Estate Planning Attorney in Colorado Springs, CO
Our Estate Planning includes: advising client objectives to match client needs with client goals (irrespective of financial resources within the client’s family); Use of trusts, corporations, limited partnerships, and limited liability companies in order to meet client goals; selection of offshore structures and jurisdictions that maximize liability protection for clients in professions facing high litigation exposure; charitable planning to meet client’s desire to meet important social and/or religious objectives that continue long after the client is gone; advising clients concerning the appropriateness of the plethora of financial planning products available in the marketplace, including the use of offshore financial tools. We invite you to read about our process here.
America’s tax structure changed drastically with new tax laws in 1997, 2001, 2013 and 2017. It changed with both Republican and Democratic Presidents. In 2019, no person pays estate or gift taxes unless that person has over $11,400,000 ($22,800,000 for a couple). But in 2026, the estate tax exemption reverts back to $5,000,000 ($10,000,000 for a couple).
A poorly planned estate can pay significant taxes to federal and state government (as much as 40% in taxes in 2019). Planning is more important now than it has ever been in the past. We create sophisticated estate structures that allow clients to minimize the transfer of their wealth to entities other than the client’s family, or entities chosen by the client.
For smaller estates, our estate planning can decrease much of the estate costs (including taxes) chargeable to clients with more traditional estate planning, or no estate planning at all. Additionally, a thoughtful estate plan can minimize a client’s professional liability risk. Legal structures that may accomplish these objectives include:
- Wisely using Payable on Death (POD), transfer on death (TOD), and beneficiary designations (including beneficiary deeds for real estate).
- Family Limited Partnerships, corporations and limited liability companies that allow clients to control their assets and distributions coming from those assets.
- Charitable Planning, including the donation of highly-appreciated property to worthy causes, zeroing out all capital gains taxes while providing the client with income from those assets for a lifetime (or two lifetimes, if client is married).
- Trusts and Wills
- Sophisticated planning tools based upon each client’s unique circumstances, rarely used by other attorneys.
Articles
“Portability” of the Federal Estate Tax Exemption – What does it Mean? Copy
With the political and economic climate as it is in the summer of 2008, we are not likely to see total repeal of the federal estate tax in the foreseeable future. However, both Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates support estate tax reform. Realistically,...