No matter how hard you’ve worked to build your legacy™, your efforts could be wasted without the right guidance to protect your legacy. Manning Fulton has one of the largest estate planning / wealth transfer practices in North Carolina. We concentrate on the creation, preservation and protection of our clients’ assets. We strive to meet your personal, financial and business objectives with careful attention to the minimization of income, estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes.
Our lawyers include two Fellows of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel , a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, and three Board Certified Specialists in Estate Planning and Probate Law. Because three of our lawyers are CPAs, we know how to work with your accountants, bankers, financial advisors and insurance professionals who serve you. In addition, our lawyers have an exceptional record of leadership and service in their areas of practice, including:
- Four Chairs of the North Carolina Bar Association Tax Section
- Chair of the North Carolina Bar Association Estate Planning and Fiduciary Law Section
- Two Chairs of the North Carolina Bar Association Estate Administration Manual Committee
- Chairs of the Tax Section Continuing Legal Education and Legislative Liaison Committees
- Four editors of the North Carolina Bar Association Tax Section Newsletter
- Six lawyers received the highest rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the primary attorney rating service.
These influential positions enable our lawyers to monitor the frequent changes in state and federal tax laws, which give Manning Fulton clients a strategic advantage.
With such extensive experience and expertise, the lawyers of Manning Fulton’s estate planning / wealth transfer practice can meet most, if not all your estate planning needs. Our services include:
- Drafting wills and trusts
- Preparing living wills and health care powers of attorney
- Planning for asset management through the use of a power of attorney, living trust, or family LLC/partnership
- Establishing life insurance trusts to provide liquidity for the payment of estate taxes
- Drafting credit shelter, marital, generation-skipping and special needs trusts
- Structuring the use of lifetime gifts and marital or charitable deduction trusts to minimize or defer estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes
- Maximizing estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax exemptions
- Preparing estate, gift and trust tax returns
- Planning for the disclaimer of estate and trust assets
- Planning for inheritance by non-citizens
- Implementing "estate freezing" techniques
- Creating family limited partnerships and limited liability companies
- Formulating business continuation plans that preserve family ownership and control of family businesses, or the planned disposition of such businesses to continuing shareholders
- Structuring intra-family loans, seller-provided financing, self-canceling installment notes and sales to defective grantor trusts
- Forming charitable trusts and private foundations
- Creating conservation easements
- Structuring favorable retirement plan and IRA distributions.
Manning Fulton lawyers take the time to understand our clients’ specific estate planning needs—we know that one size does not fit all. Combine our judgment and guidance with your hard work and dedication to build a program tailored to your needs. Build your legacy™.
To complete Manning Fulton's online estate planning form click here .
Estate Planning / Wealth Transfer Practice Area Contact Lawyers: Stephen T. Byrd , Ansley Chapman Cella
