Estate Planning

We Provide Comprehensive Estate Planning Services for Business Owners, Professionals, and Other High-Net-Worth Individuals in Florida

While everyone should have an estate plan, estate planning is especially important for high-net-worth individuals and couples. A comprehensive estate plan will serve various purposes—all of which are important for their own unique reasons.

At Shin Law Firm, we provide custom-tailored estate planning services to high-net-worth individuals and couples in Florida. Relying on decades of experience advising business owners, licensed professionals, and other clients, our lawyers offer personalized recommendations and develop estate plans that address each client’s specific risks, wants, and needs. Our lawyers work with each client one-on-one, taking the time to understand their priorities so that we can help them protect what matters most.

Our Estate Planning Practice

We focus our estate planning practice in three areas: (i) wills, estates, and trusts; (ii) asset protection; and (iii) generational tax planning. We provide business succession planning services as well. Within each of these areas, we help our clients thoroughly explore all of their options, and then we build a comprehensive overall estate planning strategy that is designed specifically to serve each client’s unique estate planning goals.

Wills, Trusts, and Estates

Wills and trusts are the foundational elements of any estate plan. With that said the terms that are necessary to include in a will and the types of trusts that make the most sense depend heavily on each individual’s or couple’s unique personal circumstances. When helping our clients evaluate their options, we thoroughly explain the benefits and limitations of:

Using wills to designate personal representatives and avoid the undesirable consequences of intestate succession
Establishing revocable trusts (or revocable living trusts) to distribute assets to beneficiaries while avoiding probate
Establishing irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs), qualified domestic trusts (QDOTs), and other types of irrevocable trusts for asset protection and tax mitigation purposes
Donating assets to existing charitable organizations and establishing private family charities and foundations
Combining wills, revocable trusts, and irrevocable trusts to build the foundation of a comprehensive and custom-tailored estate plan

Many of our estate planning clients come to us with very specific goals. For example, they may want to leave certain assets to certain children or grandchildren, or they may have steadfast desires to donate a portion of their wealth to a certain charity. At Shin Law Firm, we work with our clients to help them realize their goals while still ensuring that they take advantage of all protections that are available. This includes, but is not limited to, maximizing their estate and gift tax exemptions as well as engaging in other forms of strategic tax planning.

We assist our high-net-worth clients with planning for the possibility of incapacity and healthcare decision-making as well. This, too, is an essential component of estate planning that requires introspective contemplation and thoughtful consideration of all pertinent factors.

Asset Protection

For high-net-worth individuals and couples, asset protection is another key aspect of the estate planning process. From establishing trusts and forming limited liability companies (LLCs) to procuring insurance policies and making transfers, there are a variety of asset protection strategies available; and here, too, we work closely with our clients to craft solutions that are custom-tailored to their individual circumstances.

High-net-worth individuals and couples can—and generally should—use asset protection strategies to protect all forms of accumulated wealth. For example, we routinely assist clients with implementing tools and strategies that protect:

Real estate holdings (including primary residences, vacation homes, and investment properties)
Investment portfolios
Cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other digital assets
Vehicles, boats, and aircraft
Artwork, sports memorabilia, and other collections
Privately-held business ownership interests
Offshore assets

While many types of asset protection strategies can apply to all types of real, personal, and intangible property, in some cases, it will make sense to implement strategies that are asset-specific. These are the types of challenging (and often unidentified) issues we help our clients address in the course of our representation. Ultimately, when it comes to asset protection, the goal is typically to strike a balance between shielding assets from potential creditors and maintaining beneficial use—as well as maintaining maximum flexibility to modify your estate plan as your wishes, needs, and family circumstances change over time.

Generational Tax Planning

Tax planning is also an integral component of the estate planning process for high-net-worth individuals and couples. Under the state, federal, and international tax laws, not only is it possible to execute strategies that minimize your tax liability during your lifetime, but it is possible to execute strategies that minimize your estate’s and beneficiaries’ tax liability as well.

Executing these types of strategies is known as generational tax planning—and it is essential for individuals and couples who have substantial wealth to pass on to the next generations. Annual gifting, Roth IRA conversions, the formation of grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), and intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs) are just a few examples of strategies we may recommend to our high-net-worth clients.

The savings that can be achieved through generational tax planning are limited only by the size of an individual’s or couple’s estate. As with other aspects of estate planning, the key to achieving these tax savings is taking an informed, proactive, and strategic approach. Our estate planning lawyers have the knowledge and insights needed to guide our clients forward—and to help them feel confident that they are doing what is best for themselves, their loved ones, and any other entities or individuals upon whom they may wish to bestow their accumulated wealth.

Schedule a Complimentary Initial Estate Planning Consultation at Shin Law Firm

If you would like to know more about our estate planning services for high-net-worth individuals and couples in Florida, we invite you to get in touch. When you contact us, we will help you schedule a complimentary initial consultation with one of our highly-experienced estate planning lawyers. To start the process, please call 407-730-7814 or tell us how we can reach you online, and we will be in touch shortly.

Accessbility Menu