Estate Planning

Our firm attorneys craft comprehensive, well-designed estate plans tailored to the needs of each client. We help our clients organize their personal and financial affairs in order to provide security and peace of mind to their loved ones in the event of an unexpected death or disability.  We develop legal documents which will implement the estate plan best suited achieve the client’s personal and financial goals. These documents will often address a variety of unique circumstances: a second marriage, a disabled child, corporate compensation issues, estranged family members, a potential inheritance, a non-citizen spouse, heirs with addiction issues, imminent divorce, or ownership of property in another state, all of which require special attention and advice. Due consideration is given to the proper designation of beneficiaries on retirement vehicles and life insurance. In every case we look to achieving the disposition of assets at the least tax cost to the client during lifetime and upon death.

Our recommended Estate Plans may include:

•            Wills and Trusts
•             Powers of Attorney
•             Revocable Living Trusts
•             Living Wills/Advanced Directives
•             Medical Powers of Attorney
•             Pre-Nuptial and Post-Nuptial Agreements
•             Special Needs Trusts
•             Irrevocable Trusts

Tax Planning for Wealth Preservation

The firm’s experienced tax attorneys help our clients successfully navigate the maze of ever-changing state and federal tax laws governing transfer of wealth during lifetime and upon death. Our firm attorneys understand the interplay of income tax, gift tax, federal estate tax, state estate and inheritance tax, and generation skipping tax laws and use this expertise to preserve wealth for our clients and their heirs. We utilize all available tools and techniques to create a customized plan to reduce or eliminate any adverse tax impact. All wealth preservation plans recommended by our firm are unique to the individual client and designed to meet their specific goals and circumstances. In designing a plan for a client, we often work closely with the client’s preferred accountant, financial professional, and insurance professional to ensure a family’s financial well being or to secure the continuity of a family business.

The full range of Tax Planning services includes:

•    Sophisticated Wills and Trusts
•    Gift Tax Planning including Preparation of Federal Gift Tax Returns.
•   Life Insurance Trusts
•   Personal Residence Trusts
•   Irrevocable Trusts
•   Retirement Benefit Planning
•   Business Succession Planning
•   Personal Income Tax Planning
•   Minors Trusts

Estate and Trust Administration

Our firm provides the full range of trust and estate administration services. Administration of a decedent’s estate generally involves the determination and valuation of assets, probate of a will,satisfaction of outstanding debts, payment of income and death taxes, and finally distribution of assets to heirs, often in the manner specified in the decedent’s will or trust. Our attorneys provide invaluable guidance to executors and trustees of both large and small estates in the proper execution of their fiduciary responsibilities to heirs. Many of our estate administration clients reside in other regions of the country and rely on us to properly help them administer an estate or trust in New Jersey or Pennsylvania.

Due to the frequent and complex changes in the federal and state death tax laws, estate administration has become incredibly complex and subject to traps for the unwary executor. Our attorneys use their considerable experience to assist executors and trustees to navigate the many tax elections, post mortem planning decisions, and tax filings necessary to complete administration process. Our expertise often allows clients to avoid pitfalls which may otherwise prevent a smooth, uneventful estate or trust administration. The process even for many seemingly simple estates can be easily derailed by a missed deadline, unfound assets, forgotten tax elections, late filings, and lack of communication with heirs, all of which can serve to turn a simple estate into a complex, messy one ripe for unnecessary litigation. Our vast experience in this area ensures that the goals of the deceased individual are carried out as planned and at the least tax and administrative cost to heirs.

Finally, the death of a loved one is often the case in many of the estates we handle, and for many of our clients this proves not to be an easy process.  We pride ourselves on guiding clients to bring the administration to a successful conclusion efficiently and without undue delay, but with the compassion and understanding which is deserved.

Estate and Trust Administration services include:

•             Probate in all New Jersey and Pennsylvania counties
•             Preparation/filing of death tax returns, including:
•             Preparation/filing of Federal Estate Tax Returns
•             Preparation/filing of New Jersey Estate Tax Returns
•             Preparation/filing of New Jersey Inheritance Tax Returns
•             Preparation/filing of Pennsylvania Inheritance Returns
•             Preparation/filing of Federal Gift Tax Returns
•             Accounting and Estate Litigation Support