Individual Client Services
Schulte’s Individual Client Services Group is one of the most sophisticated, extensive and diverse of any major law firm. We support clients through every phase of their lives, from inheritance and marriage to the administration of estates and trusts.
We represent high-net-worth individuals and families, including private fund managers, entrepreneurs, real estate investors, C-suite executives and those who have inherited substantial wealth, in their personal legal matters. We integrate estate planning, trust and estate administration, philanthropic planning, business succession planning and matrimonial representation to provide each client with a bespoke, comprehensive plan that reflects their priorities. We also represent individuals, banks and trust companies who are acting as fiduciaries, in both general administrative matters and litigated or contested matters. We establish philanthropic entities for our clients, and advise on governance, compliance and operations, including negotiating complex grant agreements. We advise clients on matrimonial matters, including divorce settlement negotiations and mediations, as well as prenuptial, postnuptial and cohabitation agreements.
Our work is built around our clients and their goals. We help them navigate tax-efficient strategies and complex family dynamics to ensure that their estate planning is an active tool to build the lives they want to lead — and the legacy they want to leave behind.
We represent wealthy individuals and families in all aspects of their estate planning. In this context, we prepare sophisticated wills and trusts, advise our clients on how best to minimize gift and estate taxes and create various types of trusts, including insurance trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, credit shelter trusts and dynasty (or generation-skipping) trusts. We develop and implement many types of sophisticated planning techniques that help our clients achieve their personal, business and tax-related goals.
Our estate planning team provides counsel on:
- Wills and trusts
- Gift giving, installment sales and other transfers of wealth
- Planning for multi-generational transfers
- Health care documents
- Powers of attorney
- Planning for incapacity or other special needs
When clients pass away, we assist family members, beneficiaries and fiduciaries to ensure that they are advised of their rights and obligations and that the estate is properly, efficiently, and promptly administered. Where necessary or appropriate, we advise clients regarding potential and actual litigation regarding estates, trusts and related matters. In the course of representing estates, we probate the will (or initiate an administration proceeding if there is no will), and we help to marshal, preserve and value all of the decedent’s assets. We also prepare all necessary estate tax returns and advise our clients on related income tax matters.
As a part of this aspect of our practice, we routinely represent fiduciaries in Surrogate’s Court matters, estate tax audits and, where necessary, in Tax Court. At the end of the administration of an estate or trust, we often prepare an accounting of the fiduciaries’ actions and work with the fiduciaries to settle the account and have the fiduciaries released from liability, either with or without court action, depending on the circumstances.
During estate and trust administration, our individual client services group handles:
- Probate of wills
- Administration of intestate estates
- Preparation of tax returns and representation in tax audits
- Post-mortem tax and other planning
- Preparation and settlement of fiduciaries’ accounts
- Administration of trusts
- Representation in fiduciary litigations
Our extensive charitable planning practice assists clients with the creation and administration of private foundations, including the creation of appropriate policies and procedures to ensure compliance with applicable IRS and attorney general rules and regulations. We advise private foundation clients with respect to complex grants, including grants to individuals, foreign organizations and other private foundations, as well as program-related investments. We also represent individual donors of major charitable gifts to educational, cultural and other charitable institutions, ensuring that gifts are used as intended and that our clients realize the maximum income tax advantages. In addition, we advise our clients on the creation of split-interest trusts, such as charitable lead trusts and charitable remainder trusts, that can have substantial tax benefits.
We represent individual and corporate executors and trustees in all aspects of estate and trust administration — from inception through completion. We advise fiduciaries on all phases of administration, including tax and non-tax matters and litigated and non-litigated matters. Drawing on other departments within the firm, we also counsel fiduciaries on real estate, litigation, employment law, intellectual property, corporate, securities, and tax issues related to administration.
In representing fiduciaries, we handle:
- Retention of books and records
- Preparation of income tax returns
- Advice regarding proper trust administration and fulfillment of fiduciary duties
- Advice regarding discretionary distributions
- Representation in tax audits
- Representation in disputes/litigations
- Preparation and settlement of accounts
Our matrimonial practice includes representation of clients in sophisticated prenuptial, postnuptial, cohabitation, and separation agreements. We are well known for our ability to negotiate fair and amicable settlements of matrimonial matters without diminishing our ability to represent our clients aggressively and fully, as appropriate. In addition, because of our knowledge about estate planning and tax matters, we are able to structure matrimonial settlements in the most tax-advantageous way.
As a service to our individual clients, we represent them (or oversee their representation) on many matters that are not strictly related to estate planning or estate and trust administration. This includes representation on family business matters (including buy-sell agreements and succession planning), residential real estate matters, family disputes, and planning for incapacity.