Coughlin & Gerhart, L.L.P. - Trusts and Estates

Practice Areas

• Business & Banking
• Family Law
• Labor/Employment
• Litigation
• Public Law
• Real Estate
• Trusts and Estates

Estate Planning
Administration
Elder Law
Guardianships
Taxation
Attorneys in Group

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Trusts and Estates

Coughlin & Gerhart, L.L.P. offers comprehensive estate planning services and expertise in all aspects of estate and tax planning and the administration of estates and trusts. Our Trusts and Estates Practice Group is comprised of at least a dozen attorneys, with strong support from several paralegals. Together we provide the personal, individualized attention found among smaller firms with the skill, professionalism and quality of larger practices. Our specific services include:

Estate Planning
Trust & Estate Administration
Elder Law
Guardianships
Fiduciary and Individual Income Taxation

Estate Planning

Each Trusts and Estates Practice Group attorney is committed to developing plans specifically tailored to best meet each client’s unique needs. We help clients understand the benefit of and differences between the use of a will, revocable or irrevocable trusts, and intestate succession. By laying the foundation, we assist our clients in focusing and clarifying their goals, both for present and future needs. Our members have substantial experience in advising clients on the various techniques for business succession planning, multi-generational wealth transfer, and charitable giving. In developing a plan, we also evaluate the estate tax exposure and encourage flexible planning which will be effective in any situation our clients or their estates may face.

We have extensive experience in preparing a variety of estate planning documents, such as wills, revocable living trusts, irrevocable trusts, special needs trusts, charitable trusts, and powers of attorney. We also assist in planning for medical treatment decisions through the preparation of health care proxies and living wills. Our attorneys can also counsel clients on the estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes and develop a plan to minimize these taxes to help ensure that assets will pass consistent with each client’s wish.

Our members utilize a team approach, working closely with each client’s accountants, financial planners, insurance agents, and other professionals, in order to develop a comprehensive estate plan which encompasses the “big picture.”

Trust and Estate Administration

Our Trust and Estate Administration practice involves counseling and guiding executors, administrators, and trustees in the many decisions to be made in planning and administering an estate or trust. Specifically, our team guides fiduciaries throughout the entire administration and settlement process, by:

Beginning probate proceedings;
Collecting the information to prepare income and estate tax returns;
Advising on the determination, accounting treatment and valuation of estate assets;
Choosing the right tax-favored elections, deductions and estate tax payment vehicles;
Ensuring payment of claims, expenses and taxes; and
Distribution of estate or trust assets.

Occasionally, disputes arise in the administration of estates and trusts. Our team is fully equipped to handle litigated Surrogate’s Court matters, including will and trust contests, will and trust construction, breach of fiduciary duty claims, and other matters.

As a full-service law firm, we are equipped to address any issues that may arise in the course of the administration of an estate or trust, including real estate matters, ongoing management of closely held businesses, or wrongful death actions.

Elder Law

Elder Law practice focuses on the specific needs of older clients. A significant part of our practice is educating and informing clients of their financial and health care decisions and the uses of durable powers of attorney, living wills and health care proxies, trusts, wills, and long-term care insurance. Our attorneys have a broad understanding of the laws and regulations that impact this area of law.

We assist clients and their families with long-range planning for disability and with the practical details of long-term care, if that becomes necessary. We counsel clients on asset protection planning, including Medicaid planning and qualification and we help design plans for clients to manage and transfer their assets to spouses, children, charities and others to balance the desire to benefit their families, with maintaining appropriate resources for the clients’ future needs.

The Trusts and Estates Practice Group is sensitive to the emotional, medical and financial needs of our clients and their families, particularly in crisis situations when an elderly client is no longer able to live independently due to physical or mental reasons, yet wishes to retain as much personal authority as possible and be assured of a high quality of life. We strive to give clients confidence in and control over their future.

Guardianships

Guardianship is a legal remedy designed to protect both infants and adults whose functional limitations prevent them from making their own decisions by having a guardian appointed to act in their best interest. A guardianship provides continuing care and management to those who need help with certain personal and financial matters.

Our attorneys have worked with many families whose loved ones are no longer able to care for themselves due to developmental disabilities, disease, or injury. We are sensitive to the emotional distress of those called upon to seek guardianship and our attorneys recognize that this responsibility can be made more difficult by conflicting emotions and a complicated judicial process. We have the resources, understanding and knowledge to guide you in your quest to protect the well-being of your family members who cannot care for themselves.

We are able to assist clients in need of guardianship with all aspects of the process both before and after appointment in order to secure the best possible protection and preservation of the family member’s health and assets.

Fiduciary and Individual Income Taxation

As a complement to our Trust and Estate Administration practice, we prepare fiduciary income taxes and decedent’s final individual income taxes. We also maintain an individual income tax practice.