Estate Planning and Administration Practice: Fiduciary Administration

Estate Planning & Administration

Estate Planning Practice Areas

Asset Protection Planning
Charitable Giving
Coordination with Financial Advisers
Disability Planning
Estate Planning
Fiduciary Administration

Fiduciary Administration

ZS&R assists clients in implementing their plans by assisting their designated fiduciaries in administering their estates and trusts and by advising persons acting for clients under powers of attorney for financial and health care matters. Sometimes, ZS&R must defend a client's plan against challenges by creditors or by persons who have been given less than they believe they are entitled to. In other circumstances, ZS&R has been asked to advise individuals as to their rights under estates or trusts of others and to vindicate those rights if the clients have been unlawfully deprived.

Again, tax matters often are a significant element of fiduciary administration, including the filing of returns for estate, gift, inheritance and generation-skipping transfer taxes as well as income tax returns for the fiduciary entities (estates and trusts) involved. ZS&R oversees the preparation of all necessary tax returns in connection with fiduciary administration and defends such returns during examination of returns by tax authorities such as the Internal Revenue Service. On such tax matters, ZS&R relies heavily upon attorneys who have extensive experience both in planning transactions to minimize tax burdens and in resolving tax controversies favorably for firm clients.