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ESTATE and GIFT TAX REPORTING AND ADMINISTRATION
CohnReznick’s trusts and estates professionals represent the executor or executrix through the federal and state estate tax return process all the way to final determination and closing of the estate. We coordinate with attorneys and wealth managers to advise on available tax elections and identify planning opportunities for the family. Our team provides administration consulting services for both the estate and the trusts created from the estate, such as fiduciary accounting, income tax planning, and trust funding analysis.
Our team has extensive experience in tax reporting for sophisticated estate plans created by the top attorneys in the country. We regularly collaborate with the planning attorneys to address issues such as the generation-skipping transfer tax exemption, high-risk transfer structures, valuation discounts, disclosure of non-gift transactions, and necessary disclosure requirements under Treasury regulations.
ESTATE PLANNING
We craft an estate plan to protect your assets from creditors, minimize federal and state estate tax, and maximize income tax opportunities available to you. Using sophisticated wealth transfer and preservation strategies, we can help you maximize the enjoyment of your property during your lifetime while also facilitating appropriate lifetime gifting strategies, and providing for an orderly and efficient transfer of property to beneficiaries upon your death. Our services may include an estate and gift tax analysis including projections of potential estate tax savings achieved through specific planning strategies, and an income tax and cash flow analysis in conjunction with proposed wealth transfer strategies.
LIFE INSURANCE TRUSTS
Unlike some other wealth transfer strategies that require a large contribution of wealth during a lifetime to reduce estate tax liability, an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) allows you to transfer large amounts of wealth to beneficiaries with a relatively small contribution. We can help you properly structure an ILIT so that you can avoid triggering a gift tax, using the ILIT to pay the life insurance proceeds to beneficiaries free of estate and gift tax. We will work with you and your family to leverage this low-risk, high-reward wealth transfer strategy in conjunction with your estate planning objectives.
CHARITABLE GIVING THROUGH TRUSTS
To help you achieve your wealth transfer goals and philanthropic vision, we provide expert guidance on charitable planning strategies, current tax incentives, and tax-favored wealth transfer. A charitable remainder trust can provide you with a current tax incentive, allow for a term of years or lifetime stream of income, and pass your remaining wealth to identified charities after your death. Alternatively, a charitable lead trust can provide you with a significant current tax incentive, immediate charitable contributions, and eventual wealth transfer to your beneficiaries’ gift taxes. We can also advise you on setting up your own private foundation, contributing to donor advised funds, or other charitable vehicles.
ASSET PROTECTION
Through the strategic use of irrevocable trusts, we can help protect your assets from financial abuse, lawsuits, divorce, spendthrift heirs, and other risks. Our wealth transfer planning professionals cut through the complexity of federal and state provisions to identify solutions to address your wealth preservation and transfer goals.
INTERNATIONAL TRUSTS AND ESTATES
In serving foreign nationals investing in the United States, multi-jurisdictional families, and foreign beneficiaries of domestic estates and trusts, CohnReznick is one of the few U.S. accounting and advisory firms to provide both estate planning and tax compliance services for these unique clients. Through a seamless collaboration with our International Tax practice, we help international clients develop pre-immigration plans, address withholding regimes and unusual anti-deferral regimes for foreign beneficiaries, and create investment structures to minimize U.S. transfer and income tax exposure. We also assist with expatriation for citizens and long-term residents.
BUSINESS SUCCESSION PLANNING
When passed down from one generation to the next, due to lack of appropriate succession planning, many businesses do not survive. If you own a family business, we will strategize with you to create both management and ownership succession plans to facilitate continuation. We can help your family business deliver maximum value to the senior generation while protecting assets and transferring wealth to future generations. We will also help you determine how and when your business might be passed to the next generations, or if it should be sold to key employees or third parties.
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Sahri Zeger
Principal, JD, MBA
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