Trusts & Estates

With estate planning often a daunting task for many people, Dilworth Paxson's Trusts and Estates Group takes great care in guiding their clients through the host of essential vehicles to ensure their assets are appropriately preserved and their wishes are implemented.

In addition to preparing routine estate planning documents, Dilworth's Trusts and Estates attorneys advise clients regarding:

• Income, gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer tax planning
• Charitable giving
• Structuring ownership and preservation of family-owned property and business interests
• Creating and operating charitable foundations
• Designing and coordinating multi-jurisdictional estate plans
• Problems associated with the very young, the disabled, the incapacitated and the aging.

We also counsel executors, trustees, and guardians concerning estate and trust administration, fiduciaries with property in several jurisdictions and countries, and trustees and directors of charitable organizations.

Collectively, we have more than 80 years of experience in the preparation of revocable (living) and irrevocable trusts; charitable split-interest trusts; life insurance trusts; trusts for minors; wills; premarital and post-marital property agreements; durable powers of attorney for health care decisions and for financial decisions; custodianships; and guardianships. We regularly administer estates and trusts for our clients, including a full range of tax preparation, bookkeeping and fiduciary accounting services for individuals acting as fiduciaries.

Our Group provides complete postmortem tax planning, including the preparation of all federal and state tax returns, audit and tax negotiation and litigation proceedings.

In addition to our estate administration, the Trusts and Estates Group has an active probate litigation practice. Our experience extends to virtually every aspect of probate and trust-related litigation, representing individual, corporate fiduciaries, and financial institutions.

Matters regularly handled by the Firm's Trusts and Estates lawyers include:

• Will contests
• Undue influence proceedings
• Breach of fiduciary duty actions
• Surcharge actions
• Will and trust construction proceedings
• Guardianship proceedings for minors and incapacitated persons
• Liability claims
• Estate administration disputes

For questions or additional information, please contact John R. Latourette, Chair of the Trusts & Estates Group.

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