PROBATE & TRUST ADMIMSTRATION

The loss of a loved one is a very difficult period. This isn’t the time most people are at their best when asked to make financial and legal decisions. This is especially true for the surviving spouse or kids if they are just hearing about Mom or Dad’s plan for the first time, or worse yet, learning one was never completed. Gerard W. O’Brien makes the process of probate and trust administration as easy and pain-free as possible.

We work with executors, personal representatives, trustees, and other fiduciaries in all aspects of estate administration. We are committed to the delivery of probate and trust administration services with sensitivity to the special concerns of our clients.

Our services include:

• Advice regarding the terms of the decedent’s will and trusts
• Advice regarding the trustee’s duties to the beneficiaries and the applicable laws related to ongoing investments and distributions while limiting family disharmony”
• Preparation and filing of all necessary Probate Court documents
• Representation of clients in all Probate and Tax Court proceedings
• Postmortem planning, including effective use of tax elections and disclaimers
• Income tax planning for the estate
• Advice with respect to any challenges to the decedent’s will or trust
• Advice with respect to any disputes among estate beneficiaries or between beneficiaries and the executor
• Advice regarding the impact of international tax treaties on estate property
• Postmortem planning for non-U.S. citizen spouses
• Review or preparation of all federal and estate tax returns
• Review of all federal and state fiduciary income tax returns

We will work with your successor to complete the process as quickly as possible, while minimizing family disharmony.

PRACTICE AREAS

SENIORS AND THE LAW | You as a senior have many rights and with those rights, protections. You need to know what your rights are and you need to how and when to assert them. We can help you.

ESTATE PLANNING | Your successor Trustee wants to complete the process as quickly as possible, while minimizing family disharmony.

RETIREMENT PLANNING | Maximize the benefits you have earned while preserving transferability, stretch, principal.

HEALTH CARE DOCUMENTS | You need a power of attorney for health care, a HIPAA declaration, and a living will. Without them your preferences during incapacity will not be followed.

ASSET PROTECTION PLANNING | Keep your assets out of the hands of creditors, predators, and the public treasury, ethically and legally.

ESTATE & GIFT TAX PLANNING | Effective tax planning will not only lower income taxes while you’re alive by implementing optimal tax deferral and other strategies, but it will also free up cash for investment, business, or personal purposes.

POWERS OF ATTORNEY | Perhaps the most flexible tool in an estate plan most people including many attorneys do not understand what can be accomplished using this device.

BUSINESS PLANNING | From years of planning experience, we have developed a systematic process that is both practical and client-friendly.

CHARITABLE GIFT PLANNING | Most people work to better not only their family's situation but the community they live in and the world in which their community is a citizen. We will help you transfer values as well as assets. Perhaps the most flexible tool in an estate plan most people including many attorneys do not understand what can be accomplished using this device.

PRIVATE FOUNDATIONS | Some families and individuals are charitably minded and interested in directing their gifts to charities over an extended period of time. These people often find Foundations the right choice to accomplish this goal.