Burns Law Offices, S.C. provides personalized, cost-effective legal solutions designed to address each client’s particular estate, retirement, and/or business planning objectives. We restrict our practice to these highly specialized areas of the law to provide a focus not typically available from a general practitioner, and most often provided by larger law firms only at significantly greater cost.

Typically, a client of the firm is an individual or family seeking assistance with a particular estate planning distribution objective, and many clients are owners of small or medium sized businesses who seek business succession guidance. However, our clients are a diverse group with varying needs, all of which are addressed with the same degree of personalization.

• ESTATE PLANNING
• RETIREMENT PLANNING
• BUSINESS PLANNING

ESTATE PLANNING
Our estate planning clients range from newly married couples interested in properly planning for an unforeseen circumstance, to persons of considerable wealth who are interested in discussing sophisticated tax planning techniques designed to meet tax minimization objectives. Specifically, our estate planning practice has involved:

• Preparing Wills for purposes of directing distributions and/or naming guardians for a minor child or children;
• Providing representation in probate and estate administration matters;
• Counseling clients with respect to sophisticated tax and insurance planning strategies, which may involve establishing revocable and/or irrevocable trusts;
• Establishing vehicles, such as qualified personal residence trusts and family limited liability companies, to accomplish asset transfers to family members at discounted values;
• Marital Property Act planning for married Wisconsin clients;
• Assisting clients with funding trusts and coordinating insurance, annuity, and retirement account beneficiary designations;
• Reviewing options available to make charitable gifts;
• Counseling clients as to techniques and strategies relating to asset protection planning;
• Providing guidance with respect to planning for a beneficiary with special needs;
• Preparing medical directives, such as medical power of attorneys and Living Wills, and durable power of attorneys.

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RETIREMENT PLANNING
Retirement planning often must be coordinated with our clients’ estate planning. We are frequently asked to provide estimates of anticipated retirement account balance accumulations under varying scenarios, and to offer guidance as to account distribution planning. The unique background of the firm’s attorneys also makes us well qualified to review our clients’ retirement account asset mix, and to offer recommendations as to how changes in that asset mix might better accomplish client objectives.

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BUSINESS PLANNING
Frequently, our estate planning clients also seek guidance with respect to business interests that they own or control. Specifically, we have advised clients with:

• Business succession strategies, which often require coordination with the business owner’s estate plan;
• Implementing a Buy-Sell (or Stock Restriction) Agreement designed to limit transfers of interests in the business to family members or other designated "insiders" and provide for a smooth transition of ownership interests if a predetermined event (i.e., death, retirement, divorce, disability) should occur;
• Consulting Agreements, pursuant to which retiring executives may continue to participate in the business on a part-time basis;
• Business formation and organization, including selection of the appropriate entity type; and
• General business representation, including advice in connection with leases and other business contracts.

Burns Law Offices, S.C. does not hold itself out as providing counsel in all areas of the law. For example, areas such as intellectual property law (which frequently involves copyright and trademark issues) and environmental law, both of which are highly specialized, are beyond the scope of the representation that we provide. However, we maintain close contact with attorneys and other professionals that do specialize in areas that are outside of our particular focus. We feel confident that these professionals will provide our clients with the same quality service that we offer. A recommendation of a professional by us to a client which results in a poor experience for the client reflects poorly on us, and is something we strive to avoid.

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