Multi-generational wealth planning engagements typically arise when families with substantial holdings — whether in operating businesses, investment portfolios, real estate, or a combination — seek to establish or restructure the legal architecture governing the ownership, management, and eventual transfer of those assets. The catalyst may be a generational transition, the formation or dissolution of a family enterprise, anticipated changes in the tax code, or the need to address intrafamily disputes over control or distributions before they escalate into litigation.

The sources of complexity in these matters are both legal and relational. From a legal standpoint, the planning must navigate federal estate and gift tax regimes, generation-skipping transfer tax provisions, state-level estate and inheritance taxes, and the fiduciary obligations imposed on trustees and managers of family entities. From a relational standpoint, the planning must account for divergent interests among family members — active versus passive participants in family enterprises, differing risk tolerances, and varying expectations regarding distributions, governance, and the conditions under which trusts may be modified or terminated.

• Design and implementation of irrevocable trust structures, dynasty trusts, and grantor retained annuity trusts
• Formation and governance of family limited partnerships and family limited liability companies
• Succession planning for closely held business enterprises across generational transitions
• Asset protection planning within the constraints of applicable fraudulent transfer and creditor-rights statutes
• Coordination of estate planning with pre- and post-nuptial agreements, charitable giving structures, and insurance-funded liquidity strategies