A Boutique Manhattan Trusts and Estates Firm Prepared to Handle the Most Complex Planning Issues
Reid Michaelis offers comprehensive service on a wide variety of planning issues affecting our clients and their families. We are committed to providing sophisticated gift and estate planning, while maintaining a practice that is personal and client-centric. We value our continuing long-standing relationships and take pride in being trusted confidantes. From explaining complex legal terms and concepts to ensuring that a client’s legal rights are fully assessed and protected, we help our clients make informed decisions regarding an array of trust, estate and tax matters.
The focus of the firm as a Trusts and Estates boutique is squarely estate, tax and charitable planning matters as well as the administration of estates and trusts with accounting and paralegal support. When appropriate, we work with outside counsel and engage other professional advisors, both domestic and foreign, with whom we have long-term relationships to ensure that our clients’ related legal needs are met. Services are coordinated on an integrated and cost-effective basis. We look forward to continuing to fulfill our clients’ legal needs in a professional and efficient manner for many years to come.
To schedule an appointment with Reid Michaelis, call our office at (646) 445-5100, or contact us online.
Our attorneys have years of experience devising customized estate plans and gift transfer techniques to produce tax efficient transfers and protect our clients’ assets for future generations. We work closely with our clients to understand their unique family structures and philosophies and craft documents that produce optimal tax results while reflecting their personal goals.
Our attorneys are proficient at drafting Wills, Revocable and Irrevocable Trust Agreements, Living Wills, Health Care Proxies, and Powers of Attorneys. We advise clients on complex estate, gift, and generation skipping transfer tax issues and help them create sustainable business succession plans through intra-family agreements and other transactions. We also work with our clients to meet their philanthropic objectives through direct giving, private family foundations, and charitable split-interest trusts and review marital agreements for estate planning issues.
The professionals at Reid Michaelis are experienced in all aspects of estate administration and provide thoughtful and tax-effective advice to Executors, individual and corporate fiduciaries, and estate beneficiaries. Our attorneys assist Executors with preparing and filing all necessary documents with the applicable probate court; developing a strategy for fairly and expeditiously administering the estate; finding and collecting estate and trust assets; closing individual bank accounts and opening estate accounts; calculating estate taxes with a view to maximizing the tax advantage for beneficiaries; preparing and reviewing estate tax returns; valuing, managing, preserving, and liquidating the estate; and effectively releasing Executors from claims and liability.
The professionals at Reid Michaelis provide highly ethical and reliable administration guidance for the Trustees of a wide variety of trusts, including Credit Shelter Trusts, Revocable Trusts, Dynasty Trusts, Self-directed Trusts, Special Needs Trusts, Qualified Domestic Trusts, Foreign Trusts, QTIP Trusts, Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts, Qualified Personal Residence Trusts, Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts, Educational Trusts, and Charitable Trusts.
We assist individual and corporate Trustees with all fiduciary responsibilities, including the preparation and settlement of trust accountings and releases; preparation and review of fiduciary income tax returns; organizing and overseeing distributions to beneficiaries; reviewing Trustee compensation issues; advising on unitrust elections and exercise of the power to adjust; preparing documents for decanting or amending irrevocable trusts; and offering practical advice on all phases of trust administration.
Reid Michaelis represents private foundations and public charities, including charitable, cultural, religious, educational, arts, and other organizations, at all stages of existence from formation to termination. We assist organizations in establishing and maintaining their tax exempt status, complying with requirements under state and federal laws, and negotiating and drafting endowment, joint venture, fundraising, and gift agreements. We review annual tax filings and handle all types of ongoing issues such as claims of self-dealing, potential UBIT liabilities, governance issues, fiduciary duties of board members and officers, conflicts of interest, and board committee responsibilities.
