McGrath North's estate planning group has substantial experience in all aspects of estate planning. We work with clients who need simple estate plans and clients requiring sophisticated business succession and wealth transfer tax planning ideas. Our objective is to work with each client on an individual basis, determine that client's goals and needs, and develop a plan that will best achieve them.

Estate Planning  With every client, we realize that a basic estate plan is critically important. Our estate planners counsel clients in wills, the use of revocable living trusts, financial powers of attorney, and health care documents. The use of life insurance trusts and education funding plans are also planning tools that our estate planning attorneys address and implement when appropriate. The firm is involved in all aspects of this planning, from drafting the documents to implementing and funding the various vehicles used. We also advise clients on the use of guardianships, conservatorships, and dealing with children or other family members with special needs.

Business Succession and Tax Planning  Our estate planning attorneys have extensive experience in developing creative estate plans for business owners, understanding the need to integrate the estate plan, the business plan, and the plan for succession of the family business to younger generations. McGrath North has worked with businesses of all sizes and businesses representing a wide spectrum of industries. Each business owner has their own goals and objectives, and our main purpose is to identify those goals and objectives and develop tax, estate, and succession plans that will achieve them.

Our estate planners are also experienced in developing gifting programs, both charitable and non-charitable, utilizing the most efficient gifting techniques and vehicles, including charitable foundations, charitable trusts, remainder trusts, family limited partnerships, family limited liability companies, and other strategies. We also counsel clients on generation-skipping transfers and the techniques available to minimize wealth transfer taxes on such transactions.

Estate Administration  McGrath North's estate planning group also represents trustees and personal representatives throughout the estate administration process. We realize that the administration of an estate can be a difficult and trying time for members of the family. Our goal is to make the administration process as simple as possible for those who have been designated as personal representatives or trustees. The firm is actively involved and works closely with the personal representatives and trustees, both individual and corporate, in all aspects of the administration process, including all areas of probate administration, completion of federal and state estate and inheritance tax returns, trust funding and distribution of assets.

Our estate planning group is also experienced in providing advice on trust administration issues to professional and non-professional trustees. We provide legal and tax advice during the ongoing administration that is necessary for many trusts established during the initial administration process. We also represent beneficiaries in trusts and estate matters.

Representative Projects

• Advised on and prepared estate plans and gift programs for thousands of families and business owners, ranging in size from a simple plan for a young couple with life insurance as the their principal legacy to sophisticated and complex plans for high net-worth individuals with estates in excess of $100 million.
• Prepared, and advised clients and their families on, such trust oriented planning devices as grantor retained annuity trusts (so-called "zeroed-out" GRATs), including the use of GRATs for the transfer of S corporation stock; zeroed-out charitable lead trusts (CLATs); grantor trusts; dynasty trusts and other forms of generation-skipping trusts (GST trusts); irrevocable life insurance trusts; qualified subchapter S trusts (QSSTs); and electing small business trusts (ESBTs).
• Worked on and advised clients and their families on the use and application of family limited liability companies, family limited partnerships, qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs), fractional interests in real estate and other valuation discount planning arrangements.
• Consults with family owned corporations in dealing with several family groups that own the outstanding capital stock in addressing governance, succession, exit and tax planning alternatives to satisfy the diverse family, business and estate planning objectives of the shareholders.
• Advised clients on and assisted them in implementing various sophisticated charitable giving techniques such as charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, pooled income funds, charitable gift annuities, charitable stock bailouts, among other transactions.
• Successfully represented many clients in connection with their income, wealth transfer tax and tax examinations and appeals.