Trusts, Estates and Wealth Preservation

In today’s litigious society, more and more people are concerned about risks from potential lawsuits and as a result, asset protection planning has become a crucial component of estate planning for certain clients. Those in high risk professions—including corporate officers, athletes, actors, physicians and lawyers—as well as those generally concerned with potential claims and lawsuits resulting from divorce, ex-employees, accidents and rising health care costs, look to Prinslaw Associates for sound advice regarding the protection of their assets. With the tremendous amount of wealth that is expected to be transferred from older to younger generations in the near future, many combine a concern for protecting assets with an interest in estate planning.

The Trusts, Estates and Wealth Preservation team at Prinslaw Associates provides advice on how best to protect property from future claims and minimize exposure to potential lawsuits and adverse judgments. Our team is here for you, from the initial stages of consultation to the implementation of your chosen asset protection plans.

Prinslaw Associates’ asset protection tools and techniques include:

• Utilizing federal and state exemption statutes
• Structuring domestic family and asset protection trusts, offshore trusts or foundations in selected offshore jurisdictions
• Creating family-owned limited partnerships, limited liability companies and corporations
• Preparing pre-nuptial, post-nuptial and co-habitation agreements
• Structuring retirement plans and the distribution of plan proceeds
• Utilization of various insurance and annuity products
• Retitling of assets
• Gifting
• Utilizing discretionary trusts
• “Medicaid planning”
• Spendthrift trusts and multi-generational trusts, many of which may be incorporated into overall estate planning.

At Prinslaw Associates, we understand that not every technique is suited for everyone, so we help you understand the particular risks and exposure that apply to your specific circumstances. We assist you in weighing the steps you can take to minimize your risks so you can develop a solid, effective asset protection plan.

Providing financial assistance to worthy charitable organizations and causes generally provides great satisfaction to individuals with philanthropic goals.

You can accomplish charitable gifts in various ways. The simplest is an outright, unconditional gift to a charitable organization. This type of gift may provide a charitable deduction for income tax purposes and if done as part of your estate plan, for estate tax purposes. Other individuals may choose to accomplish charitable goals through the creation of trusts or foundations, which can exist for generations to come.

The Estates, Trusts and Wealth Preservation team at Prinslaw Associates assists clients to determine the best vehicle and terms to align with charitable objectives. We can structure the gift or help establish the trust or foundation and assist with the administration of the entity into the future.

Prinslaw Associates also provides advice and guidance to both large and small charitable entities as to the terms to incorporate into gift and trust agreements with donors, and we assist with the steps that ensure the charitable entities’ fiduciary and tax-related obligations are met.

Death is difficult for anyone. Prinslaw Associates’ Trusts, Estates and Wealth Preservation team is here to help families or fiduciaries dealing with property of any kind after the owner’s death. We help you sort out the complexities of such circumstances and ensure that you do what must be done, as expertly and expeditiously as possible.

Prinslaw Associates has the experience and expertise to assist our clients in handling, or undertaking on your behalf, the entire process of estate and trust administration (other than investment management), from obtaining necessary court orders to managing the estate or trust to transferring assets to the beneficiaries.

Assets can take many forms and be in multiple locations. Prinslaw Associates will deal with the complexities of business assets, mines and minerals, stocks, real estate and other assets, wherever they’re located in the world. We also work with clients to handle post-death tax planning in order to find efficient solutions to problems, so that more wealth is passed to families and less to government.

Complicated families make for complicated estates and trusts. Prinslaw Associates can assist the executor and trustee to sort through the myriad of family and asset situations to bring the administration of the estate or trust to a satisfying and speedy conclusion.

When it comes to estates and trusts, disputes are rarely planned for, but they frequently arise. In fact, they happen far too often. If friction occurs, Prinslaw Associates can help. Although we often strive to solve problems through discussion, mediation or other forms of alternate dispute resolution, there are times when a corporate or individual fiduciary, family member or other beneficiary, or claimed beneficiary, needs an experienced litigator on their side. Prinslaw Associates will properly and forcefully present your position—in a courtroom, before an administrative tribunal or to a corporate fiduciary’s board.

As your counsel and advocate, Prinslaw Associates has the experience to take on any dispute that may arise and either amicably resolve it or, if that’s impossible, achieve the desired result in court. Perhaps there is a challenge to the will on grounds that it was not properly executed or lack of testamentary capacity. Or a dispute over the administration of an estate or trust, with claims that the executors or personal representatives of the estate are not doing their job. Perhaps there’s a belief that the trustees are not fulfilling their responsibilities or, conversely, the fiduciary, whether a bank, trust company or individual, claims it is being unfairly attacked.

Working with members of Prinslaw Associates’ Litigation group as needed, Prinslaw Associates’ Trusts, Estates and Wealth Preservation Group handles these and other types of disputes, and we can guide you through the litigation maze to resolve your issues in a timely manner.

Particularly in the estates and trusts area, Prinslaw Associates always pursues alternative routes to conflict resolution before resorting to litigation, But when the “nuclear option” is unavoidable, it is important to choose experienced litigators and, if needed, a global firm that can also provide guidance with respect to assets in any jurisdiction, and courts in any locale.

Families come in many shapes and forms these days and different parts of the world treat different types of unions, both formal and informal, very differently. Planning for couples globally can be very difficult, as clients seek to ascertain the myriad of laws and rights that exist in a client’s chosen jurisdiction of residence and, sometimes, also elsewhere.

Whatever the sexual orientation of a couple, there are legal needs that must be addressed. This applies to married, unmarried, civil union and cohabiting couples, especially in jurisdictions that allow common law marriage or palimony. Couples who are not traditionally married may also find that some jurisdictions consider them to be married whereas others do not, causing a multitude of potential legal difficulties.

The Estates, Trusts and Wealth Preservation Group at Prinslaw Associates is well equipped to provide advice from all corners of the globe about the property rights of couples, presently together, separated or divorced, involving: preparation of pre-nuptial or post-nuptial agreements, anti-palimony, cohabitation and other domestic agreements. We also provide planning for what is to occur when a member of a couple dies, utilizing estate planning opportunities available only to married couples and others that are only available to those that are unmarried, as appropriate.

Prinslaw Associates has the experience and knowledge to assist all types of couples with planning for the future.

Prinslaw Associates’ Trusts, Estates and Wealth Preservation Group has the experience and expertise to handle planning of any level of complexity, to carry out our clients’ wishes and bring about the orderly transfer of wealth during life or at death. Regardless of a client’s net worth, planning revolves around specific desires, circumstances and when appropriate, problems.

We offer tax and planning advice for local jurisdictions, but can also provide planning that encompasses the needs of clients who have assets or beneficiaries in most any part of the globe.

Today’s families are complex. Prinslaw Associates helps clients devise and structure plans that pass wealth from one generation to the next, meet clients’ particular desires, account for the complicated present or potential problems of beneficiaries and the complex nature of the assets involved, and minimize transfer taxes.

More About Estate and Trust Planning

• Irrevocable Trusts