Overview
With deep industry knowledge, client-specific solutions and uncompromising service, our tax, trusts and estates attorneys represent individuals, executives, families, closely-held businesses, charitable organizations and individual and corporate fiduciaries. We focus on achieving our clients' personal, business and organization goals while preserving and transferring wealth for future generations.
Estate Planning & Charitable Giving
Serving as trusted advisors to our estate planning clients, we customize estate plans to accommodate changing family dynamics through the creation and modification of trusts, asset protection planning, insurance planning, business succession and premarital planning, retirement and compensation plans, guardianships and conservatorships, and philanthropic giving. We draft wills and trusts, handle the sensitive issues involved in probate and other aspects of estate and trust administration, prepare estate and fiduciary tax returns, represent fiduciaries and beneficiaries before the IRS, and advise on charitable gift structures that reflect philanthropic goals and create an enduring legacy.
Business Transition
Family businesses are often a conduit for managing a family’s entire wealth. We develop short- and long-term legal strategies to achieve business goals and transition wealth and leadership from one generation to the next. Our counsel spans the business life cycle, from entrepreneurs just beginning to build their family legacy to family offices spanning several generations, each with different approaches to business, succession planning and the preservation of wealth.
Fiduciary Advice
We represent individual and corporate fiduciaries of trusts and estates, providing advice and counsel on best practices in administration, compliance, and beneficiary interactions. Fiduciary clients rely on our advice to minimize risk and maximize fiduciary performance. We advise fiduciaries in matters concerning estate administration, trust administration, including decanting and trust modifications, and investment and distribution decisions. We prepare fiduciary records and accountings for internal compliance and for presentation to the court for approval when necessary.
Nonprofits, Charitable Planning & Foundations
More than 400 nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations rely on Stinson for comprehensive advice on federal tax law and regulations governing tax-exempt organizations. Because our tax, trusts and estates attorneys have a strong reputation for maximizing the benefits of charitable gifts, both donors and foundations/nonprofit institutions seek our guidance in structuring such gifts and using donor-advised funds. We counsel on the tax consequences of charitable planning alternatives, the donation of different types of property, and the needs and structure of nonprofit and tax-exempt organization recipients. Learn more.
Estate & Trust Litigation
Our Estate and Trust Litigation practice focuses on serving clients in need of sophisticated advice and advocacy when disputes arise involving an estate or trust. Our experienced team includes litigators with significant knowledge in trust and estate law, and estate planning attorneys who regularly administer complex estates and trusts. The combination of experienced litigators and estate planning attorneys allows us to evaluate the issues in each case, including tax consequences, and to advise our clients in a manner that both protects their interests and preserves the assets of the estate or trust. Learn more.
Income Tax
We develop strategies and structures to help clients minimize tax costs and prevent the erosion of wealth while achieving business and personal objectives on behalf of our clients. We draw on the experience of the firm’s corporate and real estate attorneys to provide clients with favorable tax outcomes. Our counsel includes traditional C corporations, and closely held pass-through entities, such as limited-liability companies (LLCs), partnerships and S corporations, as well as representation before the Internal Revenue Service, state courts and administrative agencies. Learn more.
