Estate, Gift and Income Tax Planning

A major portion of the firm's practice is to develop estate and wealth management plans for individuals, couples and families. As a small firm, time is taken to get to know clients, their families and their goals for the disposition of their estate. Ms. Forsberg is aware and has expertise with the issues, concerns and problems that face people in various life stages. She provides services that address a wide range of issues in estate and income tax planning which include the following:

• Income shifting within the family, including tax planning for minors and for college education which may involve gifting, Uniform Transfers to Minors and college savings plans.
   
• Planning for the older generation, including long-term care issues, incapacity issues and gifting.
   
• Proper asset ownership within the family (including real estate such as the family cabin) and balancing assets between spouses as appropriate.
   
• The use of lifetime trusts including irrevocable ("Crummey") trusts and trusts for minors.
   
• Proper business entity formation including family limited liability companies.
   
• Business succession planning for families, including planning for the family farm.
  
• Planning for retirement including issues relating to retirement plans, IRAs, minimum distributions and beneficiary designations.
   
• Methods for charitable gifting during lifetime such as charitable gift annuities and remainder trusts.
   
• Methods for charitable gifting at death such as charities as beneficiaries of retirement plans.
   
• Durable Powers of Attorney for financial affairs.
   
• Health Care Directives for personal health care decisions.
   
• Methods to avoid probate including revocable living trusts, joint property ownership and Payable on Death (POD) designations.