or other problems which require supervision of assets.

Family Limited Partnerships
Our attorneys have significant experience forming family limited partnerships to facilitate the transfer of valuable property and business assets to children and grandchildren while minimizing estate, gift, and generation skipping taxes.

Generation Skipping Trusts
Clients who wish to benefit not only their children, but also their grandchildren, may need to address generation skipping taxes as well as estate and gift taxes. We can help minimize or avoid these taxes.

Life Insurance Trusts
Life insurance benefits are not generally subject to income taxes, but they can be subject to estate taxes. We prepare trusts which can insulate life insurance benefits from estate taxes so that 100% of the benefits remain available to the family.

Marital Deduction and Credit Shelter Family Trusts
These trusts help clients reduce state and federal estate taxes.

Personal Residence Trusts
For clients who have valuable vacation property they wish to keep in the family, our attorneys prepare a personal residence trust to reduce estate and gift taxes.

Charitable Trusts
We help our clients fulfill their charitable objectives by creating trusts which have favorable income and estate tax consequences. For some clients, this means setting up a family charitable foundation, so that their descendants can continue the family tradition of making charitable gifts. For other clients, we set up charitable remainder trusts, so they can retain the use and benefit of the trust property for their lifetime, while naming one or more charities to receive the trust property when they die.

Elder Law & Medicaid Planning

To help clients deal with the special concerns that come with aging, we help in a number of ways. For many families, we establish standby living trusts. With this trust, a family member or a trust company can take responsibility for managing our client’s property should our client become disabled. This type of trust can also be used to distribute a client’s estate without having to utilize the probate process.

We help clients qualify for Medicaid benefits to meet the escalating costs of nursing home care. Our attorneys have developed strategies to enable our clients to preserve part of their assets for their family, while still receiving skilled nursing home care.

Our attorneys are also experienced in guardianship proceedings where a family member who has suffered a disabling illness or injury needs to have his or her affairs properly managed.

Business Succession Planning

We help business owners develop strategies for the transfer of their businesses to their children, while minimizing the impact of estate and gift taxes. Treating all children fairly can be difficult if only one child wishes to participate in the family business. Our attorneys have created approaches for effectively handling this situation.

Estate Administration

We routinely probate Wills and prepare all required estate and income tax returns, inventories, and accountings for executors and trustees. Our attorneys have successfully represented estates on many occasions in tax controversies with the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities. Our attorneys have also had significant experience litigating questions involving the validity and interpretation of Wills and Trusts.

Florida Law

Since many of our clients have ties to Florida, we offer a full range of estate planning and estate administration services, not only for Florida residents, but also for non-residents who own property in Florida. Several of our attorneys who practice exclusively in the Life & Asset Planning Practice Group are also admitted to practice in Florida.

Personal Tax Planning

To minimize our clients’ tax liability, we provide personal tax planning services. This planning can address charitable giving, intra-family gifts, separation or divorce, change of employment, or change of domicile, among other issues.

Retirement Planning

Qualified retirement plans and IRAs have become a major asset for many people. However, the tax issues governing distributions can be bewildering. We advise our clients as to beneficiary designations which have favorable tax consequences. In appropriate cases, we can help our clients use their retirement benefits to carry out their charitable objectives at substantial tax savings.