Complex Estate Planning and Trust Services

The bedrock of our practice is taking care – excellent care – of people, including those in circumstances that demand special handling. These situations involve people who are not capable of taking care of themselves or who need a special level of assistance. They require empathy, goodwill and a sense of charitable purpose, as well as distinct, well-defined levels of legal delegation: Executorship, Guardianship or Trusteeship.

Executorship

This is the most limited and benign form of legal delegation. The attorney or firm has been instructed to complete the settlement of an estate and/or to comply with a discrete set of directives that the client has authorized counsel to perform in his or her name even once deceased. When the specified tasks have been completed, the Executor’s work is usually finished.

Guardianship

This is a more extensive and more generalized form of legal delegation, because it usually involves the care and maintenance of a living person under a set of unknown future circumstances over an unknown period of time. As a result, the attorney is given much more flexible powers than those involved with an executorship. These powers are focused more upon securing certain outcomes intended by the client for the best interests of the person, rather than providing a precise and detailed list of instructions. Because the future is uncertain, no one can know exactly what powers will be required. The client and the attorney must operate almost as partners in a joint venture to ensure that a thoughtful plan is in place so that there is a reasonable likelihood of achieving the desired outcome.

Trusteeship

This is the greatest level of legal delegation of control. Here, the trustee is provided with the actual legal title of property – for the benefit of another – with the most extensive powers and the most discretion with respect to exercising those powers. Trustees are held to the highest duty of care and loyalty and are required to exercise their powers only in the best interests of the beneficiaries. Trusts attempt to anticipate the future, sometimes for several generations, and must be flexible enough to avoid falling apart (and therefore failing their original intent) when confronting the challenges of the future. Consequently, the need for sound thinking, practical experience, reasoned drafting and the right kind of law firm is paramount.