With the expansion of the global marketplace, more individuals have become subject to international tax laws and treaties which require sophisticated estate planning on a global scale. We regularly advise high net-worth individuals (U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens), multinational families and their closely held companies with property and rights in more than one country with respect to estate and succession planning matters and concerns. Our firm has many years of experience in guiding clients through the varied and ever-changing landscape of trust negotiation and creation, trust management, wills and asset protection in a multi-jurisdictional context, and we are well suited to clients who seek to plan and manage an estate encompassing several countries and legal systems.

Because we are well acquainted with asset management services provided by financial institutions and others within and outside the United States, we are able to give appropriate, independent and well-considered recommendations regarding appropriate institutional trustees and to guide clients through the trust creation process. In that context, we help to draft form trust agreements for use in the U.S. and, with local counsel, we develop trust agreements for use in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, the Bahamas and other jurisdictions.

We are also experienced in formulating tax minimization strategies for our institutional clients’ trust beneficiaries in high-tax jurisdictions and jurisdictions that are now initiating more sophisticated worldwide tax regimes, such as Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina.As a result of the global mobility of our clients, we recognize that they have a rising need for assistance with the immigration process of obtaining visas and naturalization and we have developed in-house expertise for that purpose.As clients have traditionally expected from a trusted family lawyer, we provide sophisticated, insightful and confidential personal advice and attention while drawing upon the skills of our banking, corporate, litigation and securities lawyers and the global resources of professional colleagues who have worked with our firm. An increasing component of the services we provide to wealthy families is consulting on governance issues to facilitate participation of younger generations in planning for the future, including philanthropic activities, and in mediating among intra-family interests.