Estate Planning

Estate planning is a sensitive issue, and because of that, the best way to handle estate planning or estate administration is with concerned and competent legal counsel. Berliner Cohen’s estate planning practice is an aggregation of professionals with the skills, talents and experience to provide advice and representation to individuals and families in the worlds of estate planning, tax, business succession, estate administration, probate, conservatorship and guardianship issues, including:

  • Estate planning, with regards to both the tax and non-tax concerns, including all aspects of implementation such as living trusts, life insurance trusts and wills, and the preparation of ancillary documents, such as deeds, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, and pre-marital and post-marital agreements
  • Charitable gift planning and the organization and administration of charitable foundations, trusts and other vehicles for tax advantaged charitable giving, including the use of charitable remainder and lead trusts
  • Income, gift, estate and generation-skipping tax planning and advice for individuals and families
  • Organization, funding and sale of privately-owned business and real property interests
  • Gifting programs, including formation of educational and irrevocable trusts
  • Planning for non-U.S. citizen clients, including the use of qualified domestic trusts
  • Planning for incapacity, including Durable Powers of Attorney for property and health care, conservatorships and guardianships
  • Trust administration, including post death tax planning, transfer of assets and advice to trustees, interpretation of wills and trusts, disputes regarding the probate of wills, the review and allowance of estate and trust accountings, and technical matters regarding the assessment and allocation of taxes
  • Probate, court administration of property of a decedent’s estate
  • Will and trust controversy matters
  • Planning and preservation of wealth and retirement assets through the use of state law creditor exemptions and federal and international laws

The Berliner Cohen approach to estate planning is to combine tax, estate planning and probate or trust administrative experience with the way businesses and families interact during a person’s lifetime, as well as after a person’s death. Berliner Cohen combines expertise in business, estate planning and tax law and the overall skills of the Firm in corporate, tax and real estate to provide a broad base of support to the Firm’s estate planning practice.

For more information, please contact James Cashman at james.cashman@berliner.com, or Brian Shetler at brian.shetler@berliner.com.
Merced and Modesto: please contact Kevin Kelley, kevin.kelley@berliner.com.