Estate and Business Succession Planning: Estate and Tax Considerations, Planning Vehicles, Best Practices

Mr. Whitty is a Partner in the Corporate Practice of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP. He was a Partner with Freeborn & Peters, which combined with SGR in 2023. Mr. Whitty concentrates his practice in estate planning, taxation, and estate and trust administration. He represents business owners, principals of venture capital and private equity funds, key executives, investors, and other high net worth individuals in planning for the preservation and transfer of their wealth. Mr. Whitty advises individuals and fiduciaries in the design and drafting of estate plans, wills, trusts, lifetime gifts, premarital agreements, and other estate planning documents. He has extensive experience with various types of trusts, family limited partnerships, corporate recapitalizations, shareholders’ and redemption agreements, private annuities, installment sales, intra-trust sales, and other transactions, self-canceling installment notes, and net gifts. Mr. Whitty also reviews and manages estate and gift tax returns, including complex reporting and valuation issues. He consults with executors, administrators, guardians, and trustees in probate and trust administration. Mr. Whitty supervises the drafting of estate administration documents and the filing of pleadings, motions, and accountings with probate courts. He also advises clients in connection with litigation involving disputes between trustees and beneficiaries and in contested trust and tax matters, and he has served as an expert witness in such cases. Prior to joining the Firm, Mr. Whitty was a Partner with Handler Thayer LLP.

Mr. Hawthorne is nationally recognized in the areas of corporate law, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and securities law. He has extensive experience working on securities matters and helps his clients comply with related laws and regulations, and also works with clients involved in complex commercial litigation. Mr. Hawthorne also has extensive experience in working with tax laws and how to structure companies and deals to help work with and maximize tax benefits and savings (e.g., tax-free transactions, 1202 benefits, partnership taxation, like-kind exchanges, tax incentives and financings).

Mr. Fisher works with business leaders who want to unlock the long-term potential of their companies and their families. He speaks and writes about structural scalability, leadership, and family business matters. Mr. Fisher recently published a book called Family Business Abundance. He is a Co-founder and Partner of The Scalability Leadership Group (SLG) and Featherstone Holdings. Mr. Fisher has devoted most of his career to entrepreneurship in the business-to-business, technology, healthcare, manufacturing, and investment management arenas. He received an M.B.A. from Stanford University and a B.S. in Economics from the University of Minnesota. Mr. Fisher is and has been a board member of many fine companies and non-profit institutions.