Our Estate & Trust Department provides individual clients as well as small business clients with planning techniques that enable clients to transfer assets to loved ones and minimize the tax implications of those transfers.

Estate Planning

In general, estate planning tools are designed to alleviate the Federal Estate Tax burden and to preserve assets for the family. We prepare Wills and Trusts, Advance Health Care Directives, and Powers of Attorney. Wills and Trusts provide for the transfer of assets upon death to loved ones, and guardians for minor children. Advanced Health Care Directives and Durable Powers of Attorney protect individuals while they are still alive. By naming people to manage their assets and make medical decisions on their behalf, clients ensure that they will receive effective care and assistance in the event they are unable to make decisions for themselves.

For clients with more advanced estate planning needs, our Attorneys utilize more advanced estate planning tools such as Revocable Trusts, Generation Skipping Trusts, Qualified Personal Residence Trusts, Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, Life Insurance Trusts, Irrevocable Trusts, Lifetime Gift Planning, and business entities such as LLCs, Corporations and Family Limited Partnerships.

Individuals with disabled family members and/or members with special needs require extra attention. Our Attorneys regularly advise them with respect to Special Needs Trusts, and the use of Guardianships and Trustees both to provide care for the disabled individuals and to protect assets by ensuring that the disabled individual will not be disqualified from receiving his or her government benefits.

Estate Administration

A Will, Trusts and/or the business entities created by an individual, along with federal and state statutes, all govern various aspects of the distribution of assets upon the death of an individual. In our role as an attorney for an estate and/or trust, we assist and advise Executors and Trustees on Estate and/or Trust administration. Delaware and Maryland’s estate administration process has three stages. During the first stage, the person(s) or entity named in the decedent’s will as Executor, or with priority at law to so act, places the original will on file with the Register of Wills and files a Petition asking the Register to formally appoint him as the Executor or Administrator. In the second stage, the attorneys and clients work together to gather all of the decedent’s asset information and prepare an Inventory. The Inventory, which is placed on file with the Register, reports the value of each asset in the decedent’s estate on the date of death. During the final stage of the Estate Administration process, the Executor or Administrator tally the bills paid, file income tax and estate tax returns, negotiate and pay creditors, prepare the final accounting (a document reporting the bills paid and the assets remaining) and distributes the remaining assets to the proper beneficiaries.

Post mortem estate planning for the decedent and/or estate planning for the beneficiaries may also include the preparation and filing of disclaimers. In addition, those who have inherited should review their current estate plan and consider preparing new estate planning documents that properly take their new financial position into account.

Business Services

Tunnell & Raysor Attorneys review with business clients the various aspects of their businesses, including but not limited to their income and expenses, business activities, and the people or entities involved and holding ownership. These, along with their associated tax consequences, are used to select the business entity that will best suit a client’s needs. Tunnell & Raysor drafts documents to properly form the business and place it on file with the Secretary of State. We create Member or Shareholder Agreements that define voting rights and otherwise govern how a business will be run, and Buy/Sell Agreements that set forth a process for the disposition of business interests both during lifetime and upon death.

Often, strategic business planning is a necessary part of the estate planning process discussed above. A family may wish to integrate younger generations into existing family businesses and/or to avoid estate and other taxes that are imposed upon death in order to preserve it for future generations.