Mike Vito’s deep relationships with high net-worth clients reflect the personable manner in which he guides his private wealth practice. He has significant experience providing hands-on counselling to executors, trustees and beneficiaries, with close attention to the preparation and review of fiduciary accountings, principal and income allocation, concentrated position management, prudent investor act delegation, fiduciary transitions, distribution and wind-up strategies, informal settlement agreements, formal court discharge proceedings and more. Mike provides advice at the helm of high net-worth estate planning as well, with an emphasis on complex wills and trust agreements, exercises of powers of appointment, durable powers of attorney and healthcare directives. He also serves as general counsel to private foundations, offering advice on excise taxes, grant-making procedures and agreements, and non-profit governance.
Mike carefully weighs the customized needs of each client, with a strong personal connection focused on the client’s overall goals to understand their individual thinking and anticipate, frame and guide important decision points. This approach inspires him to design, draft and implement a range of sophisticated techniques that include perpetual GST tax-exempt trusts, annual exclusion trusts, GST grandfathered trust transactions, insurance trusts, grantor trusts, QTIP trusts, spousal access trusts, trust decanting, charitable pledges and complex disclaimers, among others.
Mike is a regular author of the AALU WRMarketplace, a monthly newsletter published for a large life insurance industry trade association.