While the cornerstone of every estate plan is a carefully constructed last will and testament, for estate clients there is an implicit need for more creative solutions and sophisticated planning including a combination of other techniques. These can include developing appropriate legal structures, including trusts, business entities and intergenerational agreements, to hold and manage wealth over time. Family partnerships and limited liability companies, grantor-retained annuity trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, insurance trusts and grantor retained-income gifts can be effective devices. A comprehensive estate plan that addresses the ever-changing environment of tax and legal issues can be successful in minimizing potential tax liability and provide our clients with peace of mind regarding the future financial stability of loved ones.
At Stephenson Snokhous & Fournier, we focus our estate planning practice on designing estate planning and asset protection solutions for our clients' needs and maximizing the value received by our clients' chosen beneficiaries.
We focus on reducing the effective rate of estate tax through lifetime planning. Frequently, this entails trust planning and implementation to manage wealth over time. We listen closely to each client to learn about individual concerns and goals and analyze each financial situation. We respond with personalized solutions tailored to each client's values and designed to achieve their objectives.
Our lawyers are experienced in planning for, creating, funding and administrating all types of trusts in order to accommodate the needs of clients, including:
Estate taxes are determined in part by the size of the estate. Without proper estate planning, affluent individuals may expose their beneficiaries to considerable estate taxes — reducing the overall value of assets received by them. Our estate planning attorneys offer legal advice and strategies that can reduce the estate tax burden, protecting an increased portion of overall value for beneficiaries. We recognize our clients' need to make important decisions regarding charitable giving, maximizing distributable wealth and tax considerations and we guide them through the maze of issues and choices they may face.
In order to keep pace with the frequently changing tax, gift, generation-skipping and estate laws, our attorneys innovatively implement available tools and encourage planning for our clients that is responsive, creative and effective. We craft thoroughly customized estate plans that integrate our sophisticated understanding of trusts, incapacity planning, and estate and gift tax strategies with our clients' short-term requirements and long-range goals. We also maintain and revise existing estate plans to keep pace with new regulations and changing circumstances and objectives.
Our attorneys have extensive experience in working with clients to identify their goals and provide solutions to achieve their objectives. For effective, experienced, and individualized estate planning in Houston, Texas call 713-629-9494 or contact our estate planning lawyers online to schedule an initial consultation.