Trusts and Estates

The estate planning attorneys in the Firm’s trusts and estates department are accomplished in estate and gift planning, probate, executive compensation and retirement planning, and estate and trust administration. Our clients range from high net worth individuals to those of more modest means. We represent several generations in certain families of significant wealth. Individuals with large or modest estates find comfort in dealing with experienced attorneys who understand their planning needs. In addition to our individual clients, we represent public and private charitable organizations and foundations.

Our clients seek imaginative and creative methods of accumulating, managing, preserving and transferring wealth. We assist them in creating wills and trusts, building their estates and planning for the transfer of property to family members and other beneficiaries in ways that generally minimize income, gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes. We also counsel clients on planning for future needs such as college education, health care, elder care and retirement. Depending on the needs of each particular client, our estate planning attorneys can develop simple or very sophisticated plans and prepare the documents necessary to implement those plans. Our trusts and estates lawyers also draw on the resources of lawyers from our other practice groups including tax, corporate, real estate and elder care, to provide our clients with comprehensive advice. In particular, our trusts and estates attorneys work closely with our tax attorneys. Together these groups use their substantial expertise in estate planning techniques to minimize our clients’ present and future tax burdens as well as to preserve wealth.

The Firm recognizes that both individuals and families of significant wealth have exceptional needs. To assist these clients we offer a service we refer to as the "family office". Our family office practice provides a sophisticated and objective approach to helping families preserve, manage and integrate their wealth and family life in an effective manner. Our services range from tax planning and investment advice to corporate, business and family strategies, all in the context of a traditional legal environment.

Within the trusts and estates department we have talented estate litigators with significant experience in estate disputes. These attorneys are skilled in handling probate disputes, will contests and a variety of other contested litigation matters stemming from the distribution of inherited wealth.

The Firm's trusts and estates clients seek more than our legal advice. They value our discretion, judgment and prompt personal service. As a group, the Firm’s trusts and estates attorneys exhibit exceptional sensitivity and dedication to our clients’ varied needs.