Estate & Trust Planning

THE ESTATE & TRUST PLANNING DEPARTMENT

Curtis, Brinckerhoff & Barrett, P.C. has distinguished trust and estate services where our clients and their interests are of the foremost priority. We form strong relationships with our clients with the goal of planning out their future, preserving their wealth, and enabling them to pass assets to their beneficiaries in the most appropriate and tax-effective manner. Our attorneys provide thoughtful and comprehensive advice to clients from different backgrounds and with diverse needs. From the young couple with their first child in need of a simple will, to estate planning for small business owners, we offer experience in all aspects of trust and estate law. Examples of our services include the following:

• Drafting of wills and trusts
• Planning and preparation of both simple and sophisticated estate plans
• Planning, preparation and administration of trusts including:

• QPRTs

  Qualified Personal Residence Trust Residence trusts are used to transfer a grantor’s residence out of the grantor’s estate at a low gift tax value. Once the trust is funded with the grantor’s residence, the residence and any future appreciation of the residence is excluded from grantor’s estate.

  QPRTs
  (Qualified Personal Residence Trust)

• GRIT

  Grantor Retained Income Trust  A type of trust designed to save estate taxes in the event the grantor outlives the trust termination date.

  GRIT
  (Grantor Retained Income Trust)

• CRT

  Charitable Remainder Trust A tax-exempt irrevocable trust designed to reduce the taxable income of individuals by first dispersing income to the beneficiaries of the trust for a specified period of time and then donating the remainder of the trust to the designated charity.

  CRT
  (Charitable Remainder Trust)

• CRU

  Charitable Remainder Unitrust A form of charitable remainder trust. A donor executes a charitable trust document and transfers ownership of property. The trustee of the trust invests the property. The donor (or an individual named by the donor) receives a fixed percentage of the trust's value as income each year.

  CRU
  (Charitable Remainder Unitrust)

• GRAT

  Grantor Retained Annuity Trust An estate planning technique that minimizes the tax liability existing when intergenerational transfers of estate assets occur.

  GRAT
  (Grantor Retained Annuity Trust)

• QDOT

  Qualified Domestic Trust A type of trust that allows taxpayers who are not U.S. citizens to claim the marital deduction for estate-tax purposes. Spouses without citizenship are not eligible for the marital deduction without a qualifying domestic trust. QDOTs are similar to QTIP trusts in that the marital deduction is conditional upon the inclusion of assets inside the trust.

  QDOT
  (Qualified Domestic Trust)

• Administration and settlement of estates
• Tax planning, advice, and opinions on related issues
• Medicare planning

The Estate & Trust Planning Department is under the direction of Ward Frank Cleary, Susan L. Stratton, John J. Louizos, Daniel J. Fox and J. Paul Johnson.