Overview
Cox Castle has extensive expertise in the areas of wills, trusts, and post-death and fiduciary administration. Estate and business succession planning are of critical importance to our clients, many of whom are entrepreneurs or heads of public or closely held businesses.
Over the years, we have developed and implemented sophisticated plans designed to carry out the personal and family objectives of our clients in a sensitive manner while minimizing income, estate, gift, generation-skipping transfer and property taxes. Our attorneys advise clients in estate and succession planning matters with a focus not only on the disposition of a client's wealth/property at death, but also with finding planning opportunities that arise during a person's lifetime.
In addition to the planning aspect of our practice, we have developed strong expertise in probate, trust, conservatorship, and guardianship administrative matters. These include planning, preparation, and audit of estate tax returns; representation of fiduciaries (i.e., trustees and executors) in administrative and dispute matters; representation of clients in will contests and other intrafamily disputes; and representation of beneficiaries in actions against fiduciaries.
Our specialized Trusts & Estates attorneys concentrate their efforts in the following areas:
- Living trusts and wills that provide for disposition of a client's assets at death in a tax-efficient and administratively streamlined manner, and for management of property during the client’s lifetime in case of disability
- Irrevocable trusts and related lifetime gift-planning structured to maximize estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax savings, and/or income tax savings, to provide creditor protection and to preserve resources available for the support and education of intended beneficiaries
- Family partnerships, joint ventures, and limited liability companies to develop, operate, and manage real estate and other business enterprises
- The creation of business structures to maximize deferral of estate taxes and the implementation of buy-out agreements and insurance programs to ensure that sufficient liquid assets will be available to pay taxes
- Planning and negotiating prenuptial agreements, cohabitation agreements, and other arrangements to protect assets and earnings from potential claims of divorcing-spouses or others
- Planning and negotiating specialized marital settlement agreements to provide for the continued unified operation and control of a family business and investment properties following a divorce
- Planning to incorporate the philanthropic goals of clients, including the establishment and maintenance of tax-exempt charitable foundations