Estate Planning Attorney

The estate plan is the document that decides who gets what when the operator is no longer here to decide. Without one, the rules default to the controlling state intestate-succession framework, which produces an outcome the operator almost certainly would not have chosen. The minimum estate plan that protects most operators and high earners is four documents: a revocable living trust, a pour-over will, a durable financial power of attorney, and an advance healthcare directive. That set is what the firm calls the Estate Planning Starter Package, and it is what most operators need, full stop.

Delina drafts the four foundation documents and integrates them with the entity structure, the contracts in motion, the intellectual property in the portfolio, and the tax position the operator has already built. The estate planning practice is calibrated to the operator-tier client whose plan needs to coordinate with a business, not to the multi-generational-trust dynasty practice that institutional firms run.

Estate planning at the institutional level can extend across decades, multiple generations, irrevocable trusts, family limited partnerships, generation-skipping transfer tax planning, dynasty trust structures, and the complete suite of tax-leveraged wealth-transfer techniques. The firm does not do that work. That work belongs to the institutional trust-and-estate firms specifically built around it.

The firm does the foundation work most operators and high earners actually need. The four documents above. The federal estate-tax-exemption analysis where net worth is approaching the threshold. The charitable-giving integration. The right-of-publicity provisions where the operator is a creator with significant brand value. The buy-sell coordination where a business interest needs a transition mechanism on death. The estate plan that coordinates with a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement already in place. Where an estate has grown past the operator-tier scope, the firm refers to dedicated trust-and-estate counsel and coordinates the handoff.

The federal estate-tax exemption is the threshold below which an estate is not subject to federal estate tax at death. It is currently set at a historically high level and is scheduled to revert to a substantially lower level under existing law unless Congress extends it. For operators whose net worth is approaching or exceeding the exemption, the planning becomes more substantive, and Delina runs the analysis on the techniques that fit, including lifetime gifting, irrevocable trusts coordinated with trust-and-estate counsel for the drafting, and charitable-giving structures that reduce the taxable estate. The state-level estate or inheritance tax framework is separate, and the firm advises on that exposure where applicable.

For creators and personality-driven owners, the right of publicity survives the creator after death and remains enforceable for decades, which makes it an asset the plan should address explicitly. The firm drafts trust provisions that hold and administer the right of publicity, the post-mortem licensing framework, and the residuary provisions that determine where the licensing income flows. For operators with charitable intent, the plan integrates donor-advised funds, charitable remainder trusts, qualified charitable distributions, and appreciated-stock contributions calibrated to the giving horizon.

Every estate planning engagement coordinates with the rest of the firm’s work. The entity practice, where the operating agreement and buy-sell mechanics must align with the trust funding. The prenuptial and postnuptial practice, where the marital framework determines what can be characterized as separate property. The tax practice, around lifetime gifting, charitable contributions, and the qualified-small-business-stock exclusion that may flow through the estate to heirs. The trademark and creator practices, where the brand IP and right of publicity are estate assets. And the operator’s accountant, financial planner, and insurance agent on the implementation.

Engagements are flat per scope, and most Starter Package engagements run four to eight weeks from intake to executed documents, covering the drafting, one consolidated round of revisions, the signing meeting with the trust funded where feasible, and the post-execution storage and update protocol. Fees are committed in writing in the engagement letter before drafting begins. See Fees.