High Net Worth Estate Planning Lawyer

There’s never been a better time to secure your financial future. As top estate planning attorneys in St. Louis, we specialize in protecting our clients’ assets so they can keep more of their hard-earned wealth. Contact us online to schedule a consultation.

Make no mistake: Almost anyone can benefit from estate planning, regardless of their net worth or the size of their estate. However, for some people—especially high-net-worth individuals—estate planning is absolutely critical. 

Whereas someone with a modest estate may only need to utilize one estate-planning tool (such as a will) a high-net-worth individual typically needs to use several strategies, many of which are complex, to cover their bases. They must consider numerous factors, including tax liability, the probate process, fiduciaries and more in order ensure an advantageous wealth transfer.

Luckily, they don’t have to do it alone. 

An individual’s net worth refers to the value of all of their assets—both financial and non-financial—minus the value of their outstanding liabilities. Essentially, net worth is an assessment of someone’s wealth, and people with significant assets are considered high net worth.

Within the financial world, high-net-worth individuals are typically described in terms of their liquid assets and are divided into the following three categories:

Generally speaking, the higher a person’s net worth, the more complex the estate planning strategies they’ll need to use in order to protect their beneficiaries’ inheritance. This is because wealthier individuals are more likely to have diverse assets, including real estate holdings and investments, as well as many financial obligations. 

Regardless of net worth, the vast majority of people have the same goal: to leave as much wealth as they can for their family and loved ones. When you’re a high-net-worth individual, making sure everyone gets a piece of the pie can be a daunting task. Fortunately, that’s what estate planning lawyers are for.

These are four of the most important considerations for high-net-worth individuals to address in their estate plans:

Although these factors are among the most important, they are far from the only pertinent considerations. Our high-net-worth planning lawyers specialize in crafting comprehensive strategies to help wealthy clients retain more control over their assets and how they will be handled in the future. 

When it comes to effective estate planning, there is no “one size fits all” approach. The Law Office of David S. Schleiffarth is proud to offer myriad strategies to our high-net-worth clients to ensure they achieve their financial goals. 

It’s not uncommon for high-net-worth families to avoid estate planning because the topic of mortality is uncomfortable, but in doing so, they’re taking a big risk. Our asset protection planning lawyers can help ensure that your assets are distributed according to your wishes and that your family members are taken care of, even amid life changes such as marriage, divorce, death and other unexpected events. 

After assessing your financial situation, we can suggest a wide range of tools to help you meet your goals. We can assist you with tax planning, navigating the IRS, creating trusts, protecting retirement accounts, establishing advantageous business structures (including LLCs and family limited partnerships) and much, much more.

Your death isn’t the only scenario in which your assets and your family’s financial future may become vulnerable. In the event you are incapacitated, it will be essential to have a person you trust to make pertinent legal and financial decisions on your behalf. We can help you establish a power of attorney and explore other fiduciary appointments. 

If you pass away with only a will in place, your estate will go through the probate process, which can be expensive and time-consuming. Establishing a trust can help you avoid the probate process, as well as grant you greater control over how your assets are handled and distributed after your death.

There are many different types of trusts, each with their unique rules, parameters and purposes. Luckily, our high-net-worth planning lawyers are experts in all of them. Whether you want to set up a special trust to protect a loved one with disabilities, to avoid generation skipping transfer taxes or to impose spending limits on a spendthrift beneficiary, we’re here to help.

Asset planning, power of attorney preparation and establishing trusts are just a handful of the many tools we’ll use to protect your wealth. When you’re ready to explore the full catalog of your options—from exploring business succession planning and grantor retained annuity trusts to finding exemptions for charitable giving—contact us online to set up a case evaluation.