Sophisticated Legal Advice.

We concentrate our practice on wealth structuring and succession planning for higher net-worth U.S. and foreign individuals and families by drafting and advising on all aspects of wills, trusts and related estate planning documents. We provide comprehensive and sophisticated advice on lifetime gifting techniques, charitable giving, post-death estate planning elections and opportunities, and all issues related to the management and taxation of inter-generational transfers. The firm provides sophisticated legal advice to ensure that all transfer taxes that may affect a client or a client’s estate are minimized to the greatest extent possible while constructing each plan so that it has the flexibility and elegance that achieves each client’s particular personal non-tax goals.

Our firm represents individual and corporate fiduciaries in connection with a wide range of estate and trust administration matters. Our advice to clients includes the modernization and amendment of older trusts and guidance on tax compliance with respect to various trust investments.

Meaningful Client Relationships.

The firm has maintained numerous meaningful client relationships with families possessing generational wealth over the last several decades by delivering thorough and insightful estate planning advice with compassion and legal expertise. The firm’s objective is to provide practical and effective solutions to their clients’ particular needs in the most cost-efficient manner. While Mr. Reid and Ms. Michaelis devote the majority of their time to more complex estate and tax planning or administrative issues, they also advise clients in connection with a variety of non-tax, “human” issues that are sometimes more important to clients than any potential tax savings. Clients often comment that they most appreciate the ease with which the principals provide technical advice in a “user-friendly” style and present estate planning concepts and documents in a way that is thoughtful and easy to understand.

When putting your estate planning concerns in the hands of Reid Michaelis, you are ensuring that your wealth transition is grounded on a firm but self-adjusting platform that is legally effective, tax efficient and emotionally satisfying.