• Practice Areas
• Overview

As a full service law firm, Langley & Banack prides itself in the design, implementation, maintenance, and transition of estate and business planning for families. While not exclusively provided by our estate planning attorneys, the following are items commonly dealt with in estate planning.

Design

• Development of testamentary intentions for clients.
• Assessment and preparation of basic to complex plans for transfers of wealth from generation to generation.
• Integration of existing entities and formation of new entities for management of family wealth, discount planning, estate freezes and special circumstances.
• Preparation of plans with flexible designs for changes in family dynamics.
• Outside the box planning for unique family situations.
• Coordination of new planning with prior planning to minimize administrative burdens.
• Cooperation with professional advisors to preserve institutional knowledge in family planning.
• Attention to special income and estate tax considerations in use of grantor trusts and charitable interest planning.
• Consideration of state and federal tax ramifications involving recommended designs.
• Attention to international estate and gift tax considerations when dealing with a non-citizen/nonresident alien spouse.

Implementation

• Preparation of Texas based Last Will and Testament documents for management of US based assets.
• Review of and recommendation concerning international estate planning documents.
• Preparation of premarital and post-marital agreements to manage changes in family dynamics.
• Preparation of documents to manage the person and assets of persons approaching the end of life and with diminished capacity (such as power of attorney, directive to physicians, DNRs, and advance designations of guardian).
• Preparation of documents to manage assets for persons with special needs.
• Preparation of limited partnerships, limited liability companies, corporations and other entities to avoid ancillary probate of out-of-state assets.
• Preparation of trusts of all types for single and multiple generations intended to integrate with other family planning and avoid multiple trust administration when possible.
• Planning for and drafting of creditor protection, discounts and administrative agreements for general and special circumstances.
• Planning for and drafting exercises of special powers reserved in testamentary and other instruments.
• Utilization of individual annuities, gifts/sales, sales to intentionally defective grantor trust, discounted loans, and similar arrangements.
• Utilization of intentionally defective grantor trusts for secondary gift tax free transfers of wealth.
• Preparation of all documents for lifetime transfers to entities and individuals covered under the implementation phase.

Maintenance

• Attention to changes in federal and Texas state law for continuing documents and entities used as a part of the family plan.
• Review and recommendation concerning compliance on income and gift tax issues.
• Review of and recommendation concerning appraisals.
• Preparation of gift tax returns, when family CPAs are not prepared to file the same.
• Preparation of real property and mineral leases and negotiation of the same.
• Preparation of transfer documents and negotiation of the same.
• Income tax advice concerning material individual and business transfers, including like kind exchanges and involuntary conversions.
• Legal representation concerning changes in marital relationships.
• Preparation of recurring formality documents, such as employment agreements, management agreements, buy-sell agreements, company minutes, etc.
• Supervision of individual fiduciaries in management of family trusts and entities.
• Interaction with CPAs concerning capital and income accounts for pass through entities.
• Maintaining family business records concerning contracts, transfers, organization, etc.
• Judicial modification of trusts to account for changing family interests.
• Assessment and recommendation concerning Foreign Bank Account Reporting (FBAR) and Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) reporting and remediation.

Transition

• Preparation and filing of state probate materials in central and south Texas, including management of creditors, valuations, transfers and other legal issues.
• Representation of fiduciaries in administration of probate estate.
• Management of ancillary state and international probates.
• Preparation of state and federal estate tax returns.
• Preparation and supervision concerning transfers of business entities and trust interests following changes in ownership due to death and other reasons.
• Planning for and implementation of trust funding strategies at death.
• Planning for and execution of postmortem planning.
• Supervision of and planning for transfers of artwork.
• Representation of the next generation in the consideration of the prior generation’s estate plan and identification and adaption of new design considerations in next generation planning.
• Representation of family members in probate litigation.

Estate planning clients served by Langley & Banack, Inc. represent a wide range of family circumstances including traditional nuclear families, families with multiple marriages and non-traditional couples. While many families will choose to follow a well worn path of estate planning, Langley & Banack, Inc. is prepared to deliver unique solutions for unique situations.