Clients of the Estate Planning and Probate Practice area include business owners and corporate executives; physicians, other lawyers, accountants, engineers and other professionals;and investors, authors, artists, and individual and corporate executors and trustees.

We are dedicated to helping our clients achieve their goals of asset management, wealth preservation and protection, and the efficient transfer of property to their chosen beneficiaries during lifetime and at death.

Wealth transfer planning can be complex. We devote the time to understanding our clients' needs and do our best to communicate our plans and ideas to them in plain English. The planning process is a partnership. We gather detailed information about our clients, working with their other advisors such as accountants, financial planners and insurance agents. We understand that each situation is unique and that imaginative solutions result only when a complete understanding of the facts is interpreted with knowledge and experience. The services we offer are personal and customized.

We stay current on tax and other legislation, as well as relevant case law and administrative rulings, which may affect our clients' ability to achieve their goals. We also keep abreast of current trends in planning and new techniques.

We advise our clients regarding the orderly disposition and management of assets through gifts, wills and trusts, during lifetime and at death. In addition to the preparation of documents, this frequently involves advice and other assistance regarding tax strategies; disposition of unique assets including interests in closely-held corporations, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, and other entities; strategies for advancing the next generation of leadership for a business, using buy-sell agreements, trusts, life insurance or other strategies; techniques for managing all types of property; plans for life insurance and long term care insurance; plans for beneficiary designations, withdrawals and dispositions of IRAs, 401(k)s and other retirement accounts; selection of executors, trustees and guardians; the use of charitable trusts and foundations; and protection of assets from the claims of creditors.

We regard planning for incapacity to be an important part of our mission. In addition to preparing "living wills", powers of attorney, designations of conservator and revocable "living trusts," we counsel our clients regarding qualification for public assistance (frequently referred to as "Medicaid" or "Title XIX" planning) and probate court proceedings relating to incapacity.

We serve as executors and trustees, and we advise executors and trustees, in the settlement of decedents' estates and the administration of trusts. We also advise and represent beneficiaries of estates and trusts regarding their rights and remedies if losses or breaches of fiduciary duties occur. We are experienced in all aspects of estate and trust administration including preparation of all probate documents; preparation of fiduciary income tax returns, U.S. estate and generation-skipping tax returns, and Connecticut succession and estate tax returns; consideration of post-death tax planning issues (disclaimers, tax elections, retirement account distribution requirements, and the like); audits of all tax returns; fiduciary duties owed by executors and trustees; and litigation involving estates and trusts.

Disputes sometimes develop between fiduciaries and the beneficiaries to whom fiduciaries owe a duty. In representing clients involved in such disputes, we try to negotiate prompt and fair resolutions. When we cannot, we are prepared to advance our clients' interests in the probate courts and in all other appropriate forums.