Estate Planning

Wyatt’s estate planning department advises families with established and emerging wealth, their businesses, and their fiduciaries on the planning and administration of estates.

We create and implement estate, gift, generation-skipping and income tax saving strategies that harmonize with non-tax family priorities and values.

Many Wyatt clients have built significant wealth through closely held businesses, and we bring deep experience to bear on succession planning issues.

We devote extensive attention to clients’ charitable planning and advising non-profit organizations on tax compliance matters.  We help our clients magnify their philanthropic impact by establishing donor advised funds, charitable trusts, charitable lead trusts, charitable foundations and private operating foundations.

We also represent fiduciaries and beneficiaries in will contests, trust administration disputes and complex estate administration issues.

Within these general areas of activity, we assist individuals, families, closely held businesses and their fiduciaries and other advisors with the following specific projects:

Estate and Personal Planning

• Wills
• Revocable (“Living”) Trusts
• Powers of Attorney
• Living Wills & Health Care Surrogate Designations
• Prenuptial Agreements and Postnuptial Agreements
• Special Needs Trusts (first-party and third-party)
• Guardianships (including contested guardianships)
• Asset protection planning

Transfer Tax Planning

• Irrevocable Grantor Trusts
• Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts
• Irrevocable (“Crummey”) Trusts
• Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts
• Charitable Lead and Charitable Remainder Trusts
• Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (“QPRTs”)
• Split-interest purchase of residences
• Dynasty Trusts
• Transfer tax planning for non-citizen spouses of U.S. citizens
• Gift planning, “annual exclusion” gifting programs, and pre-paid tuition contracts
• Private annuities and self-canceling installment notes

Business Planning and Business Succession

• Family Limited Partnerships and Family Limited Liability Companies
• Sales to grantor trusts
• Sales to Delaware trusts
• Buy-sell agreements
• C-Corporation to S-Corporation conversions
• Compensation planning for family members, and related employment and consulting agreements
• Organizing and structuring business entities for individuals, families, and their businesses
• Advising on acquisitions and sales of assets, businesses, and real property by individuals, families, and their businesses
• Advising on venture investments and entrepreneurial activities by individuals, families, and their businesses

Estate Administration

• Estate administration (in Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and Florida)
• Preparation of and advising on federal estate tax returns and state inheritance tax returns, including gift tax returns relating to estate planning
• Disclaimers and other post-mortem transfer tax planning
• Generation skipping tax planning

Estate Disputes

• Will contests and litigation
• Trust administration disputes and litigation
• Contested estate administrations, including probate litigation

Fiduciary Representation

• Trust reformations
• Trust construction actions
• Changing the situs of trusts
• Advising fiduciaries on compliance

Nonprofit Organization Representation

• Organizing private foundations, including private operating foundations
• Advising nonprofits on obtaining and protecting tax-exempt status
• Advising nonprofits on management of institutional funds
• Advising nonprofits on interpreting and carrying out will and trust provisions

Each year brings new goals and circumstances for the clients we are privileged to represent.  No two years present the same challenges for us.  The enduring constant, however, is the trust and responsibility our clients give to us and our unyielding fidelity to their goals.  We reach these goals through the highest quality work, innovative thinking, practical solutions and an appreciation for what our team and our clients achieve together.