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Estate Planning & Administration

The Estate Planning & Administration Group of Knox McLaughlin Gornall & Sennett, P.C. has the diverse knowledge necessary to create anything from a basic will to the most sophisticated business succession plan. 

Our primary estate planning goal is to develop strategies that maximize asset protection and wealth preservation for clients and their heirs. We listen carefully, understand thoroughly and then strive to create estate plans that fulfill our clients' personal desires, family needs, business interests and philanthropic goals at the lowest possible tax cost. Our dedicated and knowledgeable staff helps achieve these goals.

When the time comes to administer a plan, our attorneys work with our estate administration paralegals to provide the most efficient and best possible results. Our team of estate administration paralegals is the largest in the region, with more than 100 years of combined experience.

We consult with certified public accountants, corporate fiduciaries, insurance consultants and investment advisers to assure comprehensive solutions to each client's unique needs in areas such as:

Basic Estate Planning

• Simple wills
• Wills establishing trusts for minor children
• Durable powers of attorney
• Healthcare powers of attorney and living wills
• Guardianships
• Standby guardianships
• Prenuptial agreements
• Postnuptial agreements

Complex Estate Planning

• Wills and testamentary trusts
• Revocable and irrevocable trusts, including GRATs and GRUTs
• Special needs trusts for beneficiaries unable to care for themselves
• Asset protection plans
• IRA trust planning
• Complex charitable and philanthropic gift planning using trusts and other tools
• Comprehensive multigenerational estate plans which utilize:
  • Family gifting programs
  • Grantor trusts
  • Non-grantor trusts
  • Testamentary trusts
  • Self-settled asset protection trusts
  • Corporations, limited partnerships, limited liability companies and other business entities
  • Qualified plans, individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and other tax-deferred assets
  • The MaxProtect Plan®

Business Succession Planning 

Enabling the transfer of a family business to the next generation at the lowest possible tax cost through the use of: 

• Wills, testamentary trusts, and revocable, irrevocable and grantor trusts
• Corporations, limited partnerships, limited liability companies and other business entities 
• Buy/sell shareholder agreements, installment sales
• Complex gifting plans, including voting and non-voting stock
• Charitable gifting 
• Irrevocable life insurance trusts
• The MaxProtect Plan®

Disability/Medicaid Planning

Maximizing the level of benefits clients receive from the federal and state government while preserving their assets through use of:

• Nursing home/medical assistance asset protection plans
• Special needs trusts
• Income-only trusts
• Complex multigenerational estate planning