For more information about this practice area, please contact Robert R. Dunn.

Bailey Cavalieri LLC provides a full range of estate planning services designed to achieve the personal objectives of our clients. Our services include advice on the transfer of our clients' assets in a manner consistent with their personal goals and in the most tax efficient manner. Our attorneys also have significant experience in succession planning for owners of closely held businesses.

Our attorneys prepare wills, trusts (revocable and irrevocable), powers of attorney, living wills, and charitable giving documents tailored to the needs of the individual client. We also assist our clients in maintaining the proper titling of assets. We review carefully the income tax, gift tax, estate tax, and generation-skipping transfer tax consequences of our planning documents. We have extensive experience in the preparation of gift tax returns for our clients. We also assist in planning and drafting charitable giving alternatives, including outright charitable gifts, charitable remainder and lead trusts, and charitable gift annuities.

Probate and Trust Practice

Our firm has significant experience in the representation of fiduciaries and beneficiaries of estates and trusts. We provide counsel in all areas of estate and trust administration. We prepare the necessary federal and state estate tax returns as well as income tax returns for estates and trusts.

Probate and Trust Litigation

Our firm has been engaged to represent executors and beneficiaries on a wide variety of issues relating to estate and/or trust administration. We also have experience in litigation with respect to estate, gift and income tax issues for trusts and estates.

Business Succession Planning

Business succession planning is an extremely important consideration for closely held businesses. Many businesses fail upon the retirement or death of the primary owner because an effective succession plan was never implemented.

A business succession plan includes not only business considerations, but also personal and tax considerations. Our lawyers are experienced in helping businesses plan for and transition to the future.

Each business succession plan has unique components based on the circumstances surrounding its owners and the likely successors. In broad terms, business succession plans generally involve the following:

1. Reviewing and updating corporate books and records,
2. Developing a strategy for succession,
3. Monitoring the progress of the succession plan, and making changes as business and other factors warrant it,
4. Coordinating the plan with personal retirement planning, and
5. Coordinating the plan with business tax planning, individual income tax planning, and estate and gift tax arrangements.

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