Bracewell attorneys understand that estate planning is a very personal process; every client is unique. Our skill and experience enables us to pursue a variety of sophisticated strategies to assist our clients to protect their wealth and pass it on to their loved ones. But for us, good estate planning involves more. We are committed to understanding each client's goals and concerns. We explain options and answer questions with as much simplicity or intricacy as our clients may desire. We work with our clients to craft wills, trusts, impaired judgment documents, business entities and charitable organizations to provide practical solutions that are as conservative or aggressive, and as simple or sophisticated, as their needs require.
Our lawyers strive to develop estate plans best suited to our clients' particular needs, through techniques such as wills, testamentary trusts, revocable trusts, powers of attorney, health care directives, and living wills. We help clients coordinate retirement plan and life insurance beneficiary designations, and design and implement annual gift programs and other strategies to transfer wealth in the most tax efficient manner. We also utilize sophisticated estate planning structures such as:
- Irrevocable life insurance trusts
- Family limited partnerships
- Qualified personal residence trusts
- Generation-skipping trusts
- Qualified domestic trusts
- Pre- and post-marital agreements
- Grantor trusts and grantor retained annuity trusts
- Family charitable foundations
We advise closely held business owners to ensure that the value of their business interests will pass to their surviving family members in a manner that will not give rise to unwarranted taxes or disputes with their partners. When it is not possible or desirable for the business to continue with family ownership, we create business continuity plans to accomplish asset transfers to other owners in ways that meet tax, management, succession planning and estate planning goals. Similarly, if dissolution of the business is the most practical choice, our legal and valuation strategies combine tax-efficient asset liquidation and transfer techniques.
We also advise individuals and families regarding charitable planning. We design and implement private foundations and charitable trusts to fulfill clients' personal philanthropic goals while helping them minimize federal income and estate taxes.