Practice Areas
Trusts and Estates Group
Horwood Marcus & Berk's Trusts and Estates practice is broad in scope and deep in experience. Our attorneys are skilled counselors with a careful combination of technical knowledge and thoughtful stewardship. Our practice encompasses estate and tax planning, asset protection, business succession, charitable planning, and fiduciary counsel and litigation. The diverse clients of the Trusts and Estates Group include families, individuals, entrepreneurs, businesses, trustees, beneficiaries, non-profit entities, the LGBT community, and the special needs community, among many others.
Planning of any type must address our clients' unique values, goals, and concerns in order to be effective. Accounting for particular family or business attributes, issues, and dynamics are as important as the technical aspects of our work product. Our counselors are committed to developing flexible strategies that respond to the constant changes in the tax and economic climate.
Concentration areas in the Trusts and Estates practice include:
- estate planning
- asset protection issues and vehicles
- trust counsel services
- income tax planning (both federal and state)
- design of gift programs and vehicles
- business succession, including intergenerational transfers, "freezes," buy-sell agreements, family partnerships, and S Trusts
- international estate planning
- planning incident to divorce, marriage, and domestic and civil unions
- planning for domestic partners
- insurance planning
- disability planning, including special needs trusts and guardianships
- charitable giving, and
- retirement planning
To learn more of the specifics of the various subsections of the practice, click the links below or on the sidebar:
- Estate Planning
- Asset Protection
- Succession Planning
- Not-For-Profit Entities and Charitable Giving
- Fiduciary Counsel and Litigation
Connect
Professionals
Industries Served
- Automotive Manufacturing & Dealerships
- Banking
- Broadcast Media
- Construction
- Energy & Utilities
- Entrepreneur/Start-Up Companies
- Financial Services
- Food/Beverage Services & Hospitality
- Healthcare
- Information Technology
- Leasing Companies
- Manufacturing & Distribution
- Mortgage Companies
- Not-For-Profit Organizations
- Pharmaceuticals
- Retail
- Service Companies
- Shipping & Logistics
- Specialty Finance
- Telecommunications
- Trading Companies
Publications
- Insights and Lessons for Surviving the Sale of a Family Business
- Charitable Planning: Troubled Gifts in Troubled Times
- Estate and Gift Planning: Ten Reasons to Plan Now, October 2009
- Educating Younger Generations Through the Estate Plan
- Strategies for Private Foundations Planning
- Real Estate and Divorce: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
- Lessons That Planners Can Learn From Celebrity Estate Battles
- Human Issues In Estate Planning For The Family Business Owner
- Knowledge Is Power: Understanding Your Donor's Personality and Motivations
- Private Foundations: Trust or Corporation?
- Gift Acceptance Agreements Avoid Headaches for Charitable Donors, Their Decendants and the Charities They Wish to Support
- The Art of Non-Cash Charitable Giving
- Life Is Short, Art Endures
- Imagine the Possibilities: Opportunities for Non-Cash Donors
- Practical Guidance for Trustee Risk Management, Spring 2007
- E-Planning, November 2000
- Blending Real Estate and Philanthropy, July 2012
- Family Ties: Leveraging Charitable Giving, June 2012
- Tips for Minimizing the Risk of Fiduciary Litigation, August 2012
- Why and When a Sweetheart Will (or No Will at All) is Not Enough, August 2012
- Estate Planning After the Cliff: What You Need to Know, January 2013
Presentations
News & Events
- IMCA 2011 Advanced Wealth Management Conference, October 2011
- IICLE "Premarital Agreements: Drafting & Analysis for Family Law and Estate Planning" Presentation, November 2011
- McGladrey's Tax Conference, November 2011
- ALI-ABA "Drafting Buy-Sell Agreements" Seminar, November 2011
- ACTEC Big Ten Regional Meeting, December 2011
- 46th Annual Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, January 2012
- HMB Attorneys selected as 2012 Super Lawyers, January 2012
- Chicago Council on Planned Giving Presentation, January 2012
- Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education Presentation, February 2012
- Bloomberg BNA Tax Advisory Board Meeting, March 2012
- Wolven Named as American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) Fellow, March 2012
- Wolven Makes Top 10 List in Steve Leimberg's Charitable Planning Newsletter, March 2012
- 55th Annual IICLE Estate Planning Short Course, April 2012
- ICLEF Midwest Estate, Tax & Business Planning Institute, June 2012
- 41st Annual ALI-ABA Course of Study: Estate Planning in Depth, June 2012
- Lauren Wolven Receives IICLE Distinguished Service Award, April 2012
- Horwood Marcus & Berk's Richard Horwood, Todd Schneider, Lauren Wolven and Jeffrey Zaluda Included in the 2012 Edition of Chicago's Best Lawyers, May 2012
- Horwood Marcus & Berk's Jeff Zaluda Delivers "Estate and Tax Planning When Getting In and Out of a Marriage" To Multiple Groups, May 2012
- Lauren Wolven Elected Vice President of the Chicago Estate Planning Council for 2012-2013, May 2012
- Joel Friedman Named a Top Rated AV Preeminent Lawyer in Taxation Law By Martindale-Hubbell, June 2012
- Lauren Wolven Quoted in Wall Street Journal article "How to Control Your Heirs From the Grave", August 2012
- Ken Goldstein Serves as Faculty for the Center for Professional Education Inc., September 2012
- Notre Dame Tax and Estate Planning Institute, September 2012
- National Conference on Philanthropic Planning, October 2012
- First Midwest Bank's 7th Annual Continuing Legal Education Event, October 2012
- "Igniting Your Development Initiatives in a Challenging Economy," October 2012
- McGladrey 2012 National Tax Conference, November 2012
- HMB Attorneys selected as 2013 Super Lawyers, January 2013
- ALI CLE Advanced Estate Planning Techniques Conference, February 2013
- Northwestern University Practice Tracks Presentation, February 2013
- IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law Course Presentation, February 2013
Cases
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