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Trusts & Estates

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Timothy C. Brugh
Partner, Silicon Valley
T: +1.650.233.4092
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Regarded as “spectacular” and “incredibly focused on service,” Pillsbury’s Trusts & Estates practice is ranked nationally by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 and U.S. News & World Report/Best Lawyers, which recognized our firm as Trusts & Estates “Law Firm of the Year.”

Pillsbury’s Trusts & Estates team advises individuals, families, family-owned businesses and charitable foundations in the planning and administration of complex trusts and estates, and in U.S. and international estate, trust and tax planning. Our Trusts & Estates lawyers develop cutting-edge, customized transfer tax and estate plans, utilizing trusts, wills, various entity structures, such as partnerships and LLCs, and domestic and cross-border plans, to preserve and enhance our clients’ wealth for current and future generations. Serving clients globally, we maintain a strong bicoastal presence in the U.S., particularly in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, DC, and Palm Beach, FL.

Highly regarded for a deep sense of caring, attention to detail, extensive experience and knowledge of estate, trust and tax laws, Pillsbury’s Trusts & Estates lawyers listen closely to clients to understand their needs and provide sophisticated advice and well-crafted estate and trust plans to accomplish their goals. We prepare plans designed to minimize transfer and income taxes, take advantage of planning opportunities occasioned by tax law changes and withstand third-party attacks. We have achieved massive transfer and income tax savings, enabling the efficient transfer of extremely valuable and appreciating assets for the benefit of younger generations.

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  • Estate and trust planning and administration
  • Wills and probate
  • Lifetime wealth preservation and planning
    • Estate succession
    • Gift transfers
    • Charitable giving
    • International tax advice and planning for cross-border investments
  • Business succession planning
  • Multigenerational family issues
  • Corporate fiduciaries, fiduciary duties and administration issues
  • U.S. and international tax planning
  • Trusts and trust administration
    • Long-term trusts
    • Generation-skipping tax-exempt trusts
    • Revocable trusts
    • Grantor trusts
    • Irrevocable trusts
    • Delaware, Alaska, California, New York, Wyoming and Florida trusts
  • Dispute resolution
    • Surrogates Court
    • Probate Court
    • Will contests, trust disputes and fiduciary disputes
    • State and Federal Court trust and estate litigation

Representative Experience

  • Represented the widow of a highly successful investor in negotiating a confidential settlement believed to be among 2014’s largest litigated estate matters. The case presented novel, complex conflicts of law, state taxation and multistate residence issues.
  • Served as trustee of approximately 30 family trusts valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars for multiple branches of a family, handling competing interests, providing long-term planning advice and negotiating resolution to conflicts while avoiding litigation.
  • Represented hedge fund and private equity investors in establishing trusts to benefit children and future generations—entirely transfer-tax exempt—and saved clients’ families hundreds of millions of dollars in transfer and income taxes.

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  • Advised a family with a substantial trust how to distribute and decant parts of the existing trust to new trusts to take advantage of the current high GST exemption, which is also lengthy in potential duration, thereby saving the family millions of dollars in transfer taxes.
  • Advised a family how to avoid state income tax by establishing new trusts that carefully observe state law yet properly result in no state income tax, thereby saving the family millions of dollars in state income tax.
  • Advised a large family how to leverage the current high transfer tax exemptions through the sales of assets to a grantor trust at current very low interest rates, and advising regarding optimal treatment of the outstanding note at the date of death of the grantor.
  • Served as co-trustee of ongoing trusts and a charitable foundation created by the widow of a community and business leader with extremely substantial assets and providing strategic advice on matters involving cultural institutions and long-range tax planning.
  • Won a unanimous decision by California’s State Board of Equalization completely abating a proposed $10 million assessment against husband and wife clients in a case involving complex residency and source-of-income issues.

Practice Area Highlights

- Family Offices & Funds Structuring (Nationwide) – Band 2

- Private Wealth Law (Florida) – Band 3

  • Recognized Nationally as Tier 1 in Trusts & Estates Law in U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” survey (2019 – 2021). The ETTP group was also named Tier 1 in New York City and San Jose (2019 – 2021). ETTP lawyers have ranked annually since 2003.

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  • Recipient of Leaders in Law 2020 Global Award, Wealth Management Firm of the Year in USA – California (2020).
  • Recognized with the International Advisory Experts Award, Wealth Management in California (2020).
  • Pillsbury’s ETTP team features National Law Journal’s “Trust and Estates Trailblazer” (2017).
  • Team members are recognized by The Legal 500 U.S., and most of our ETTP partners are peer-selected members of the prestigious American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC).

Resources

The Legal 500: Private Client Comparative Guide

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