Whether your net worth is $100 million or $100,000, there are planning strategies to protect and efficiently distribute your wealth the way you want. We counsel and spearhead efforts to protect you and your assets in the event of your incapacity and to efficiently distribute your assets to your selected beneficiaries after your death.
Jones & Keller attorneys advise families, individuals, businesses, and trustees in all aspects of private wealth, tax and estate planning. We also represent clients in estate litigation as well as fiduciaries, including corporate trustees, in an advisory capacity and in litigation.
While considering estate, gift and income tax obligations, we function as your family and business’ general counsel, quarterbacking efforts to protect and extend your family and business prosperity. In collaboration with the firm’s corporate attorneys, we advise our clients and their businesses as they create, grow, manage, preserve, and distribute wealth.
Jones & Keller attorneys bring generations of legal knowledge and experience in efficiently designing and executing individual and multigenerational wealth and succession plans. Our commitment to making a difference in the lives of our clients is visible in how we proactively engage, protect and defend client interests. Read on for what you can expect when working with the attorneys at Jones & Keller.
Through one-on-one discussions and working relationships with their advisors, we help clients clarify their goals and smooth over potential pain points through various planning strategies, counseling clients on the steps necessary to achieve those goals.
We also advise our clients who own businesses with respect to legal solutions designed to help manage the impact of the business’ performance on client’s long-term private wealth planning goals. Our attorneys leverage legal developments and a full menu of time-honored and emerging strategies to clients. Whether you are looking for comprehensive or a-la-carte solutions, the practical and legal advice you’ll receive when working with our attorneys will help you put in place an appropriate structure to protect your assets and minimize the risk of conflict in the future.
In working with us, clients gain access to the full complement of attorneys at Jones & Keller in corporate, securities, labor and employment, tax, and other legal and business disciplines, who are available to lend collaborative insights to solving complex private wealth matters.
Everyone needs a core plan. Why? State statutes govern who manages a person’s finances and care during incapacity and who receives a decedent’s property. At its simplest, a core estate plan puts these decisions back in the hands of the you, our client.
A solid core estate plan reduces the risk of legal controversy. A core plan may include the following.
Typically beginning with a core estate plan, private wealth strategies are built from the ground up with you, your family and your business goals in mind to set the foundation for a comprehensive structure that truly create peace of mind.
For those clients with more complexities, we tailor estate plans to address these complexities with personalized tools and strategies, which may include:
While our corporate lawyers focus on growing and improving your business, we focus on how the business’ success affects your future financial position and family. This may include:
Tax savings and a smooth, well-thought out wealth transfer are cornerstones of the private wealth practice at Jones & Keller. Familial, business, and charitable giving goals are factored into applicable tax planning, which may include:
Drawing on extensive experience in industry and emerging issues, our tax controversy attorneys counsel clients in anticipating and planning for future controversies, under audit, settlement efforts—individual and coordinated IRS and Treasury, and IRS appeals controversies, including.
Probate is one part of administration. It’s the legal process of transferring title of assets from a decedent to his or her beneficiaries. Even if all property is held in a trust, that trust still needs to go through an administration process. Finally, when a person lacks capacity, the legal system creates a process for administering guardianship, conservatorship, or power of attorney directives for an incapacitated person’s estate.
We help clients navigate these legal processes, making them as smooth as possible for our clients. Big or small, active or passive, we help clients with whatever is needed to administer–open, manage, and close–an estate or trust. In doing so, we advise fiduciaries (i.e. trustees, personal representatives, agents) with respect to their responsibilities and duties in their fiduciary role.
When questions or problems arise under IRS or state audits or during the process of estate/trust administration, formal challenges may arise. We combine trial-tested litigation skills with experience to advocate effectively for our clients throughout the IRS administrative process and in the courts. We engage experts to prepare and defend positions, achieving levels of success. Examples of litigation we have handled in the past include: