Estate Planning

CP2 provides comprehensive legal services in the areas of estate and business succession planning, as well as wealth preservation matters, to family-owned and managed businesses, closely-held businesses, families, individuals, estates, trusts and foundations. Whether designing a wealth transfer plan, working to minimize the impact of taxes, or helping clients fulfill their fiduciary obligations, our clients receive the benefit of creative, yet practical, real-life advice and solutions. We advise individuals, couples and families on difficult tax, business, wealth transfer and wealth preservation issues. We also work with our clients on related issues such as compliance with fiduciary obligations, trust and estate administration, philanthropic planning, as well as foundation creation and management.

Success for us is found in assisting our clients, their families and businesses through multiple generations. We work closely with our client’s current advisors, including accountants, investment professionals, family members and key business associates. We strive to be a valued member of each client’s advisor team and we respect the value and role of all members of each client’s team. When a client’s team requires additional resources, we offer introductions to the top talent in non-legal services, such as investment professionals and financial planners, investment bankers, accounting professionals, valuation consultants and insurance professionals. We promote no financial or other products and therefore, consider the full range of appropriate planning options and advisors.

Our team approach allows us to provide guidance and assistance in a wide range of areas including:

Business Succession Planning

• Business succession trusts
• Buy-sell agreements
• Comprehensive business succession planning
• Family limited partnerships and limited liability companies
• Key employee ownership and incentive compensation planning
• Tax advantaged transfers to family, co-owners and employees
• Third-party sales and reorganizations

Charitable Planning and Tax Exempt Organizations:

• Charitable gifting strategies
• Charitable trusts, including charitable lead annuity and unitrusts (CLATs and CLUTs) and charitable remainder annuity and unitrusts (CRATs and CRUTs)
• Conservation easements
• Family foundations
• Tax compliance, governance, risk management and other legal issues
• Tax exempt status

Income Tax:

• • Choice of entity/pass-through taxation
  • Fiduciary income tax planning
  • State income tax situs and minimization issues

Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution:

• • • Challenges regarding fiduciary duties
    • Tax controversy matters
    • Trust litigation, including construction, reformation, and fiduciary litigation
    • Will contests

Trust and Estate Administration:

• • • Complex estate administration
    • Family dispute resolution
    • Fiduciary duty issues and avoidance of conflicts of interest
    • Post-mortem tax planning strategies
    • Representation of individual and corporate fiduciaries
    • Trust construction and reformation
    • Trust management

Wealth Management:

• • • Full integration of Wealth Transfer Plans with other advisors
    • Information flow across multiple family entities
    • Legal and tax services
    • Legal aspects of investment services

Wealth Transfer Planning and Estate Planning:

• • • Asset titling and customized beneficiary designation
    • Community and marital property planning
    • Dynasty trusts
    • Gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer tax planning
    • Irrevocable trusts, including intentionally defective irrevocable trusts (IDITs), grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs), and irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs)
    • Powers of attorney and living wills
    • Values-based trusts
    • Wills and revocable trusts

In addition, CP2 provides membership in DocuBank as part of our 3-Step annual maintenance program to which many of our estate planning clients belong. If you are not a 3-Step client and wish to learn more about this program, or if you are interested in signing up for Docubank, please contact Peter B. Scott or K. Michelle AmRhein.

For more information on DocuBank please click here to watch a video.