The philosophy that guides my work is twofold. Number one, let the client make the decision, not the lawyer. And number two, don’t let the tail wag the dog. And by the second one I mean, don’t let the tax aspects of estate planning overwhelm what the client really wants to do. There are many lawyers and accountants out there whose primary focus is to save taxes as much as possible without really considering what the lawyer – excuse me, what the client wants to do. We take the opposite approach.

We try to find out what it is the client wants to do and then do that for the client in the most tax efficient manner. Part of that involves my role to educate the client, to make sure the client understands the legal principles, the tax laws that govern what the client wants to do, give the client various alternatives, and explain the tax and legal ramifications of each alternative so that the client can make an educated and informed decision exactly what they want to do, and so it isn’t the lawyer who’s making the decision for the client.