Ripp Grossman & Fitte LLP

The design and implementation of estate and wealth-transfer plans is an essential component of the firm’s practice. This may include: 

• comprehensive wills and management trusts tailored toward realizing each client’s unique goals and minimizing exposure to income and transfer taxes; 
• financial and medical powers of attorney; 
• irrevocable trusts;
• charitable planning trusts and private foundations;
• marital property agreements; and 
• carefully-drafted beneficiary designations in order to maximize the value of assets that can be transferred to successive generations. 

RGF has special niche expertise with respect to wealth preservation and risk management through the implementation of foreign trusts and related business, investment, and life insurance structures, and assisting clients with the tax planning and compliance aspects of such structures. In the area of “outbound” international estate planning, RGF attorneys are experienced in assisting U.S. clients with settling international trusts and forming various foreign entities that provide clients with a comfortable balance of control and protection of assets, allowing clients to manage their family’s wealth risk and accumulate assets for future generations. With respect to “inbound” international estate planning, attorneys at RGF assist U.S. taxpayers and non-U.S. trustees with managing the complex U.S. tax aspects of foreign non-grantor trusts. In addition, with respect to international private clients, RGF provides advice on the applicable multi-jurisdictional tax and treaty issues they face, whether in connection with family members or business interests in the U.S., pre-inheritance planning, pre-immigration planning, or with the tax treatment of trusts or entities they have created or plan to create.

The firm’s probate practice involves submitting wills to the court for probate and assisting the decedent’s family with alternative heirship proceedings when the decedent died without a will. Once the will is probated, or heirs are determined, RGF assists the family with administrative matters such as gathering, inventorying, and valuing assets in the estate and preparing federal estate tax returns, state death tax returns, and state and federal gift and generation-skipping transfer tax returns. When appropriate, RGF attorneys also represent beneficiaries of estates in negotiating settlements of estates, protecting beneficiaries’ rights with regard to monitoring costs of administration, and advising in contested matters.

RGF professionals counsel and advise entrepreneurial clients in planning, structuring, and implementing corporate and partnership investment and business entities, and provide legal counsel for their recurring and nonrecurring transactions, such as: buy-sell agreements, angel and later round debt and equity financing (investor and investee), executive compensation, equity compensation, vendor/customer relationships, strategic joint ventures, succession planning, mergers and acquisitions, corporate reorganizations, private exit and other liquidity transactions. When significant monetization and liquidity events occur, RGF can summon its specialists in the estate, insurance, and asset protection areas to ensure that resulting wealth is maintained and protected in a tax-efficient manner. When clients expand internationally, RGF professionals assist them with proper planning and structuring of in- and out-bound cross-border transactions, as well as with strategic offshore placement of business assets for asset protection and tax planning purposes. 

A common denominator and distinguishing feature of RGF attorneys and other professionals is their deep and thorough understanding of U.S. and foreign tax and entity issues—an understanding that is essential to an effective estate, asset protection, and entity planning practice, both in the U.S. and abroad. RGF professionals are trained and committed to understanding the intricacies and nuances of state and federal income tax, estate and gift tax, state franchise tax, and the various charitable tax regimes. This training and commitment allows them to work with clients to define their goals, and to design and implement creative strategies to achieve those goals, always with an eye on optimum tax results. The professionals at RGF strive to use their collective understanding of tax issues to meet each client’s individual needs within the context of all relevant tax environments. 

For the past 25 years, RGF professionals have advised clients in the acquisition of very large international and domestic private placement life insurance policies and annuity contracts. RGF's insurance group possesses unparalleled expertise and experience in the rapidly growing private placement life insurance marketplace, which positions it to deliver the very highest level of service in this area. RGF assists its clients with the procurement of private placement variable life insurance and annuities, which provide meaningful desired liquidity and tax mitigation strategies at the insured's death and also dramatically improve the tax efficiency of a client’s investment portfolio. RGF’s position in the private placement life insurance and annuity arena has also resulted in the firm advising both non-legal providers of private placement life insurance and annuity services as well as the investment managers who seek to participate in this growing marketplace. Specifically, RGF’s insurance team regularly counsels sophisticated asset managers and wealth advisors in the establishment and operation of insurance dedicated funds (IDFs), managed separate accounts, and their relationships with insurance carriers.

Please note that RGF is not an insurance broker and only provides legal and non-legal advice on insurance matters; it does not sell or place any insurance or investment products.

RGF's insurance group is uniquely positioned to advise clients comprehensively about all of their insurance needs and whether such needs are best met with commercial coverage, through a captive insurance company, or a combination of the two. A natural extension of the firm’s risk-based approach to counseling wealthy individuals, RGF's expertise in the property and casualty insurance area enables clients or their family offices to access objective information and advice about their various coverages (e.g., property, auto, aircraft, art, umbrella, etc.). A thorough audit by the RGF insurance group of a client’s property and casualty exposures often reveals opportunities for improved coverage at a reduced cost and sometimes implicates the use of other insurance hedging techniques. After the initial audit, the RGF insurance group provides on-going monitoring and administration of the insurance program.

Please note that RGF is not an insurance broker and only provides legal and non-legal advice on insurance matters; it does not sell or place any insurance or investment products.

Depending on the level of administrative support that RGF clients receive from their family offices, accountants, or other legal advisors, RGF's administrative services can be tailored to encompass virtually all administrative needs or they can be limited to only a few areas. The scope of administrative services includes tax reporting; reporting to local administrative bodies; liaison services with trustees, protectors, asset managers, and custodians; maintenance of corporate or partnership books and records; facilitating contributions to or withdrawals from structures; and general transactional assistance. In order to ensure optimal cost-effectiveness of these administrative services, the majority of the work is performed by non-lawyer professionals and RGF charges for administrative services at a reduced hourly rate schedule as compared to its charges for planning and implementation projects.

RGF employs senior accounting expertise in-house to provide its clients with a robust domestic and international tax compliance service. The firm offers both comprehensive and specialized accounting and tax reporting services for our private clients who seek a high level of technical expertise and personal service in a legally privileged relationship. The tax professionals at RGF are experienced preparers of complex federal and state income tax returns for individuals and entities, gift tax returns, and estate tax returns. RGF has a long-standing reputation for its knowledge and understanding of international tax rules and compliance with the myriad U.S. information reporting requirements related to international accounts and assets. RGF tax professionals also regularly assist U.S. taxpayers who have been out of U.S. compliance with their U.S. reporting obligations to come into compliance.