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Estate & Trust Administration

Our wealth of experience in administering estates and trusts enables us to handle matters with personal sensitivity and recognize the planning and technical opportunities frequently required, but often overlooked, by less experienced attorneys. It is this sophisticated perspective, combined with our lawyers’ insights into how best to preserve estate assets and save taxes for future beneficiaries, that makes Paley Rothman uniquely qualified in this increasingly complicated practice area.

Many estates present tax, business, family and personal issues that can only be adequately addressed by skilled attorneys who must assess the myriad of financial, tax and personal considerations which are often involved. The complexities confronted when dealing with an estate or a trust are as demanding as–and often more complicated than–those encountered when dealing with the needs of an individual or business. Not only must legal requirements such as payment to creditors and taxing authorities be fulfilled; the desires of the beneficiaries (including charities) must be addressed.

It is frequently the case that attorneys, in addition to handling all of the issues involved in income and estate tax planning, are faced with questions having to do with elections available on a postmortem basis. It is crucial for personal representatives and beneficiaries to be aware of these options and elections so they can do everything possible to preserve and protect estate assets. Similarly, trusts have many tax, financial and practical considerations that must be addressed in a manner that protects the trustee as well as current and future beneficiaries.

In instances where controversies between beneficiaries, fiduciaries and/or creditors develop, we have found that prompt and competent legal assistance can often help to avoid time-consuming and expensive proceedings. If appropriate or required, our litigators are dedicated to pursuing all available legal remedies for our clients, including will challenges or caveat proceedings, issues regarding interpretation of wills, trusts or similar documents, determination of relative rights and responsibilities of interested persons, guardianship considerations and creditor disputes.

The firm’s full complement of attorneys–qualified in all aspects of planning, administration, tax and litigation–provides clients with the depth of legal resources required for the skillful handling of their interests. This group has several paralegals that have extensive backgrounds working with the full spectrum of estate and trust matters. Many of these professionals have been with the firm for 15 years or more, and have developed unusually sophisticated insights into this ever-changing practice area. They not only have a full understanding of the administrative aspects, but also are sensitive to the often difficult emotional strain that estate issues can produce. Perhaps most importantly, their ability to handle much of the work involved in certain cases is a cost-savings to clients since our paralegals are billed at a lower hourly rate than most of our attorneys.