Estate Planning for High-Net-Worth Individuals in Virginia Beach

Proudly Serving Affluent Families with Their Estate Plans

At TrustBuilders Law Group, we take great pride in assisting affluent families who need sophisticated estate planning strategies and charitable gifting techniques to protect their hard-earned assets from the IRS and state taxing authorities. From establishing Family Limited Partnerships to creating Personal Residence Trusts and Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts, we offer a wide range of legal services for high-net-worth clients.

Contact Us

Qualified Personal Residence Trusts

Homes are generally the most valuable assets our clients own, which makes their properties one of the largest components of their taxable estates. With a Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT), you can give away your house or vacation home at a significant discount. QPRTs also lets you freeze the value of the property estate for tax purposes and continue to live in it. When you set up the QPRT, you transfer the title to the home to a beneficiary while reserving the right to live in it for a specified number of years.

If you live to the end of the specified time-frame, the house and any appreciation in its value after the transfer will pass to your children or other beneficiaries free of additional estate or gift taxes. Although you have the option to continue living in the home, you must pay rent to your family or designated beneficiary, otherwise, you have to include the residence in your estate.

Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts

People often think that their life insurance proceeds won't be subject to Federal Estate Taxes. Although the life insurance proceeds your loved ones receive are free of any income taxes, they are countable as part of your taxable estate, which means your loved ones can end up losing nearly half of the policy’s value to estate taxes.

A properly established and administered trust holds the life insurance policy outside of your estate, keeping the proceeds from being taxable. The proceeds from the insurance policy can then be used to provide your estate with the liquidity to pay estate taxes, debts, and final expenses. The ILIT is the policy owner and beneficiary, so after the trust is established, you can use your annual gift tax exclusion to make cash gifts to your trust. Your beneficiaries forgo the present gift (in lieu of the future proceeds) and the trustee uses the remaining gift to pay the premium on the life insurance policy.

Family Limited Partnerships

A Family Limited Partnership (FLP) is a limited partnership among your family members. The main advantages of forming and funding an FLP are asset protection and estate/gift tax savings. An FLP also allows you to keep control of the transferred assets while enjoying these advantages.

Once the FLP is established and assets are transferred to it, you can make gifts of limited partnership interests to your children or other beneficiaries. The value of each limited partnership interest you give away decreases the value of your taxable estate and, consequently, any tax your heirs would have to pay after you die. Since the gifts are made using the annual gift tax exclusion, you might not have to pay any gift tax on the transfer.

Another benefit is that the value of the partnership interests you transfer to beneficiaries is far less than the corresponding value of the assets in the partnership. Since limited partners can’t direct or control the day-to-day operation of the partnership, a minority discount can be applied to reduce the value of the limited partnership interests you are gifting. Additionally, because the partnership is a closely-held entity and not publicly-traded, a discount can be applied based upon the lack of marketability of the limited partnership interest. This means you can leverage the FLP as a tool to transfer more wealth to your beneficiaries and still retain control of the underlying assets.

Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT)

A GRAT is an instrument that allows you to contribute funds or assets into a trust account, which is then distributed to a beneficiary or yourself over time in monthly installments. This can be distributed immediately or a time that you set in the future.

GRATs provide you with the ability to minimize your tax liabilities and is an efficient way to transfer assets to your loved ones. With a GRAT, you can guarantee a steady income stream for a fixed period of time. You could also use it to pay yourself as retirement income.

Business Succession Planning

Creating a plan for your businesses and ventures are important during the estate planning process to minimize disputes and mitigate risk to your business. If you are considering passing your business onto your children or grandchildren, we can help you develop a succession plan to ensure they are equipped to manage the day-to-day affairs of your business.

Learn More About Protecting Your Assets

If you are interested in exploring the various ways to protect your assets and estate, contact us for a confidential consultation. We have experience helping high net worth individuals across Virginia develop creative and effective strategies for their individual assets, businesses, investments, and more.

To learn more about estate planning strategies for high-net-worth individuals, please give us a call today at (757) 500-5135 to request your free case consultation with TrustBuilders Law Group.