West Michigan Legal Planning for Lottery Winnings and Other Cash Awards

Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids estate planning lawyers with experience handling significant cash awards

The attorneys at Willis & Willis, PLC advise you on how to reduce your tax burden, as well as the tax burden on your heirs, when you receive a large cash award such as the following:

Blind trusts for lottery winners

There are significant writings on the internet related to blind trusts for lottery winners. Most are misguided. If the intention of the lottery winner is to remain amonymous, a trust (whether blind or otherwise) is just one way to accomplish this goal.  Lottery winners will not generally want to establish a true blind trust, as the creator of such as trust loses control over investment of the trust assets. Contact Willis & Willis today for sound legal and tax counsel related to a lottery win.

Protecting cash awards

Willis & Willis, PLC advises you on how to protect the value of cash awards during your lifetime, and to preserve their value for your heirs:

• Gifting cash or other assets before your death
• Transfer on death (TOD) or payable on death (POD) bank accounts
• Holding assets by joint tenancy with right of survivorship (JTROS)
• Holding assets through a tenancy in common
• Retirement plans and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)
• Revocable living trusts

High net worth estates

Willis & Willis, PLC advises high net worth clients on estate and generation-skipping tax planning. Their goal is to lower your taxable estate and therefore reduce your transfer taxes. Some of the planning techniques that the firm employs include the following:

• Irrevocable life insurance trusts
• Annual gifting programs
• Use of the unified credit exemption equivalent for lifetime gifts
• Asset protection trusts (APTs) both domestic and foreign
• Sophisticated gifting to various types of trusts for children or others
• Sophisticated gifting to charitable trusts such charitable remainder trusts

The planning attorneys at Willis & Willis, PLC help address the special needs of the closely-held business owner:

• Life insurance needs
• Buy-sell agreements
• Family limited liability companies
• Management succession
• Estate freezes
• Gifting of business interests to younger generation family members
• Generation-skipping transfer tax (GSTT)

Talk about your cash award planning with a Grand Rapids or Kalamazoo attorney

To get legal advice on cash award planning and high net worth estates from an estate tax lawyer in Southwest Michigan, please contact the law firm of Willis & Willis, PLC.