Private Client Services

Trusts & Estates Planning

Our Private Client Services Group is notable for its breadth of knowledge and experience–we are one of the largest trusts and estates practices in Southern California. We also are known for the quality of our counsel–we provide the highest level of wealth transfer planning and trusts and estates administration services to multiple generations of client families. Trusts and estates counsel is a founding practice of the firm and its success continues to grow in tandem with our firm’s reputation for excellence.

Members in our Private Client Services Group offer nationally recognized expertise in such areas as leveraged asset transfers, generation-skipping transfer tax planning, planning with life insurance, including planning under the final split-dollar treasury regulations, and charitable planning.

We represent a wide array of clients in a range of professions and industries. These include real estate developers, entrepreneurs, owners of closely-held and new and emerging companies, entertainment and sports professionals, foundations, charitable organizations, and multigenerational and multinational families. Our clients also include banks, trust companies and trustees in connection with a multitude of matters involving wealth transfer planning, business succession planning and charitable planning.

One aspect of our counsel is providing a high caliber of technical tax advice and wealth preservation planning. Another major aspect is working closely with our client families and all of their wealth advisors. Our goal is to develop individually tailored solutions to challenges in wealth transfer and preservation, plans that truly reflect and support the family’s aspirations and values.

We view estate planning as an ongoing and multigenerational endeavor. Our attorneys work with the younger generations of a family, as well as the senior generation, to develop a comprehensive wealth transfer plan. Good plans are tax efficient. Great ones also involve familiarizing younger generations with the family values and aspirations. In the process, younger generations acquire the knowledge necessary to continue to build the success of the family.

Representative Experience

  • Represented multi-million dollar family business in structuring real estate transfer to take advantage of depressed values and low interest rates
  • Represented senior and junior generations of a family in the planning and creation of a family investment vehicle. This allowed for investment efficiencies, gave the junior generation access to investments in which they might not otherwise have been qualified to participate, and allowed for efficient intra-family transfers.
  • Represented family members in pre-event planning for high-profile, closely-held businesses going through significant liquidity events.
  • Advised and counseled owners of closely-held businesses in connection with liquidity planning. Among the techniques that we used was split-dollar funding of life insurance policies.