Practice Strengths

Estate Planning
When you trust us to develop an estate plan, our number-one objective is to ensure your wishes are carried out. We help you make the best planning decisions by giving you sound alternatives, showing the benefits and risks of each, explaining any potential ramifications of the course you choose, and making sure our advice reflects the latest developments in federal and state tax policies. Our services include trust and estate administration, guardianships and custodial accounts. We can plan highly complex wills, trust agreements and powers of attorney for a husband and wife, as well as structuring interrelated trusts, exempt organizations and other business entities.

Trust Construction and Reformation
No matter how carefully a trust instrument is drafted, laws can change or other situations develop that the person establishing the trust did not anticipate. When that happens, we advise fiduciaries on their best courses of action. Often we petition the courts on their behalf to interpret or reform trust instruments. We also deal with the IRS if a court ruling changes the tax ramification of a trust.

Guiding Fiduciaries in Meeting Their Responsibilities
The financial institutions and individual fiduciaries that administer trusts, estates and guardianships have tremendous responsibilities toward their clients. For more than 95 years, fiduciaries have looked to BakerHostetler for the confidential, knowledgeable help they need to:

• Carry out their duties effectively.
• Avoid claims of conflict of interest and breach of fiduciary duty.
• Defend themselves against beneficiary litigation over trust or estate administration or investment performance.

Our lawyers guide executors, administrators and guardians throughout the estate administration and settlement process, focusing on the following key areas:

Trust Administration
A trust or estate plan is effective only when it is properly administered, and fiduciaries must be acutely aware of beneficiaries' rights and expectations. Our lawyers advise fiduciaries—whether as individual executors or as full trust departments—on the most effective strategies and techniques to administer trusts, estates, guardianships and other relationships. We frequently advise on the unique income, estate, gift, generation-skipping transfer and property tax issues involved in trust administration. When disputes arise, we act as counselors to:

• Interpret trust instruments.
• Resolve questions of fiduciary duty.
• Handle conflicts between one or more beneficiary and the fiduciary.
• Help fiduciaries deal with conflicts between two or more beneficiaries.

Trust Construction and Reformation
No matter how carefully a trust instrument is drafted, laws can change or other situations can develop that the person establishing the trust did not anticipate. When that happens, we advise fiduciaries on their best courses of action. Often, we petition the courts on the fiduciaries' behalf to interpret or reform trust instruments. We also deal with the IRS if a court ruling changes the tax ramification of a trust.

Closely Held Businesses in Trust
We have a great deal of experience at resolving problems related to the tax and legal issues, and family relationships, that affect closely held business property held in trust. Often our help to fiduciaries comes at the start of a potential business representation, when we advise clients on their obligations and alternatives as they consider whether to accept a trusteeship involving closely held business property. Because we have worked over the decades with so many family business owners as private wealth clients, we can offer fiduciaries practical insight into the expectations and potential conflicts they may face if they take on a family business trust relationship.

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.

Trust Property
When fiduciaries hold real property in trust, we have the comprehensive transactional, regulatory and dispute regulation capabilities to handle any issue or controversy that may arise:

• Management or sale of the property.
• Disputes over business interests.
• Environmental problems, including representation before federal or state environmental regulators and in the courts if there is a controversy involving a property held in trust.

Litigation
Fiduciaries can be sued for their property and investment management actions in a wide range of forums. Our lawyers are skilled at fiduciary representation and defense before:

• Administrative bodies and regulatory agencies.
• State and local taxing authorities.
• Federal and state trial and appellate courts. 

Wherever possible, we use our knowledge of tax law and business practice to structure a solution that validates our clients' actions and resolves the controversy short of trial. If that is not possible, we aggressively and effectively defend our clients' conduct. In addition, we have considerable experience in prosecuting claims against fiduciaries.

Trusts and Estates Experience

• Obtained a change in Ohio law regarding beneficiary fiduciary powers to address a specific trust and tax situation for a client with a multimillion dollar trust, resulting in a substantial tax exclusion from the estate.
• Created a private $1 billion-plus family trust company for the family owners of a large holding company that encompassed numerous privately owned corporations. Assets transferred to the trust are controlled by three non-family trustees, limiting tax liability of the heirs.
• Represent the majority interest owner in nearly 40 real estate partnerships that are owned in turn by a series of 250 trusts, drafting rules that enabled the family of minority owners to meet and resolve controversies without disrupting the interests of our majority owner client.
• Helped the owners of a large family business reach a global settlement in a complex estate controversy after the founder's death, involving ownership and control, a second wife, death and divorce of heirs from the original marriage and a tax controversy.
• Defended a major Ohio bank in a suit by the son of a wealthy family who wanted access to money the bank held for him in trust with his brother as trustee. We demonstrated the plaintiff's irresponsible behavior in the misuse of assets and obtained a release and legal fees for the bank.

Recognition

• Six lawyers elected to fellowship in the prestigious American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.
• Five private wealth lawyers in Ohio, Colorado and Washington, DC listed in The Best Lawyers in America.
• The founder and chair of the Advanced Estate Planning Institute sponsored annually by the Georgetown University Law Center, and adjunct professors of estate planning and tax law at law schools from coast to coast.
• Leaders of professional organizations, including past chairs of The Florida Bar Tax Section, the Ohio State Bar Estates & Trusts Section, and the American Bar Association's Charitable Giving Committee.
• The 2003 Estate Planner of the Year as selected by the Cleveland Estate Planning Council, and the recipient of the Washington, DC Estate Planning Council's First Distinguished Service Award.
• Certified Public Accountants licensed in a number of states.

About Our Private Wealth Team
BakerHostetler'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.