Trusts & Estates

Trusts & Estates

Proper estate planning is essential to ensuring the orderly transfer of family assets, including business assets. Wealth transfer can occur both before and after your death. The goal of a well-designed estate plan is to ensure that your assets pass to those whom you wish to receive them, in the manner in which you wish those persons to receive your assets, and at a minimum cost in terms of administration expenses, court costs, attorney’s fees and taxes.

If you create a trust during your lifetime, then the provisions of your trust will control the disposition of the assets held in the name of the trust or transferred to the trust upon your death pursuant to your will. In many estate plans a revocable trust is the core planning document. If properly structured and funded, a revocable trust plan may avoid the need for a probate proceeding.

Good estate planning requires expert advice about tax law, business succession, contingency planning and property law. If you or a loved one becomes incapacitated or dies unexpectedly you will have peace of mind knowing everything is in order.

Areas of Expertise

  • Business Succession Planning
  • Charitable Gift Planning
  • Conservatorships
  • Estate & Gift Tax
  • Estate & Probate Litigation
  • Estate Planning
  • Farm Estate & Succession Planning
  • Guardianships
  • Health Care Directives & Living Wills
  • Medicaid, Medicare, Nursing Home & Elder Law
  • Probate
  • Wills, Trusts, Codicils & Powers of Attorney

Insights

  • December 6, 2023Trusts & EstatesEstate Planning

    Incorporating Retirement Assets Into Your Estate Plan

    The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Act ( also known as the Secure Act) became law on December 20, 2019, and went into effect in 2020. More recently, Congress enacted the SECURE 2.0 Act, with some of the provisions having already taken effect as of January 1, 2023. The SECURE Act and SECURE 2.0...


  • December 4, 2023Estate Planning

    Estate Freezing and Gifting – Estate Planning In The Shadow of The TCJA Sunset

    Under the current federal tax code, the lifetime gift and estate tax exemption for an individual is $12,920,000 and $25,840,000 for a married couple. However, unless legislative action is taken to extend these exemptions, decedents who pass away after January I, 2026, will have effectively half of the previous exemption amount estimated to be around...


  • June 28, 2023Trusts & EstatesEstate Planning

    Preparing for your Estate Planning Appointment

    Estate planning is a crucial aspect of financial management that often gets overlooked until it’s too late (nobody likes to think about their own mortality). It involves creating a plan for the management and distribution of your wealth during your lifetime and after your death. Proper estate planning also ensures that your loved ones are...


  • June 26, 2023Family LawTrusts & Estates+2

    Divorce and Your Estate Plan

    The last thing a person wants to do after getting divorced is spend more time with a lawyer. But updating an estate plan after divorce is crucial. In Minnesota, when a dissolution is granted a former spouse’s interest in the ex-spouse’s will is terminated as if the ex-spouse had died one day prior to the...


  • June 25, 2023Estate Planning

    So you think you need a Revocable Trust?

    It is a common conception today that a revocable trust is the “one-size fits all” solution to all estate planning needs. While a revocable trust is a powerful tool in building an estate plan, it is not necessarily the right tool for all. This article will discuss the factors you should consider when determining whether...