Estate Planning

Estate planning is more than just writing down who gets the fine china, the baseball card collection, and the jewelry in a Will. The experienced attorneys at Wendland Utz provide tailored representation to ensure the orderly transfer of assets and the protection of those assets from unnecessary taxation. The complexity of a client’s estate plan will depend on a number of factors, including the client’s goals, family dynamics, assets and liabilities, and potential tax consequences. The estate plan for an unmarried client with no children, a house and a modest bank account will differ greatly from a married client with children, a business, a cabin, life insurance policies, and retirement accounts.

Our estate planning attorneys undertake a comprehensive review of a client’s assets, and the potential tax consequences, to determine the best estate plan to achieve the client’s goals. We counsel our clients, in all stages of estate planning from drafting the fundamental estate plan documents through probate. We also provide counsel to trustees and other beneficiaries (both individual and corporate). Specific areas of practice including the following:

• Last Wills and Testaments
• Revocable and Irrevocable Living Trusts
• Estate Tax Planning Trusts (e.g. Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRTs), Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILITs))
• Special Needs Trusts
• Lake/Vacation Property Arrangements
• Powers of Attorney
• Health Care/Advance Directives (Living Wills)
• Probate Administration
• Guardianships and Conservatorships

Our attorneys have served as officers of the Estate Planning Council, Tax Round Table and have used their estate planning expertise to give back to the community, such as participating in Wills For Heroes, a Minnesota State Bar Association pro-bono service that provides simple wills for qualified firefighters, police officers, and first responders.