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Estates & Trusts

Having a clear plan for the future can give you peace of mind. No matter the size or complexity of your estate, our Estates and Trusts team can help you create a custom estate plan to meet your needs. With decades of experience, our estates and trusts attorneys advise and represent clients with both large and small estates, and are well versed in sophisticated planning for executives, professionals, and owners of closely held businesses. We provide individualized advice to each client on planning choices, assisting them with implementing their personal plans and preparing the appropriate legal documents, including wills, different types of trust agreements, powers of attorney, and other planning documents. We also advise executors and trustees about their fiduciary duties to properly administer estates and trusts.

Considering the future of your business in your estate plan poses its own unique challenges. Our estates and trusts team assists our business clients in transferring ownership and control of their businesses efficiently, often by implementing restrictive shareholder and partnership agreements, reorganizing corporations, providing operating agreements of LLCs, and a variety of other strategies to reduce taxes and administrative costs.

When disputes arise, our experienced litigators have successfully litigated or negotiated settlements of complex estate matters, trust disputes, and other fiduciary matters.

Types of Services

  • Administration services including domiciliary and ancillary probate and trust services
  • Caveat proceedings and will construction litigation
  • Charitable planning with emphasis on minimalizing income, gift, and estate tax consequences
  • Estate litigation
  • Estate planning
  • Estate tax return preparation and estate tax audit counsel
  • Estate, trust and guardianship administration
  • Family limited partnerships and limited liability companies
  • Fiduciary tax planning for trusts and estates
  • Gift and life insurance planning, including irrevocable life insurance trusts
  • Grantor trust, including Personal Residence Trusts
  • Interpreting wills and trusts
  • Post-mortem estate planning
  • Preparation of wills and trusts, powers of attorney, living wills, healthcare powers of attorney and advance directives
  • Probate administration
  • Probate litigation
  • Trust and estate dispute settlement and litigation services

Memberships & Awards

  • American Bar Association, Section: Probate and Real Property
  • North Carolina Bar Association: Section: Estate Planning and Fiduciary Law
  • U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” Ranking
  • The Best Lawyers in America© Ranking