KS&G’s Estate Planning Department provides comprehensive guidance to clients on matters of estate planning, trust and probate administration, retirement planning, guardianships, conservatorships, and estate and trust litigation. We work directly with clients to achieve their goals while providing counsel that is based on years of experience and knowledge gained in these areas.
In addition, our attorneys are able to provide clients with a team of advisors that include other attorneys within the firm who specialize in corporate matters, financial planners, accountants and others who together provide full-service counseling for our clients.
Our Estate Planning Department provides a full range of legal services, and assists clients with:
- Basic and complex estate planning, including the preparation of wills, powers of attorney (for financial matters), advance health-care directives, and revocable and irrevocable trusts (which can include life insurance trusts, generation skipping trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, and charitable remainder trusts). This also includes advising clients on the use of family limited partnerships and limited liability companies as estate planning tools.
- Trust and probate administration, including representing and advising fiduciaries (including trustees of trusts and personal representatives of estates) in all aspects of administering and distributing a trust and estate. This includes advising on fiduciary duties and liabilities, preparation of trust and estate accountings, income tax and fiduciary tax returns, trust and estate distributions, and the closing of a trust and estate.
- Retirement planning including advising on and assisting clients with long term care planning, retirement benefits and a variety of other elder issues that are integrated into a client’s overall estate plan.
- Guardianship and conservatorships including advising clients and assisting with obtaining a guardianship (guardian of the person) and conservatorship (guardian of the property), guiding clients though the complex administration process after a guardianship and conservatorship is obtained, and the eventual closing and termination of the guardianship and conservatorship.
- Estate and Trust Litigation – this includes advising fiduciaries and beneficiaries when conflicts arise relating to the administration of a Will or Trust.
- Business succession planning, including the advising and preparation of various types of business succession plans for small to large businesses. These can include advising on the various types of business entities, the use of buy-sell agreements, and the integration of business succession planning with a client’s overall estate plan.
- Non-profit formation and advising, including the formation of and advising clients on non-profit entities including public charities and private foundations along with the preparation of IRS 501(c)(3) applications for tax-exempt status.