Our estate planning attorneys work with private family foundations to help them with a variety of complicated tax and legal issues. Although family foundations offer many potential estate planning and tax benefits, there can be substantial penalties if the foundation does not comply with the cumbersome tax rules. We work closely with high net worth families to create a plan that makes the most sense philanthropically and personally. Some of the issues we help our clients consider, understand and resolve are:

• Estate tax minimization
• Avoidance of capital gains tax on the sale of appreciated property
• Employment for family members
• Preserving your family name
• Distribution requirements
• Strategies to maximize charitable income tax deductions
• Combining Private Family Foundations with Charitable Remainder and Charitable Lead Trusts
• Administrative requirements
• Duties of directors
• Procedures for awarding grants
• Succession planning-- Is the foundation perpetual or does it have a "limited life"?
• Overall best practices

Some of our recent family foundation engagements have included:

• Counseling a large private foundation concerning a wide range of administration issues
• Created a new family foundation, which will hold the assets to be received from a larger family foundation
• Helping clients understand the technical issues related to a foundation to foundation transfer
• Amending and updating governing documents to better reflect current operations and procedures
• Analyzing potential prohibited transactions
• Analyzing potential excess business holdings