Solutions for Individuals, Families & Businesses

No matter what type of work we do for our clients, our focus is on helping them achieve their goals. Whether you are a creative entrepreneur, a family with young children, or someone approaching retirement age, we can provide the legal tools and guidance to help you satisfy your needs.

Estate Planning

We will help you with estate planning and retirement planning to ensure that your wishes are followed and your family is protected. Our services are also aimed to minimize the costs and expenses of probate.

Comprehensive Estate Planning

This area encompasses a broad range of services:

‣ Creating wills, trusts, durable powers of attorney, and advanced health care directives (living wills) that accomplish your goals and that you will understand

‣ The efficient transfer of assets from you to your beneficiaries

‣ Setting up guardians for any minor children

‣ Protecting your beneficiaries and your legacy through the use of trusts and other methods

‣ Ensuring proper handling of your assets in the event of
disability

‣ Analyzing how both state and federal taxes will affect you and your beneficiaries and providing you with the most appropriate strategy

‣ Helping you make informed choices of executors, trustees, guardians, agents, and other fiduciaries

‣ Providing a cost-effective client maintenance program that allows you to make future changes to your estate plan and contact us with follow-up questions as they arise

Retirement Planning

As more wealth flows into retirement plans, proper planning with regard to your retirement accounts is crucial. The ramifications of improper or neglected beneficiary designations, for example, are often under-appreciated. Some designations can interfere with your intended beneficiaries receiving their share.

Others steal the opportunity to take advantage of stretching out payments from retirement accounts over time, resulting in a potentially heavier tax burden for your beneficiaries. If, like many people, you made designations long ago and your situation has now changed, we can help you make sure your intentions are honored.

Trusts are often crucial tools to maximize the choices a retirement account holder has and the ways in which the account holder can efficiently transfer the wealth accumulated in retirement accounts at the time of death. We can help you in establishing a trust that will work to achieve the results you seek.

Charitable Giving

Many of our clients would like to give back to charities of their choice. We can assist you in choosing ways in which to give to your favorite charities and enjoy any tax benefits associated with such gifts.

Probate

We will guide you through probate and help you resolve disputes among beneficiaries and decedent’s creditors to settle your loved one’s estate.

We can represent you in probate court from start to finish to settle your loved one’s estate by providing services such as:

‣ Filing petitions and giving proper notice to all heirs and creditors

‣ Preparing an inventory of all assets and debts the decedent

‣ Providing guidance on payment of all estate expenses, funeral expenses, debts and taxes

‣ Properly transferring title of all real properties to heirs or intended beneficiaries

‣ Preparing the proper federal and state tax returns

‣ Disputing claims from other beneficiaries, demands from a decedent’s creditors, and letters from the Internal Revenue Service

Business Law

We will provide you with smart business counseling, from setting up a proper entity, guiding you through transactions, and creating a succession plan.

We provide a wide range of services to business: from setting up a proper entity and negotiating contracts, to providing day-to-day advice and guiding you through significant transactions.

In addition, we focus on creating a succession plan for your business, structuring it with potential estate and income tax considerations in mind. In some instances, setting up an appropriate entity and advising you on how to take advantage of the protections afforded by such an entity is important.

In other cases, a solution for an individual or business may be as simple as choosing appropriate insurance policies. When that is the objective, we work with dedicated insurance professionals who can help you with these needs.