Estate Planning & Probate

We have extensive experience in estate planning and estate administration. Our attorneys counsel clients and implement strategies to minimize federal estate and gift taxes while meeting the clients' specific desires. Recognizing that each client is an individual with particular needs, the firm uses wills, family limited partnerships, limited liability companies, both irrevocable and revocable trusts and charitable giving plans to best serve each client's needs. The firm's probate administration practice includes guiding families, executors and administrators through the administration process, preparing estate and gift tax returns and representing estates and beneficiaries in court proceedings. We perform sophistiated estate planning on state, federal and international levels. We also prepare wills, trust instruments, intra-family agreements and related documents; provide advice regarding gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxation and the income taxation of estates and trusts; structure estate and other valuation freezes; and help our clients meet their financial objectives.

Our firm handles the daily administration of complex estates and trusts, including those holding significant interests in closely-held businesses, copyrights, royalties, real estate and artistic property, and have the capability of preparing all necessary calculations, projections, accountings and estate, gift and fiduciary income tax returns in-house, using state-of-the-art technology. We are also an experienced advocate in the legislative process and in proceedings involving the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities. We have substantial experience in representing clients in a wide range of contested will, accounting, litigation and tax proceedings. Our trust and estates lawyers are uniquely attuned to the matrimonial, family and personal planning needs of our clients, taking a sensitive and informed approach to the special legal problems of the elderly and the permanently disabled, including succession planning, guardianship proceedings and health care decisions. We are also experienced in all aspects of charitable planning and representation on behalf of both individuals and not-for-profit corporations.   The areas of our Trusts and Estate practice include:

• Estate and Tax Planning
• Estate and Trust Administration
• Dispute Resolution/ Litigation
• Disability Planning 
• Legislative Process
• Charitable Planning
• Entrepreneurs and Family Businesses
• Representation of Artists/ Art Collectors and Their Estates
• Intellectual Property Assets
• Not-for-Profit Organizations
• International Issues
• Taxation of Trusts and Estates
• Planning for Business Owners
• Life Insurance Planning

Laura L. Crum
G. Wade Hartley Jr.
Gerald W. Hartley
T. Bowen Hill III