High-net-worth individuals, families and family offices often face interconnected legal issues involving estate and tax planning, family businesses, investments, philanthropy and the transfer of wealth across generations. Butler Snow advises high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth U.S. and international clients, family offices, private trust companies and family-controlled businesses on sophisticated private wealth matters.
Our attorneys take a multidisciplinary approach to helping clients preserve, protect and transfer wealth while addressing each family’s individual goals, business interests and circumstances. We advise on domestic and international wealth transfer planning, trusts and estates, tax planning, business succession, charitable planning, asset protection, estate administration and fiduciary disputes.
Who We Serve
Butler Snow advises private wealth clients and organizations including:
- High-net-worth individuals and families
- Ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families
- Family offices
- Private trust companies
- Family-controlled and privately owned businesses
- Corporate and individual fiduciaries
- U.S. families with international assets or relationships
- International families with U.S. family members, investments or business interests
Legal Services for Private Wealth & Family Office Clients
Butler Snow assists with:
- Estate and gift tax planning
- Domestic wealth transfer planning
- International and cross-border wealth planning
- Wills and trusts
- Lifetime gifting strategies
- Testamentary planning
- Trust planning and administration
- Business succession planning
- Planning for family-controlled businesses
- Charitable and philanthropic planning
- Private foundations and other charitable vehicles
- Asset protection planning
- Estate administration and probate
- Estate and trust tax matters
- Fiduciary counseling
- Estate, trust and fiduciary litigation
- Tax planning and tax controversy
- Structuring U.S. investments for international clients
Domestic Wealth Planning for Individuals and Families
Effective wealth planning involves more than transferring assets from one generation to another. Butler Snow works with families to develop and implement estate and tax strategies that take into account personal objectives, family circumstances, business interests and philanthropic goals.
Our attorneys advise on lifetime and testamentary planning, gifting, trusts, estate and gift tax matters, asset protection, charitable planning and the administration of estates and trusts. For families that own or control businesses, we also address succession planning and other legal issues that can affect both the family and the enterprise.
Family Office and Family-Controlled Business Counsel
Family offices and family-controlled businesses may encounter legal issues that extend well beyond traditional estate planning. Butler Snow can assemble attorneys from multiple disciplines to address the tax, trust and estate, corporate, transactional and other legal issues associated with significant family wealth and privately owned businesses.
This multidisciplinary approach allows clients to address wealth transfer, business succession, charitable objectives and other family and business considerations as part of a coordinated legal strategy.
International Private Wealth Planning
Families with assets, investments or family members in multiple countries can face additional U.S. tax and estate-planning considerations. Butler Snow advises international clients with U.S. connections and U.S. clients with international interests on cross-border private wealth matters.
Our attorneys advise on non-U.S. trust planning, U.S. investments, pre-U.S. immigration planning and other U.S. tax and estate issues affecting internationally connected families.
Estate Administration and Fiduciary Matters
Butler Snow represents individual and corporate fiduciaries in the administration of estates and trusts. Our attorneys assist with tax elections, estate tax returns, post-mortem income and estate tax planning, IRS examinations and probate or ancillary proceedings.
When disputes arise, Butler Snow also represents clients in estate, trust and fiduciary litigation, allowing private wealth clients to draw on both the firm’s planning and litigation capabilities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Butler Snow advises high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth families on estate and gift tax planning, trusts, wealth transfer, business succession, charitable planning, asset protection, estate administration and fiduciary disputes. The firm also advises clients whose families, businesses or investments span multiple countries.