Estate Planning, Probate
& Asset Protection

The ScottHulse Estate Planning, Probate & Asset Protection practice group advises high and mid net worth individuals and families in estate planning, living or revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts, wills, transfer taxation, asset protection, and closely held and family business matters.

''When you have a plan for your person and your assets, you are providing peace and order for your family. You are taking care of what is an inevitable part of life, rather than forcing your family to resolve issues in your stead. A plan also avoids leaving your assets in the hands of the state by default.''

Glenn Davis
Attorney & Shareholder

They also advise clients regarding charitable giving, including deferred and leveraged giving. Attorneys within this group also have extensive experience related to probate and trust administration, will contests, will construction suits, and other fiduciary litigation matters.

Our estate planning attorneys also assist high net worth individuals with the creation of complex multi-generational wealth transfer estate and wealth preservation plans that utilize multiple techniques. These include comprehensive, custom plans that go beyond standard credit shelter or bypass trust and marital deduction trust planning that is the foundation for any estate plan. These plans also include, when appropriate, full utilization of an individual’s exemptions from the generation-skipping transfer tax with a view towards creating true “dynasty trusts” that extend for multiple generations, if not into perpetuity.

The Firm’s location in El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces, New Mexico, along the U.S./Mexico border, has enabled this practice group to develop substantial experience in advising high net worth individuals with assets on both sides of the international border. These individuals often have special planning and tax issues because of the location and nature of their assets, and their status as non-U.S. citizens, non-U.S. residents, or both.

Lifetime transfers are also an important part of multi-generational planning. ScottHulse lawyers have prepared specialized trusts and business entities to receive lifetime transfers designed either to avoid or reduce transfer taxation or to maximize available exemptions from such taxation. Examples of lifetime specialized trusts and business entities include:

• Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts, also called ILITs;
• Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, or GRATs, and Grantor Retained Unitrusts, or GRUTs;
• Charitable Remainder Trusts and Charitable Lead Trusts, also called CRUTs and CLATs;
• Children’s Trusts; and
• Family Limited Partnerships (or FLPs) and Family Limited Liability Companies (or FLLCs)

When used in combination, these trusts and family business and investment entities can achieve a high degree of control and flexibility for the Firm’s clients, provide significant asset valuation discounts for transfer taxation savings and leverage, and preserve the privacy of accumulated wealth as it is passed efficiently with appropriate restrictions and incentives from generation to generation.

Incapacity and Disability Planning

Planning for incapacity and disability is another important aspect of ScottHulse’s Estate Planning, Probate & Asset Protection practice. The firm uses carefully designed provisions for Living Trusts to minimize the need for legal proceedings in the face of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Many times, an elderly person will not realize he or she needs help because of his or her deteriorating condition, and then resents a child’s offer of help. The Firm’s Living Trust provisions require the client to address this real concern at the time the planning documents are drafted and ease the transition to successor trustees when help is needed.

Third-Party Special Needs Trusts can be very important for mid net worth married clients and parents of minor or adult children who are disabled or otherwise eligible for government benefits like Medicaid. ScottHulse believes that virtually every trust should have the potential for becoming a Special Needs Trust, or Supplemental Needs Trust, as necessary to avoid disqualification from receiving such benefits. Wills and trusts prepared by ScottHulse lawyers contain special language that allows the special or supplemental needs trust provisions to be “turned on” only when needed. For mid net worth married clients, this “toggle feature” can protect the surviving spouse’s potential eligibility for government benefits and yet preserve up to one-half of the couple’s lifetime savings that would otherwise be lost to nursing home and medical care expenses.

Probate and Estate and Trust Administration

Probate and estate and trust administration are other significant aspects of ScottHulse’s Estate Planning, Probate & Asset Protection services. Our estate planning attorneys in this group advise individual and corporate fiduciaries regarding administration and taxation issues affecting trusts, estates and family owned businesses.

As part of the probate process, ScottHulse prepares United States Estate Tax Returns (Forms 706) and advises accountants for the Firm’s clients regarding such returns. The practice group also handles the IRS audit or examination of United States Estate Tax Returns and works in opposition to IRS regional Estate Tax Attorneys to resolve valuation and other complex issues raised by IRS upon examination of Forms 706. Most of the examinations handed by the Firm have resulted in only minor changes or no changes after completion of the examination process. ScottHulse attorneys also prepare Form 706-NA and Form 706-QDT for the estates of non-U.S. citizen, non-U.S. resident decedents with substantial assets in the U.S., and have obtained both partial interim and final IRS Transfer Certificates for purposes of freeing assets of such clients from the IRS estate tax lien. The firm has extensive experience dealing with legal counsel from Mexico, the United Kingdom and other foreign countries in handling such matters.

Glenn Davis, also a shareholder, is an estate planning attorney who offers a unique perspective and skill set to clients. He was previously a litigator in the firm’s employment and commercial litigation sections for 11 years, and is well qualified to represent clients in any litigation or threats of litigation that might arise.