Trusts & Estates
Overview
Our Estate Planning and Administration team assists clients in all phases to help them have an efficient transfer of their assets, and assistance with legal filings in New York’s Surrogate’s Court.
Our first priority is understanding and helping clients formulate their estate goals and objectives. From there, our team devises and executes a plan to achieve a client’s individual goals, while considering legal issues and tax planning.
Wealth Planning
From the outset, our team focuses on a client’s objectives, family relationships, charitable goals, and will ensure those goals are met while utilizing a mix of federal and state estate tax planning options. Our goal is to maximize a client’s estate and minimize the tax burden. Our team works with clients, and their financial and accounting professionals, to design the right plan to meet the desired goals and objectives.
Our team is available to assist with all facets of estate planning, including international estate and tax planning needs.
Estate and Trust Administration and Litigation
Our team can handle not only estate planning, but also the estate probate and administration process. We can assist in all areas of the probate and administration process, post-mortem tax planning matters, and advising executors, administrators and trustees throughout all stages of their work.
Our team assists not only executors and trustees, but also beneficiaries, to protect them and ensure they receive guidance on their rights. Our practice covers not only administration, but also estate litigation, including will contests, accountings, spousal right of election, will/trust construction issues and litigation to collect wrongfully converted estate assets and trust.
Recent Matters
We advised a trust administrator responsible for distribution of assets and associated tax filings in multiple countries, including France.
We represented an estate administrator in litigation against an international party on an estate asset turnover matter, and obtained restitution to the estate in under a year, which is a highly atypical timeline.
We negotiated a prenuptial agreement that involved estate planning matters and assets located in multiple jurisdictions, including Europe, on behalf of a French national
Speaking Engagements
- The French heirship system and its shortcomings in international estate planning, November 12, 2015, New York Law School Tax Graduate Program & French American Bar Association, University School of Professional Studies, Conference, Exporting New York Estate Planning to the European Union: The French Case, Pierre Ciric ’09, Martha L. Voelz ’09