Trusts and Estates

Waller Lansden's trusts and estates practice area includes a broad spectrum of services.  We routinely perform sophisticated estate, gift and income tax planning, including marital planning, use of charitable split-interest trusts, personal income tax planning, estate "freezing" or the creation of "discount" entities (corporate, limited liability company and partnership).  Our attorneys also assist clients with life insurance planning, the establishment and administration of revocable and irrevocable trusts, generation-skipping tax planning and lifetime gifting programs.  With substantial experience in probate and estate and trust administration, our attorneys regularly serve as counsel for individual and corporate fiduciaries and may act as personal representatives or trustees in special circumstances.  Our attorneys routinely represent clients in connection with IRS and state audits involving estate and trust tax controversy matters.

We provide probate services ranging from small estate proceedings to more elaborate taxable and nontaxable proceedings for residents' and nonresidents' estates.  We also provide complete post-mortem tax planning, including the preparation of all federal and state fiduciary tax returns, audit and subsequent tax litigation proceedings and tax planning for beneficiaries.

In addition to our estate and gift tax planning and our estate and trust administration practice we also have an active probate and trust-related litigation practice.  We represent corporate fiduciaries as well as individual fiduciaries and beneficiaries.  Matters handled by our probate litigators include will contests, undue influence proceedings, rights of the surviving spouse to elect to take against the will, breach of fiduciary duty actions, surcharge actions, tax apportionment litigation, will and trust construction proceedings, and guardianship and conservatorship proceedings.

Our trusts and estates practice area include three Fellows of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, Fellows of the American College of Tax Counsel, Members of the American Tax Policy Institute and a Member of the American Law Institute.  Our attorneys are routinely asked to speak at continuing education seminars on a variety of estate planning and probate topics.

Waller Lansden has provided the following trust and estates advice to clients:

• Prepared special purpose trusts including grantor retained annuity trusts, qualified personal residence trusts and intentionally defective grantor trusts that allow the client to retain economic benefit from gifted assets yet avoid the payment of gift or estate taxes
• Facilitated sales of assets to trusts for the benefit of children and grandchildren without the client incurring income, gift or estate taxes
• Prepared family limited partnerships to minimize the transfer taxes on passing control of family business and other assets to the next generation
• Prepared charitable remainder trusts and charitable lead trusts that provide significant tax benefits to the client and his or her family with the result that charitable gifts are made in a tax-efficient manner
• Assisted two "C" corporations holding $30 million of passive investments in converting to "S" corporations
• Successfully litigated the issue of the deductibility of a $1 million charitable deduction taken on an estate tax return
• Represented multiple charitable beneficiaries under a decedent's will in a settlement by invalidating an inter vivos trust for undue influence to the charities
• Represented an Executor in receiving a $2.2 million refund in a lawsuit in federal court wherein the value of the stock in two family held "C" corporations was discounted for built-in capital gains