Our Services
Estate Planning
Proper estate planning helps you preserve your story: how you lived and the legacy you leave.
Estate planning is essential for ensuring that your wishes are respected and your legacy is preserved after you pass away. It provides peace of mind knowing that your assets are distributed according to your desires, minimizing potential disputes among heirs. Our services guide you in drafting wills, setting up trusts, and planning for future healthcare needs, ensuring your instructions are clear and legally binding. Let us help you secure your family's future and protect what matters most to you.
Business Succession Planning
We aim to help business owners sell their business when they want, for the money they need, to the person they choose.
Selling a business is a significant milestone. Our goal is to empower business owners like you to exit your business on your own terms—when you want, for the price you need, and to the buyer you choose. We specialize in evaluating your business, preparing it for sale, and negotiating the best possible deal, ensuring a smooth and profitable transition. With our expert guidance, you can achieve the successful sale you envision.
Trust Administration
One of the most important decisions families make is choosing the right individual or institution to carry out the fiduciary duties. Mark can serve as trustee and work with your other advisors to carry out your wishes.
Choosing the right trustee is critical in trust administration, affecting how well your estate is managed after your death. We assist families in selecting the most suitable individual or institution to handle their trust, focusing on integrity, capability, and alignment with family values. Our comprehensive support covers everything from trustee selection to ongoing management, helping ensure that your trust operates smoothly and according to your exact wishes.
Asset Protection
We represent professionals, small business owners, property owners, and other clients with the goal of protecting their assets against potential litigation, judgements, liens, and fraud.
Protecting your assets is crucial in today's litigious society. Whether you are a professional, a small business owner, or a property owner, our asset protection services are designed to safeguard your wealth from potential litigation, judgments, liens, and fraud. We specialize in creating legal strategies that fortify your assets against unforeseen claims, ensuring that your financial future remains secure. Let us help you build a shield around your assets, giving you the confidence to focus on what you do best.
Trust and Estate Litigation
We aim for smooth transitions in estate planning, but sometimes litigation is unavoidable. While we strive to resolve issues through mediation, our experience ensures robust defense of the estate and its beneficiaries if litigation is necessary.
Everything we do in creating an estate plan is to assist in a smooth transition. However, there are times when that's just not possible, and litigation becomes necessary. Litigation for any reason is generally unpleasant, but it seems even worse when loved ones fight one another. We will do everything in our power to resolve any issues outside of litigation, such as through mediation or other means. If that fails, we will use our years of experience to defend the estate and the chosen beneficiaries.
Special Needs Trust
If you currently provide care for a child or loved one with special needs, a Special Needs Trust can be used for a variety of life-enhancing expenditures without compromising your loved one’s eligibility for government assistance.
Creating a Special Needs Trust is a vital step for those who care for a child or loved one with special needs. This type of trust allows you to enhance the quality of life for your loved one by providing for life-enhancing expenditures, all without jeopardizing their eligibility for government assistance programs. Whether it's funding educational opportunities, medical care, or personal needs, a Special Needs Trust ensures that your loved one receives the support they need while maintaining crucial benefits. Let us guide you in establishing a trust that secures your loved one's financial future and well-being.
Examples of our services in action
(the facts are close to real, the names are not)
The Williams Family Business
The Williams Family owned a successful family business that had been passed down through multiple generations. As the business and family’s wealth grew, they knew they needed comprehensive estate planning to protect their legacy. By working with our team, they were able to establish a robust trust structure that minimized estate taxes, provided seamless transition of the business ownership, and ensured their philanthropic wishes would be carried out. This gave the Williams family peace of mind knowing their hard-earned assets would be preserved for their children and grandchildren.
Sally and Jim's Real Estate Business
Sally and Jim were entrepreneurs in their 40s who started a successful real estate business. They had done very little estate planning and were seeking guidance on how to structure their personal and business affairs in order to protect their assets from lawsuits and creditors. They needed guidance on how to structure their personal and business assets through the use of trusts and limited liability companies in order to have as much protection as possible.
Floyd and Jennifer's Comprehensive Estate Plan
Floyd was a recently retired executive looking to develop a more sophisticated estate plan to complement his substantial wealth. We worked with him to review his asset holdings and retirement options, establish revocable living trusts, powers of attorney, and advance directives for health care. This comprehensive plan gave the client confidence that his affairs were in order and his loved ones would be cared for, allowing him to enjoy his retirement years with greater peace of mind.
Brad and Laurie's Trusts
Brad and Laurie have three children (ages nineteen, fifteen and eight) and want to get their affairs in order in case something happens to them. We worked with them to draft wills which named guardians for their minor children and set up trusts for the children’s benefit if they are underage when something happens to both parents. In addition, we set up powers of attorney to allow them to handle each other’s personal and business affairs if one of them was to become incapacitated. They slept better at night knowing that their children were going to be cared for when they were gone.