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 Clients come to Brier &
Geurden for help in a wide range of problems and issues. Although we are
widely known for estate planning, our practice and our capabilities are
broader than that and encompass a range of matters which relate generally
to taxation and to trusts and estates.
Many people come to an
estate planner holding the perception that their affairs are relatively
"standard" and that all they need is a "simple" will.
Most individuals, however, discover that there is at least one aspect of their
situation that is somehow out of the ordinary. It is the ability to spot
and draw out and then deal with each individual's unique issues that marks
the difference between a mere will-drafter and a true estate planner.
Because of our individualized approach at Brier & Geurden, there is
no single "representative" kind of client or case for us. Some
situations and clients call for a relatively straightforward approach,
along relatively well-traveled paths, while others benefit from a higher
degree of customization and creativity. Much of what we do depends as much
on a thorough uncovering of facts as on clever thinking; and we are
experienced in the patient disentangling of the sometimes untidy situations
that attend all human affairs.
Without claiming that
they are necessarily "representative," we think you might find
the following summaries of some interesting recent cases to provide a
better understanding of Ken Brier's experience and capabilities:
- Structured a pre-IPO installment sale of a
high-tech founder's stock to a nontaxable family corporation located
offshore, with the price locked in by means of a forward option,
providing the opportunity to avoid tax on millions of dollars of gain
accruing after the IPO.
- Successively negotiated a resolution of a
gift tax audit involving the valuation of multiyear gifts of family
limited partnership interests, securing a valuation discount of 35%
from the IRS Appeals office (as contrasted with 19% offered by the IRS
agent), representing a difference of hundreds of thousands of tax
dollars.
- Counseled surviving wife on alternatives for
distributions from husband's $4 million profit-sharing plan account,
comparing projected income and estate tax consequences of lump-sum
distribution (partially taxed at old 20% capital gain rate), rollover
to IRA and rollover to Roth IRA, taking into account children's likely
cash needs and family's preferences for ongoing simplicity.
- Straightened out the administration of
family trust several years after death of the grantor's surviving
wife, where (1) wife as husband's executrix had transferred husband's
S corporation shares to a nominee trust upon husband's death 12 years
earlier (but prior to the liquidation of the corporation) with the
estate as the beneficial owner, (2) wife as an individual had
transferred family vacation home to same nominee trust, (3) family
trust had never been appropriately divided into marital and family
subtrusts, (4) wife's estate had never been administered at all, and
(5) one child purportedly had executed an ill-advised disclaimer of
interest in family trust (which would have triggered a taxable gift);
matters attended to included attention to estate and
generation-skipping tax issues, probate of wife's estate, division of
trust into separate trusts for adult children, appointments of new
trustees, and sale of interests in family vacation home among
sometimes contentious children.
- Structured trust as a vehicle for a large
corporation to voluntarily provide benefits to the widow of deceased
executive by transferring company stock to the trust prior to the
company's going public.
- "Created" sizeable estate tax
deduction in the course of estate administration by structuring a $2.4
million 10-year loan from decedent's insurance trust to decedent's
estate (holding facially illiquid LLC interest) in a manner qualifying
for an upfront estate-tax deduction of all future interest payable on
the loan.
- Represented a decedent's second wife
in the renegotiation of a proposed settlement agreement with the
decedent's children, proposing in place of the settlement agreement
that the wife execute partial disclaimers of federally-mandated
spousal interests in retirement plans and simultaneously purchase the
marital home (at no taxable gain) with the remaining plan proceeds,
with results consistent with intended prenuptial agreement and
superior tax results for all parties, and with this eleventh-hour
proposal being accepted by counsel for all parties.
- Handled U.S. aspects of estate
planning, in coordination with U.S. and Swiss advisors, for
wealthy elderly couple with dual U.S.-Swiss citizenship, dual
residences, and extensive corporate and real-property interests in U.S. and Switzerland, seeking to reconcile
requirements of inconsistent U.S. and Swiss tax regimes and
legal systems while adhering to pre-existing prenuptial agreement.
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