top of page

TRUST & ESTATES

OVERVIEW

The Saber Firm provides sophisticated estate planning and wealth transfer counsel to executives, investors, business owners, athletes, and entertainers building generational legacies. Our estate planning practice addresses the full spectrum of wealth transfer considerations from comprehensive estate plans for individuals with substantial estates to complex multi-generational planning for ultra-high-net-worth families. We develop strategies that minimize transfer taxes, protect assets, provide for family members, and ensure that wealth passes according to clients' wishes while preserving family harmony and values across generations. Modern estate planning extends beyond document preparation to encompass sophisticated planning techniques, business succession coordination, asset protection strategies, and ongoing trust administration. Our practice recognizes that effective estate planning requires integration with clients' broader financial and business objectives. We work closely with financial advisors, CPAs, and investment managers to deliver coordinated counsel that addresses estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes while advancing clients' wealth management goals. Our approach emphasizes flexibility to adapt to changing family circumstances, business developments, and tax law modifications over time.

COMPREHENSIVE TRUST STRUCTURES

We counsel clients on trust structures that serve diverse estate planning objectives including asset protection, tax minimization, wealth transfer, and multi-generational dynasty planning. Our trust practice encompasses revocable living trusts that provide probate avoidance and incapacity planning, irrevocable trusts that remove assets from taxable estates while providing ongoing benefits to family members, and specialized trusts tailored to specific planning objectives.

​

Our trust planning includes:

​

  • Grantor retained annuity trusts that transfer appreciation to beneficiaries while minimizing gift taxes.

  • Charitable remainder trusts that provide income streams while securing charitable deductions.

  • Qualified personal residence trusts that remove residence values from estates at discounted gift values.

  • Dynasty trusts for multi-generational wealth transfer with asset protection.

  • Special needs trusts that preserve government benefits for disabled family members.

​

Dynasty trusts represent powerful vehicles for multi-generational wealth transfer, allowing families to preserve wealth for children, grandchildren, and future generations while minimizing transfer taxes at each generational level. We structure dynasty trusts in favorable jurisdictions that permit perpetual or extended duration, provide asset protection from creditors and divorcing spouses, and enable trust assets to compound and grow for multiple generations.

BUSINESS SUCCESSION PLANNING

We counsel business owners on succession planning that coordinates wealth transfer with business continuity, ensuring that closely-held businesses transition successfully to next generations or new ownership while preserving value and minimizing tax consequences. Business succession planning requires integration of estate planning techniques with corporate governance, entity structuring, and family dynamics.

​

Family limited partnerships and limited liability companies provide powerful structures for business succession and estate planning. These entities enable business owners to transfer business interests to family members over time while retaining management control, achieve valuation discounts for gift and estate tax purposes based on lack of control and marketability, and protect business assets from creditor claims and divorce exposure.

EXECUTIVE ESTATE PLANNING

We provide specialized estate planning counsel to corporate executives with concentrated wealth in company stock and complex compensation arrangements including stock options, restricted stock units, and deferred compensation. Executive estate planning requires sophisticated strategies that address unique challenges of concentrated stock positions, blackout period restrictions, and tax treatment of equity compensation.

​

Executives holding significant stock options and restricted stock face particular estate planning challenges related to timing of exercise, tax treatment of transfers, and concentration risk. We counsel on grantor trusts that receive exercised options and hold resulting stock, removing future appreciation from executives' taxable estates. We advise on charitable remainder trusts funded with appreciated company stock, providing executives with income streams while avoiding capital gains taxes.

WEALTH TRANSFER & GIFT PLANNING

We advise clients on strategic wealth transfer during lifetime through annual exclusion gifts, lifetime exemption utilization, and specialized gift planning techniques that move assets out of taxable estates while minimizing gift taxes. Lifetime gifting provides opportunities to reduce estate tax exposure, shift income to family members in lower tax brackets, and enable clients to observe beneficiaries' use of transferred wealth.

​

Our gift planning services include:

​

  • Annual exclusion gifting programs for systematic wealth transfer.

  • Contributions to 529 education savings accounts utilizing five-year election.

  • Spousal lifetime access trusts utilizing lifetime exemptions while preserving family access.

  • Generation-skipping transfer tax exemption allocation to maximize dynasty trust benefits.

​

Spousal lifetime access trusts represent sophisticated planning technique enabling married couples to utilize lifetime gift tax exemptions while preserving indirect access to transferred assets through discretionary distributions to non-donor spouse. We structure SLATs with appropriate provisions addressing reciprocal trust doctrine concerns and distribution standards that provide access for family needs.

ESTATE TAX MINIMIZATION

We implement comprehensive strategies to minimize federal and state estate taxes through lifetime exemption utilization, valuation discount planning, and sophisticated transfer techniques. Federal estate tax currently imposes forty percent tax on estate values exceeding applicable exemption amounts, with additional state estate taxes in certain jurisdictions creating substantial tax burdens on accumulated wealth.

​

The federal estate and gift tax exemption represents most valuable planning tool for wealth transfer, permitting tax-free transfers during life and at death up to substantial exemption amounts indexed annually for inflation. Valuation discounts provide powerful technique for transfer tax minimization, enabling clients to transfer business interests and real estate at values reflecting lack of control, marketability, and other factors that reduce fair market value below pro-rata asset values.

INCAPACITY PLANNING

We counsel clients on planning for potential incapacity through durable powers of attorney, healthcare directives, and trust structures that ensure seamless management of financial and personal affairs if clients become unable to make decisions independently. Incapacity planning addresses realistic possibility that illness, injury, or cognitive decline may impair decision-making capacity before death.

​

Our incapacity planning includes:

​

  • Durable powers of attorney for financial matters.

  • Healthcare directives and living wills.

  • Healthcare powers of attorney for medical decisions.

  • HIPAA authorizations enabling access to medical information.

  • Revocable living trusts providing seamless asset management during incapacity.

bottom of page