Baker & Hostetler LLP

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Private Wealth

For more than 90 years, Baker Hostetler has helped high-wealth individuals and families, and the fiduciaries who manage their financial assets, maximize the efficient use of financial resources and minimize the negative impact of taxation. From the initial will and trust that our lawyers developed in 1919 for publishing magnate E.W. Scripps, we have grown to become one of the largest private wealth practices at any law firm in the United States.

If controversies arise anywhere in the private wealth management process—among beneficiaries, or between beneficiaries and fiduciaries—we use our knowledge of tax law and business practice to structure a solution that validates our clients' actions and resolves the controversy either through negotiation or effective representation in court.

Our Private Wealth Practice provides comprehensive counsel and representation in the areas of most concern to clients:
* Charitable Planning
* Private Wealth Planning
* Trust and Estate Administration
* Charitable Planning

Charitable Foundations and Gifts

Charitable giving is integral to many estate plans. We know how to structure it for maximum tax advantage, while fully achieving your charitable intentions. Our lawyers can:
* Obtain and maintain the charitable status of family foundations.
* Plan and implement charitable lead trusts, including charitable lead unitrusts designed to leverage the generation-skipping tax exemption as well as more traditional charitable remainder trusts.
* Ensure compliance with state and federal regulations on foundation investments.
Administer large estates through sophisticated split-interest charitable trusts.

Gift Planning

We establish annual gifting programs as one of the most effective ways to minimize estate taxes and protect family assets. Our lawyers emphasize aggressive planning and creative trust vehicles to leverage your gift tax exclusions and credits. We ensure full tax compliance in all our giving strategies, and we regularly secure Private Letter Rulings and other guidance from the IRS to allow effective gift and generation-skipping tax planning.

Exempt Organizations

We help tax-exempt organizations secure and maintain their charitable status, which often involves guidance on the most effective grant-making policies to establish. 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.

Private Wealth Planning

Providing Sophisticated Individual Wealth Management Counsel

Our private wealth practice is focused on representing high net-worth families and their closely held businesses. This practice includes the structure and operation of family offices and private trust companies, sophisticated estate and philanthropic planning, asset protection, multigenerational education and wealth-preservation planning.

Good wealth management and estate plans help individuals and families with some of their most important concerns:
* Multigenerational transfer of wealth.
* Tax minimization strategies.
* Business continuity and succession.
* Wealth transfer and tax aspects of concentrated asset positions.
* Sophisticated charitable planning strategies.

Baker Hostetler provides these services and others designed specifically to meet the needs of affluent families. Our full-service practice gives clients the ability to draw on our legal experience and an array of related services nationwide.

Baker Hostetler private wealth lawyers have earned the confidence of generations of clients, meeting their needs with skill and sensitivity. We have decades of trust and estate counseling experience, and we are knowledgeable about federal and state tax laws as they relate to family businesses, charitable giving, wealth preservation and estate planning.

Personal Financial Planning

We understand that a fundamental part of wealth planning is effectively managing the challenges of your life today. We apply the latest financial and tax techniques to develop plans that help you get the most out of:
* Executive compensation and benefit programs.
* Marital agreements.
* Stock options and other equity-based compensation.

Shaping the Wealth Management Legislative Landscape

For individuals and fiduciaries alike, tax laws and their interpretation have crucial impact on wealth management planning and administration. Our private wealth lawyers not only keep abreast of all the latest changes, but we also work effectively to represent our clients' interests in legislation being considered at the federal, state and local levels.

Trust & Estate Administration

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 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.

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 almost 90 years, fiduciaries have looked to Baker Hostetler 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 beneficiaries and the fiduciary.
* Help fiduciaries deal with conflicts between two or more beneficiaries.

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.

National Practice of Leaders

With more than 20 private wealth lawyers in offices from California and Colorado to Florida, Ohio and Washington, DC, Baker Hostetler represents private wealth clients throughout the country. Our true strength, however, is the unsurpassed skill of our Private Wealth team.

About our Private Wealth Team

Baker Hostetler'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.

Baker & Hostetler LLP
SunTrust Center #2300
200 S Orange Ave
Orlando FL 32801
Tel: 407 649-4000
Fax: 407 841-0168