Taxation and Estate Planning   Our estate planning team provides solutions in the design, drafting and implementation of complex wills, trusts, family partnerships, limited liability companies and all significant personal planning techniques. We offer tax counseling in selecting, forming and operating charitable entities, business transactional structuring, and tax structuring for compensation issues.   Toward the goal of asset preservation and protection, we advise professionals and others concerned about personal liability and assist in the implementation of asset protection techniques. Our team has extensive experience in developing and implementing unique off-shore and on-shore plans and strategies, including various off-shore trust structures.   Our attorneys have had continued success in representing clients in civil tax matters before the Internal Revenue Service and various states’ taxing authorities. We maintain a significant practice in the administration of estates and trusts, have successfully represented clients in substantial will contests, and continue to advise clients on controversies in the area.   The Chair of this department, Anthony F. Vitiello, was named to Worth magazine’s  December 2005–2008 editions “Top 100 Attorneys” list of the top lawyers nationwide specializing in trust and estates, philanthropy, elder care, matrimonial and other private practice areas.   In recent matters, attorneys in the group: •  Provided advice relating to, and implemented, estate plans for estates and trusts ranging in value from five million dollars to more than one billion dollars; •  Transferred closely held businesses to younger generations at significantly discounted values; •  Provided significant asset protection advice to clients with creditor sensitivity, ranging from professionals with the potential for future creditor risk to multi­national families (and their trusts) seeking to ensure the insulation of vast multi-generational fortunes from a host of potential risks; •  Provided advice concerning, and implemented, various charitable giving techniques for clients’ estate plans, including significant family foundations ranging in initial funding from less than $1,000,000 to over $10,000,000; •  Successfully defended against numerous audits and civil tax prosecutions including: settled a tax litigation where the Internal Revenue Service asserted in excess of twenty million dollars in gift tax liability, penalties and interest for less than $300,000; negotiated a settlement with the California taxing authority involving more than $5,000,000 in income tax, penalties and interest for $200,000; negotiated a settlement with the Internal Revenue Service that allowed a taxpayer charged with a civil tax fraud deficiency in excess of $600,000 to pay 15 cents on the dollar; successfully settled numerous family partnership/LLC gift and estate tax audits for substantial discounts; •  Designed multiple private and third-party insurance premium financing transactions ranging from ten million dollars to over one hundred million dollars in insurance death benefit; •  Developed and implemented various off-shore asset protection trusts using Bahamian, Cook Islands and Swiss structuring components; •  Successfully leveraged tens of millions of dollars of real estate value out of a senior generation’s estate into dynasty trusts for multi-generational wealth transfer; •  Advised multinational estate planning clients on various aspects of estate, income and gift taxation, implemented estate plans for individuals with international estate planning issues and created structures for the avoidance of U.S. estate tax consequences for non-resident aliens with U.S. estate tax issues; and •  Represented and advised hundreds of executors and families in the administration of decedents’ estates, including those with multi-state and multi-national issues, unique, varied and substantial assets and complex tax and non-tax issues.   Contact: Anthony F. Vitiello   Partners/Counsel: Daniel B. Kessler Kenneth F. Kunzman Jason E. Marx Brad D. Shalit Karin I. Spalding Anthony F. Vitiello     About Us | Practice Areas | News | Attorneys | Publications Career Opportunities | Locations | Contact