Estate Planning

Our approach

BLM&H has from its inception nurtured a strong estate planning practice as one of its core practice groups. This is due, in part, to its deep expertise in estate, gift and other transfer tax issues, but also to its approach to assisting clients to address their estate planning needs and objectives. We understand that in addressing their estate planning, our clients have more on their minds than just tax liability – they want to be able to give the wealth they have carefully stewarded during life to their loved ones in the way most suited to the circumstances of their loved ones. Some family members are not able, for any number of reasons (for example, age, disability or addictions) to receive their gifts directly. We help our clients to find solutions that permit them both to minimize, or even to eliminate, transfer tax (estate, gift and other taxes) while, at the same time, to pass on their wealth in ways that best suit the particular dynamics of their loved ones. Likewise, we help clients who are also charitably minded both to benefit charities whose missions they endorse and to provide for their loved ones. At all times, we strive to maintain as much flexibility as possible in our clients’ estate planning, given their long-term objectives and tax constraints, so that they may be able to adjust to changes in circumstances along the way.

Highlights

• Provided complex estate planning to a family whose net worth exceeded $70 million and eliminated transfer tax liability through various estate and gift tax savings vehicles.
• Guided entrepreneurial husband and wife, whose closely held business resulted in an estate worth over $400 million, through an estate and business succession planning process that safeguarded the business upon their death.
• Assisted a mother in establishing a special needs trust for her daughter after her daughter was involved in a catastrophic car accident.