Find Lawyers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for Trusts and Estates
Practice Area Overview
How Can a Trusts and Estates Attorney Help You?
Trust and estate attorneys help clients plan for the efficient and effective transfer of assets to spouses, to younger generation family members, to other persons clients wish to benefit, and to charities. The practice involves the preparation of trust agreements, wills, powers of attorney, medical directives, and closely held business structures, including partnerships, limited liability companies, and corporations.
What are the Trusts and Estates Practices Focal Points?
Wealth Planning
When attorneys begin the planning process, they consider your objectives, your family relationships, charitable inclinations, and the relationship of federal and state estate tax, gift tax, and generation skipping transfer tax laws to these objectives. Attorneys then work with you and, in some cases, with other advisers to design the appropriate plan to meet your goals and objectives, prepare the necessary documents to carry out the desired plan, and assist with the implementation of your plan. In connection with family wealth planning, attorneys plan and draft trust agreements and wills, create various business entities, and carry out business reorganizations.
Estate Administration
Trust and estate attorneys also handle the administration of estates. Attorneys confer with members of a decedent’s family on the various issues, including:
• Assistance to the executor with the preparation of the required probate documents and assist in valuation of estate assets
• Making insurance claims
• Preparation of final income tax returns and the estate’s income and federal and state estate tax returns
• Monitoring of the investment of the estate’s assets
• Arranging for the distribution of the estate’s net assets
• Throughout the administration of an estate, consideration is given to income tax savings through the timing of distributions and the timing and claiming of appropriate deductions.
Trust Administration
In the trust administration area, attorneys advise and consult with corporate and individual trustees concerning the discharge of the trust’s terms and consult with beneficiaries concerning trust administration matters including the preparation of trust accounts.
Trust and Estate attorneys also assist clients in all phases of probate and trust litigation. This may involve construing or reforming the terms of a will or trust, prosecuting or defending a will contest action or surcharge actions against trustees.
What is a Trusts and Estates attorneys goal for its clients?
The goal of an trust and estate attorney is to assist clients to achieve their personal goals while obtaining the significant tax savings which may be available to them through proper planning. Attorneys in the practice spend a significant amount of time dealing with the federal estate, gift, and generation skipping tax issues involved in transfer planning.
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Jamie Barwin is a Shareholder in the Trusts & Estates Section at von Briesen & Roper, s.c. She focuses her practice on estate planning, probate and estate administration, business and corporate planning, special needs planning and tax. Jamie is also a licensed CPA in both Wisconsin and Michigan with six years of experience at Big 4 Accounting. Jamie delivers comprehensive estate planning services to families and businesses. Jamie helps her clients customize and understand their person...
Terri Boxer is the Co-Chair of the Trusts and Estates Section. She practices in the areas of marital property, estate planning, and probate and trust administration. She advises clients on business succession planning and tax planning to minimize estate, gift and generation-skipping taxes. She provides services in the drafting of estate plans and other documents including wills, trusts, marital property agreements, premarital agreements and powers of attorney.
Whether he is working with clients to create and administer an estate plan, solving complicated business problems, negotiating with the IRS, or helping to transition a family owned business to the next generation, Carl prides himself on being a trusted advisor to his clients. With a Master’s Degree in Taxation, Carl possesses unique skills to assist his clients in solving legal issues in a tax efficient manner. A clear thinker and easy to talk to, Carl distills complex legal issues into...
For over forty-five years, Dennis has advised business owners in all areas of contract and corporate law. He focuses primarily on assisting his clients with business succession planning, estate planning, contract and corporate law—with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions, and shareholder/partner disputes. One of the founding members of the firm in 1973, Dennis has assisted hundreds of business owners and their companies in structuring successful business succession plans. These comp...
Randy Nelson is a Shareholder focusing his practice on estate planning, advising family businesses, tax planning, trust administration and probate. He is a Certified Public Accountant and was an Adjunct Professor at Marquette University Law School where he taught estate planning for over 30 years. He is a frequent speaker at continuing education courses for lawyers and CPAs on the subjects of estate planning and tax planning. He is the author of the chapter “Estate Planning for Owners o...
George Peek is a Shareholder in the Trusts & Estates Section at von Briesen & Roper, s.c. George assists clients in a broad range of estate planning and administration services, including estate and trust administration, preparation of estate planning documents and representations in guardianships/conservatorships; and he is also a frequent presenter in these areas. In addition, he has litigated several complex estate planning issues including inheritance disputes. Beyond his estate p...
Caitlyn B. Sikorski is a shareholder in Reinhart’s Trusts and Estates Practice where she focuses on trustee compliance and litigation, including breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty, undue influence, and significant construction and reformation matters. She represents individual and corporate fiduciaries, beneficiaries, and other parties involved in will, trust and intra-family related disputes and matters. Caitlyn is also experienced in prenuptial and marital property agreements, ...
Joseph E. Tierney, III has more than forty years of experience focused primarily on tax and corporate law for businesses, owner families and individuals. He has particular experience in the design and administration of plans for very large estates, including some whose accumulated assets have totaled in the eight- and nine-figures. He has also been lead counsel in the purchase and sale of numerous businesses and has extensive experience in entity selection and structuring. Because tax consequ...
Avery Mayne is a member of the Trusts and Estates Section at von Briesen & Roper, s.c. She works with clients on funding for long-term care, special needs trust planning, and adult guardianships and protective action litigation. A focal point of her practice is elder law and special needs law. She is certified as an Elder Law Attorney (CELA) by the National Elder Law Foundation. She helps families and individuals with asset protection planning and appeals, determining eligibility for long...
Kelly is a member of the Tax Advice, Planning, and Controversy, Estate and Succession Planning and Inheritance Litigation and Will Contest Practice Groups. She assists clients with estate planning, succession planning, probate administration, trust administration, and inheritance litigation. She is licensed to practice law in both Wisconsin and Florida. Kelly enjoys working with families and believes in educating her clients on how their estate plan will work while they are alive, what happen...
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