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Trust & Estate Planning and Administration
Williams Mullen offers an array of sophisticated estate planning services for the disposition of family wealth and the sheltering of assets from income, gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes. Our experienced team of attorneys and paralegals also help individual and institutional fiduciaries handle the legal and tax complexities of estate and trust administration. Trust and estate planning and administration have long been among the special strengths of Williams Mullen. For many years, the firm has been general counsel to major bank trust departments, and this relationship has provided a unique opportunity for experience and insight into practical considerations in planning and administration. Because estate planning calls for approaches and techniques that vary with the particular client’s needs, the firm offers an array of estate planning services. These include not only the preparation of wills and trust agreements but also a variety of more sophisticated planning devices for the disposition of family wealth and the sheltering of assets from income, gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes.
Estate Planning Services
- Comprehensive Estate Plans
- Business succession planning
- Buy-sell agreements
- Charitable lead and charitable remainder trusts
- Discount valuation planning
- Funded "living trusts"
- Generation-skipping trusts
- Grantor retained annuity trusts
- Irrevocable life insurance trusts
- Lifetime gift planning
- Limited liability companies and family limited partnerships
- Planning for retirement plan benefits
- Planning to minimize estate taxes
- Pre-marital agreements
- Qualified personal residence trusts
- Wills, revocable trusts, powers of attorney, advance medical directives
Trust Administration Services
- Augmented estate elections and computations
- Fiduciary appointments (executor and trustee)
- Legal advice for estates and trusts
- Post-mortem tax planning
- Preparation of estate tax returns
- Preparation of fiduciary income tax returns
- Probate procedures and documents (e.g., notices, inventory, accountings)
- Will contests and beneficiary controversies
Williams Mullen offers an array of sophisticated estate planning services for the disposition of family wealth and the sheltering of assets from income, gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes. Our experienced team of attorneys and paralegals also help individual and institutional fiduciaries handle the legal and tax complexities of estate and trust administration. Trust and estate planning and administration have long been among the special strengths of Williams Mullen. For many years, the firm has been general counsel to major bank trust departments, and this relationship has provided a unique opportunity for experience and insight into practical considerations in planning and administration. Because estate planning calls for approaches and techniques that vary with the particular client’s needs, the firm offers an array of estate planning services. These include not only the preparation of wills and trust agreements but also a variety of more sophisticated planning devices for the disposition of family wealth and the sheltering of assets from income, gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes.
Estate Planning Services
- Comprehensive Estate Plans
- Business succession planning
- Buy-sell agreements
- Charitable lead and charitable remainder trusts
- Discount valuation planning
- Funded "living trusts"
- Generation-skipping trusts
- Grantor retained annuity trusts
- Irrevocable life insurance trusts
- Lifetime gift planning
- Limited liability companies and family limited partnerships
- Planning for retirement plan benefits
- Planning to minimize estate taxes
- Pre-marital agreements
- Qualified personal residence trusts
- Wills, revocable trusts, powers of attorney, advance medical directives
Trust Administration Services
- Augmented estate elections and computations
- Fiduciary appointments (executor and trustee)
- Legal advice for estates and trusts
- Post-mortem tax planning
- Preparation of estate tax returns
- Preparation of fiduciary income tax returns
- Probate procedures and documents (e.g., notices, inventory, accountings)
- Will contests and beneficiary controversies
While the firm has a particular appreciation of the benefits of institutional fiduciaries, we recognize that not everyone wishes to use such a fiduciary and that many prefer to have an individual administer estates and trusts. We stand ready to assist any type of fiduciary in any capacity. Our attorneys are skilled in estate and trust administration, particularly with the tax considerations in administering estates and trusts, and we have experienced paralegals whose use of computers and sophisticated software enables them to handle estates and trusts of all sizes in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
We have a dedicated team of attorneys who practice primarily in the estate planning and administration field, and several others include estate planning as an important part of their practice. The abilities of this group are evidenced by their activities in professional organizations. Williams Mullen has the largest number of fellows in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel of any firm in Virginia. One fellow is a past chairman of the Virginia State Bar Section on Trusts and Estates, and several are leaders in American Bar Association and Virginia Bar Association sections relating to trusts and estates.
The benefits of the firm’s unique depth of experience in this field include the ability of its attorneys to complement one another when special knowledge is required. Within the group there is the technical skill and experience to meet any need. More important than this technical knowledge, however, is a sensitivity to the client’s feelings. Those who practice in this field take special pleasure in helping others, and this is the precept by which we are guided. Our attorneys frequently advise clients regarding will disputes. We represent fiduciaries and beneficiaries in resolving such disputes, and when required, we represent their interests in any related litigation.
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