Kleinberg Kaplan has an extensive Estate Planning and Administration Practice. In both planning and administering estates, our objective is to help our clients achieve their goals with respect to the disposition of their assets with the least tax cost while minimizing the risk of potential claims of creditors. We also advise our clients on litigation regarding estates, trusts and related matters.

We are sensitive to the many family and personal issues that arise in these matters and have earned the trust of our clients for our professionalism, discretion and knowledge.

Estate Planning

From estates of $5 million to estates of many hundreds of millions of dollars, Kleinberg Kaplan's estate planning group has planned thousands of estates for a broad range of clients including: 

• Hedge fund managers
• Real estate owners and developers
• Private investors
• Resident and non-resident aliens
• Senior executives in public companies and in major financial institutions
• Entrepreneurs in many different businesses

We have extensive experience in planning for many different types of assets, held in the U.S. and abroad, including:

• Hedge fund management companies with substantial deferred offshore fees
• Closely-held businesses
• Extensive art collections
• Various forms of life insurance
• Illiquid private investments

Our expertise spans the usual and the more “exotic” estate planning techniques including:

• Family limited partnerships
• Grantor retained annuity trusts
• Qualified personal residence trusts
• Revocable living trusts
• Dynasty trusts
• Charitable trusts, private and private operating foundations
• Offshore asset protection trusts
• Intentionally defective grantor trusts
• Trusts the grantor or beneficiary can control (we call them “transparent trusts”)
• Structures to achieve the future safety of assets from claims of creditors and claims of in-laws and others
• Planning for clients’ possible future disability
• Planning for the continuity of businesses in the event of the loss of key managers
• Using techniques to amend supposedly irrevocable, un-amendable trusts to reflect our clients’ changing objectives and add tax efficiency

Estate Administration

We currently represent numerous estates in administration. We handle all of the required legal matters, prepare all necessary estate and trust tax returns and advise our clients on numerous related income tax matters.