The Business Department specializes in estate planning for small and large estates, including lifetime and testamentary gift planning, drafting and administration of wills and living trusts (both revocable and irrevocable), charitable giving, and business succession planning.
The Business Department provides clients, both business clients and traditional estate planning clients, with over 60 years of experience in all areas of lifetime and testamentary gift planning, charitable giving and business succession planning. Each client's estate planning objectives, questions and concerns are given individual consideration and planning, especially from the standpoint of all relevant transfer tax issues (including federal gift, estate and generation skipping transfer taxes). After careful analysis, all relevant estate planning documents are drafted and reviewed by department counsel. Each set of estate planning documents delivered to the client is accompanied by a detailed letter describing each of the estate planning documents and highlighting in the documents the manner in which the client's specific objectives and concerns have been addressed.
Upon execution of the estate planning documents, the client is provided with an indexed estate planning binder containing copies of all of their estate planning documents. Thereafter, we regularly correspond with each estate planning client in an effort to keep them abreast of the major developments in the field of estate planning and to encourage a regular personal review of their estate planning documents in light of any changes that may have occurred in their respective lives.
In addition to preparing individualized estate plans, the Business Department also provides extensive tax and legal counseling in connection with the administration of individual trust estates, assists in the preparation and review of any required federal gift tax or estate tax return and the ultimate implementation of the client's estate plan as events require.