Estate & Trust Administration

Our estate and trust administration practice involves the administration of estates and trusts of all sizes. This includes representation of individual executors, administrators and trustees, as well as the largest of trust companies. When representing individual executors, administrators and trustees, our very experienced group of paralegals provide the core services, with the supervision of the attorneys in our Estates & Trusts Group.

When administering decedents’ estates, we work with the executor or administrator from the initial probate through final distribution, guiding the executor or administrator through the process. The work includes post-mortem tax planning, the maintenance of detailed fiduciary accountings, preparation of Federal and state estate and inheritance tax returns, assistance with the Decedent’s final income tax return and the estate’s fiduciary income tax returns, working with creditors, and settling the estate through distribution to the beneficiaries by agreement or by Court approval. Our representation also involves managing the interrelationship of non-probate property with the duties of the executor or administrator.

This practice area also handles the administration of all types of trusts, including assistance with the trust’s fiduciary income tax returns, as well as consultation in connection with the fiduciary’s duties under the trust instrument. The types of trusts can include credit shelter (or “bypass”) trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), grantor retained unitrusts (GRUTs), and grantor retained income trusts (GRITs).