Tax, Trusts & Estates

The Cole Schotz Tax, Trusts & Estates attorneys counsel individuals and businesses in a range of tax and estate planning strategies. Our clients include owners of family businesses where succession planning and asset protection are linked, and individuals of substantial means who wish to take advantage of sophisticated tax planning techniques to retain and build their wealth for future generations.

Tax Planning

Without proper planning, individuals can end up paying more in taxes than they have to. We work closely with our clients to develop the best planning techniques for both their current needs and long-term personal goals. We counsel our clients on all tax-related issues involving estate planning, taking into consideration federal and state estate taxes, inheritance taxes, income taxes and generation skipping transfer taxes, as well as partnership and subchapter S tax issues. We also handle gift and estate tax audits.

The planning options we employ are designed to minimize our clients’ tax liability so they can retain more of the money they have earned or inherited. These include Qualified Personal Residence Trusts, Family Limited Partnerships, Limited Liability Companies, Grantor Trusts, Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts and sales transactions with self canceling installment notes.

Estate Planning

We work with domestic and international clients and their families to cover a broad spectrum of personal planning needs, including estate planning, special needs planning, estate administration and charitable planning. In doing so, we listen carefully to our clients, addressing their unique needs and concerns and helping them achieve their wealth transfer goals.

We also assist clients in preparing wills, powers of attorney and health care proxies and trusts, and in formulating ways to minimize estate taxes and make tax efficient gifts.

On behalf of our business and corporate clients, we coordinate business succession planning, manage control issues and coordinate assets, including insurance and retirement plans.

Estate Administration

In addition to our estate planning skills, we have a wealth of experience in estate administration in New York, New Jersey and Florida. We handle the probate process, assist in valuing assets, prepare and file state and federal estate and inheritance tax returns, prepare disclaimers and handle postmortem tax planning. We are experienced in working with families during periods of grief and strive to make the process as simple and comfortable as possible.

Probate Litigation

When the need arises, our Tax, Trusts & Estates attorneys team up with members of our Litigation department to handle complex probate and trust disputes. We represent estate executors, trustees and beneficiaries, working to resolve issues stemming from ambiguous will or trust provisions, contested wills and trusts, and breaches of fiduciary trust, including asset mismanagement, reformation of trust actions and actions to remove fiduciaries.

We are acutely aware of the financial and emotional toll that these disputes can have on our clients, particularly on families. We maintain a close relationship with our clients throughout the process, keeping their priorities and objectives top of mind and involving them in all strategic decisions.

We succeeded in substantiating, in IRS proceedings, the transfer of approximately $6 million of assets out of a client’s taxable estate shortly before the client’s death with no transfer tax consequences. The taxpayer funded a limited partnership with $10 million of assets and then sold a 50% limited partnership interest to her children in exchange for a private annuity, transferred approximately 10% to a charitable lead trust and transferred small percentage interests to the taxpayer’s children and grandchildren. These strategies saved the family approximately $3 million in estate taxes.

• Cole Schotz Attorneys Author Book on Relocating to Florida

• Estate Planning for Families with a Special Needs Child, Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC), December 16, 2009
• Estate and Business Planning for Closely-Held Business Owners, Women Presidents Organization, November 17, 2009

• Ask A Lawyer: How to Transfer Sales to a Child, The Record, June 3, 2010
• Structuring a Foreigner's Purchase of U.S. Situs Real Estate, New Jersey Law Journal, March 29, 2010
• Simple Goals in a Complex World, The Hedge Fund Law Report, March 18, 2010
• A Look at the Current Muddled State of the Federal Estate Tax, New York Law Journal, February 10, 2010
• Estate Planning With Real Estate: Special Issues and Potential Pitfalls, New Jersey Law Journal, November 9, 2009