Practice Strengths

Charitable Foundations and Gifts
Charitable giving is integral to many estate plans. We know how to structure it for maximum tax advantage, while fully achieving your charitable intentions. Our lawyers can:

• Obtain and maintain the charitable status of family foundations.
• Plan and implement charitable lead trusts, including charitable lead unitrusts designed to leverage the generation-skipping tax exemption as well as more traditional charitable remainder trusts.
• Ensure compliance with state and federal regulations on foundation investments.
• Administer large estates through sophisticated split-interest charitable trusts.

Gift Planning
We establish annual gifting programs as one of the most effective ways to minimize estate taxes and protect family assets. Our lawyers emphasize aggressive planning and creative trust vehicles to leverage your gift tax exclusions and credits. We ensure full tax compliance in all our giving strategies, and regularly secure Private Letter Rulings and other guidance from the IRS to allow effective gift and generation-skipping tax planning.

Exempt Organizations
We help tax-exempt organizations secure and maintain their charitable status, which often involves guidance on establishing the most effective grant-making policies. Our lawyers often counsel exempt organizations on their investment, reporting and tax obligations under state and federal laws, particularly those that involve ownership of for-profit subsidiaries. If IRS questions arise over tax-exempt status, we will respond to audits and inquiries and secure letters of determination.

Charitable Trusts and Foundations
Our lawyers have formed and structured charitable trusts and foundations with billions of dollars in assets. As part of our private wealth counseling, we have considerable experience in advising charitable organizations about endowment development programs, including the structuring and operation of donor-advised funds and supporting foundations.

About Our Private Wealth Team
Baker Hostetler's private wealth team members have the skill and discretion to handle even the most sensitive and complex matters. Our senior lawyers have decades of trust and estate counseling experience, and all team members are highly knowledgeable about federal and state tax laws as they relate to family businesses, charitable giving, wealth preservation and estate planning. A number of our team members are CPAs, another illustration of how we combine top legal, business and financial experience.