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Private Wealth

The Private Wealth Group at Arnall Golden Gregory LLP (AGG) has a national practice which focuses on representing high net worth individuals in sophisticated wealth transfer matters as well as fiduciaries facing multi-faceted issues occurring during the estate administration process. The group's commitment is to provide the most sophisticated legal representation delivered in a timely and effective manner. Our depth and breadth of experience allows the firm to bring a team of experts to solve the many problems that can occur during the wealth transfer planning and estate administration processes.

Our Approach to Private Wealth

AGG's Private Wealth Group is structured to meet the complex wealth transfer needs of high net worth individuals. The group is led by its estate and gift tax planning lawyers, who bring knowledge of sophisticated strategies to the wealth transfer planning process. Our clients find significant value in the time we invest to understand their wealth transfer objectives and the opportunities available to them to insure their needs are met. The group also includes other attorneys in the firm with experience important to our Private Wealth Group clients and their financial future. These lawyers have expertise in charitable planning, securities law, venture capital transactions, internet law, partnership taxation, real estate law and estate litigation. Our goal is to provide the highest quality service to our clients.

The practice covers the following areas, among others:

Wealth Transfer Planning and Succession Planning

Combining personal advice and strong technical abilities, the Private Wealth Group advises high net worth individuals in achieving their desired objectives for the distribution of property, while attaining tax-planning objectives.

The service is uniquely personal. The initial objective of the Private Wealth Group attorneys at AGG is to understand the client's goals and desires, as well as the client's motivations and relationships. This understanding of personal goals is then combined with tax planning experience to obtain desirable planning results, usually resulting in very substantial tax savings.

A variety of tools are utilized to carry out individual objectives for the transfer of property and to achieve tax-planning opportunities. AGG attorneys use these tools, including wills and trusts, to accomplish tax planning advantageously for clients.

For a number of our clients with valuable closely-held business, issues surrounding succession planning and business control are paramount. We work closely with these clients in structuring strategies to achieve their goals.

Monetization Events and Diversification Strategies

We work with a significant number of clients on wealth transfer issues in a pre-IPO context and prior to the sale of their businesses. These economic events provide extraordinary wealth transfer planning opportunities. Our Private Wealth Group has substantial experience in dealing with these issues. In addition, a number of our clients, following public offerings or sales, have substantial concentrated positions of stock. The group has extensive experience with tax effective diversification strategies for these holdings.

Estate Administration/Representation of Fiduciaries

The representation of estates and trusts is complex and multi-faceted. AGG lawyers bring years of experience to the many issues which arise during the course of the estate administration process. Many of these issues are tax driven, related to valuation of estate assets, timing of estate distributions and resolving disputes with the Internal Revenue Service. Others are based on non-tax issues, and can relate to handling the current needs of the beneficiaries, selling real estate or businesses, and other personal and financial issues. The Private Wealth Group combines expertise in all of the issues which arise in the estate administration process.

Charitable Planning

Offering significant benefits to a high net worth individual, planned gifts to charities are often utilized to reduce transfer taxes and income taxes, and to achieve client goals. As a part of their work, AGG attorneys assist clients in understanding and structuring charitable gifts, often involving the creation of charitable lead trusts, charitable remainder trusts, and private foundations.

Trust and Estate Litigation

Our attorneys represent the interests of fiduciaries or beneficiaries where adversarial relationships exist in the estate or trust administration process. The first goal of AGG attorneys is to assist clients in resolving their differences without resorting to the litigation process. In doing so, AGG attorneys draw on their experience in mediation and arbitration. Unfortunately, some matters are not subject to amicable resolution. Therefore, when litigation is necessary, our estate litigation attorneys bring experience to bear in representing the interests of fiduciaries and beneficiaries in such matters as will construction suits, will contests, estate tax controversies, and other litigation which arises in the context of estate and trust administration.

In addition to the foregoing, the services offered by the Private Wealth Group include the following:
- diversification strategies - business succession planning - wealth transfer planning - estate administration and fiduciary representation - partnership planning - pre-IPO and restricted securities planning - asset conservation planning	- buy/sell agreements - split-dollar agreements - will and trust planning - charitable planning, including private foundations - prenuptial agreements - wealth transfer tax controversies - estate controversy litigation