Wills, Trusts, and Estate Planning

We assist our clients with all aspects of estate planning from the simple to the complex. We prepare wills, revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts, pre-marital agreements, general and limited powers of attorney, living wills and medical powers of attorney. We provide advice in all matters related to guardianships and conservatorships. We have many years of experience and expertise in accounting, qualified plan and IRA distributions, federal estate and and the Iowa inheritance tax. We provide advice on asset ownership and beneficiary designations. We advise clients in all aspects of charitable giving, including charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, donor advised funds and private foundations. We prepare trusts for the benefit of children and disabled family members. We advise our elder clients on issues related to eligibility for nursing home benefits (Medicaid and Title XIX). We provide succession planning advice to farmers and business owners including strategies for obtaining valuation discounts, and the preparation of buy-sell agreements, deferred compensation agreements, split dollar life insurance agreements, grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATS), installment sales to intentionally defective grantor trusts, self canceling installment notes, operating agreements for limited liability companies and family limited partnership agreements. Our goal is to guide our clients through the complexities of transferring their assets to younger family members and the transfer of business interests to key employees or family members.