Estate Planning, Trust Administration, and Litigation

Estate Planning 

The estate planning team at Worden Williams offers a personal approach to the estate planning process. Our attorneys understand that a comprehensive estate plan begins with identifying each client's unique goals and offering the necessary legal, tax and business advice to achieve those goals.

Our team advises clients on all aspects of estate planning, including the preparation of living trusts, wills, durable powers of attorney and advance health care directives. We provide advice on all federal and state tax related issues, including estate, gift, income, generation-skipping, and property tax. In addition to traditional estate planning, we work with our clients to take advantage of the more sophisticated wealth preservation techniques available including irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILIT), grantor retained annuity trusts (GRAT), split-interest charitable trusts (CRAT and CRUT) and qualified personal residence trusts (QPRT).

Estate and Trust Administration

Worden Williams offers a full range of estate and trust administration services. The primary goal in estate and trust administration is to assist the decedent's chosen fiduciary, whether an executor or trustee, in carrying out an individual's wishes, while assuring that the fiduciary is not exposed to liability for failing to comply with various state and federal laws.

Our team helps clients through the entire estate or trust administration process, including: determining whether a probate is necessary, complying with all notice requirements, inventorying the estate, ensuring a proper accounting is prepared, facilitating the preparation of all tax returns, subtrust funding, distribution of assets and addressing any post-mortem planning, such as qualified disclaimers.

Litigation

Worden Williams handles every aspect of estate and trust litigation, including will and trust contests and disputes, questions about interests in an estate or trust, breach of fiduciary duties issues, claims to recover property belonging to an estate or trust, accounting disputes, and any judicial proceedings that may arise in the process of estate and trust administration.

Worden Williams takes pride in its successful representation of its estate and trust clients including in the following matters:

  • Revocable Living Trusts

  • Wills

  • Gift, Estate, and GST Tax Planning

  • Estate and Trust Litigation

  • Medical Planning

  • Powers of Attorney

  • Family Limited Partnerships (FLP)

  • Business Succession Planning

  • Real Property Transfers (Including Prop. 13)

  • Trust Administration

  • Beneficiary Representation

  • Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills

  • Planning for Non-US Citizens

  • Special Needs Trusts (SNT)

  • Probate

  • Trusts for Children and Grandchildren

  • Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILIT)

  • Charitable Trusts