Estates and Trusts

Cohen & Grigsby’s Estates and Trusts attorneys counsel individuals, families, U.S. and foreign corporations, and partnerships in developing tax planning strategies, administering estates and trusts, and handling tax controversy matters and other adversarial proceedings.

Progressive law emphasizes problem solving and client service. We offer proactive strategies and solutions and are open, accessible and highly responsive, placing business and the needs of our clients first. Our work is aggressive and focused. We are proud to offer a different kind of law better aligned with today’s business needs. Progressive law.

Traditional Estate Planning
We provide a broad spectrum of legal services and often partner with our clients’ investment advisers, accountants, and life underwriters to:

Structure domestic and international estate, gift, income, and generation-skipping tax planning.
Prepare wills and trusts in light of special circumstances including multigenerational wealth transfer, second marriages, charitable aspirations, and care of family members with special needs.
Structure lifetime gifting programs through use of outright gifts or by gifts in trust.
Plan for times of disability through living wills (often referred to as Advanced Directives for Health Care), powers of attorney for management of property, durable healthcare proxies, and revocable trusts.
Minimize income and estate taxes through outright charitable gifts, gift annuities, charitable lead trusts, and charitable remainder trusts.
Provide estate planning advice in connection with closely-held businesses, including shareholder’s agreements, restructuring, dissolution, and transferring business interests to “younger generations” of owners.
Administer estates, trusts, and guardianships utilizing state-of-the-art software comparable to that used by commercial trust companies.
Represent individuals as beneficiaries of existing estates and trusts.
Counsel personal representatives and trustees concerning estate and trust administration, fiduciaries with property in multiple jurisdictions, and trustees and directors of charitable, educational, and other public benefit organizations.

As modern estate planning extends beyond the traditional execution of testamentary documents, our lawyers have a referral network that includes the leading providers of financial planning, long-term care insurance, nursing home and assisted living facility placement, estate asset valuation, sale and liquidation, and Medicaid consulting.

The Firm also handles various specialized legal issues involving the estate or trust such as sales of art, real estate, and other assets and enforcement of legal rights by or against the estate or trust.

Estate and Fiduciary Litigation
Cohen & Grigsby’s attorneys also combine practical experience with broad-based litigation knowledge in the representation of fiduciaries, which allows us to offer our clients an understandable, practical and comprehensive approach in all substantive and procedural aspects of an estates and trusts practice in both federal and state courts. We have represented corporate and individual fiduciaries in such matters as accountings, surcharge and removal actions, interpretation issues, reformation of governing instruments and tax planning and tax controversies. We have represented individuals in contests of testamentary instruments, incapacity proceedings and the disposition of assets. We have resolved these matters through negotiation, alternative dispute resolution mechanism or trial. Our representation has included the following:

Defended a corporate fiduciary in a surcharge action challenging Executor’s commissions and administration expenditures.
Obtained a favorable federal estate valuation of a structured settlement.
Defended an individual acting as an agent under a Durable Financial Power of Attorney in a surcharge action involving the investment of the principal’s funds.
Recovered significant funds improperly gifted by an agent under a Durable Financial Power of Attorney.
Prosecuted and defended “will contests.”
Obtained court approval of a complicated post-mortem estate plan designed to maximize federal estate and generation-skipping transfer tax savings through reformation, disclaimer and division of the resultant trusts
Obtained the appointment of neutral administrators in contentious guardianship and estate administration matters.