We review our client’s overall financial picture, from the protection of assets to issues of family harmony, and from philanthropic goals to the client’s tolerance for complexity and risk in tax planning. We work closely with the other members of the client’s team of advisors, helping the client obtain answers vetted not just by us, but by other relevant advisors. Our clients benefit from the collective experience of a highly regarded, sophisticated and motivated group.
Culp Elliott & Carpenter’s Private Client Services practice serves the needs of not only established individuals and families, but also younger entrepreneurs, executives, and professionals who are planning their affairs in anticipation of future success. The essence of our approach combines tax and estate-planning fundamentals with our solid understanding of how business actually operates, allowing us to focus on both lifetime benefits and planning for death.
Culp Elliott & Carpenter’s Private Client Services practice provides comprehensive experience in the areas of concern for high-net worth clients, including:
- Tax Planning. Our attorneys have significant experience in minimizing gift and estate taxes, income taxes, and generation-skipping taxes in both lifetime and after death situations.
- Business Planning. We regularly advise on issues of business continuity, family succession planning, shareholders’ agreements, buy-sell agreements, estate freezes, and various tax-deferral devices. We advise on the formation and operation of S corporations, LLCs, and family limited partnerships.
- Administration of Trusts and Estates. We frequently serve as executors, trustees, and members of the board of private foundations and provide legal advice to such fiduciaries. Our team handles all facets of estate, trust, and foundation administration (other than investment advisory services).
- Use of Trusts. We advise on when and whether trusts are effective to avoid taxes, probate, and creditor and other claims, and on the use of trusts in a variety of other situations.
- Premarital and Marital Agreements. We prepare these agreements in appropriate situations to protect the assets of our clients and their families.
- Retirement planning and Executive Compensation. In counseling executives of both public and private companies, our attorneys analyze employee benefits, stock options, restricted stock, lump sum payments, rollovers, and related tax planning matters.
- Lifetime Giving. We help clients maximize lifetime giving opportunities by using the annual exclusion and the gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer tax exemptions, and by leveraging these exclusions and exemptions using sophisticated tax planning techniques.
- Insurance Planning. Our attorneys have substantial experience in the uses of life insurance for business and personal planning, including funded buy-outs, leveraged purchases of insurance, irrevocable trusts, and dynasty trusts.
- Charitable Giving. We counsel individuals and entrepreneurs on charitable giving techniques, including the formation and operation of charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, donor advised funds and private foundations, and the granting of conservation easements.
More than ever, wealthy clients need personal legal advisors who provide sophisticated counsel in a complex, dynamic environment, and who offer direct access to the cross-disciplinary resources offered by the lawyers at Culp Elliott & Carpenter. Our Private Client Services practice prides itself on providing personal, partner-level attention to each client and maintaining long-term relationships with our clients and multiple generations of their family members.