Estates & Trusts

Reger Rizzo & Darnall’s Estates & Trusts Group encompasses the full range of estate and tax planning, business succession planning, estate and trust administration services, and fiduciary tax services for individuals, closely-held business owners, trustees, and executors.

Our team of attorneys offers the advantage of having extensive experience in handling a wide range of legal matters of interest to individual clients involving tax-sensitive estate planning, estate administration, and trust administration. We work closely with wealth management, trust company and insurance professionals to provide coordinated, quality service to our mutual clients. We also represent fiduciaries and beneficiaries in estate and trust litigation.

Estate Planning

Our services include estate planning for all of life’s major changes, including marriage, divorce, birth of a child, purchasing, expanding or selling a business, planning for retirement, the death of a spouse or other family member, and one’s own death. We work with our clients regarding:

  • Wills
  • Financial/general/durable powers of attorney
  • Medical powers of attorney and healthcare directives (living wills)
  • Revocable (living) trusts, irrevocable trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, and generation-skipping trusts
  • Domestic and off-shore asset protection trusts
  • Charitable remainder trusts and charitable lead trusts
  • Family limited partnerships
  • Buy-sell agreements
  • Life insurance, annuities and other financial products to assure income and estate liquidity

Our focus is to ensure that the wishes of the client are met in a way that will reduce the degree of uncertainty concerning asset distribution, as well as limit the tax costs associated with making donative transfers, either during life or at death. We counsel our clients on strategies that will allow them to take advantage of the tax-reduction measures that remain available under current income and transfer tax laws.

Estate Administration

When death occurs, Reger Rizzo & Darnall is available to assist in the administration of the decedent’s estate, from the initial probate proceedings, through completion of the administration process, including, if necessary, filing formal accounts for adjudication. The depth of experience our attorneys provide can be a valuable asset to you and your family during a very difficult time. 

Our estate administration services includes:

  • File probate petitions
  • Gather and value estate assets
  • Work with creditors and settle estate debts
  • File state and federal inheritance and estate tax returns
  • File state and federal fiduciary income tax returns and assist in income tax planning for the estate
  • Distribute assets to beneficiaries or heirs
Surrogate/Orphan’s Court Litigation

Our team of estates and trusts attorneys are committed to serving the specific needs of each individual client in a wide range of matters, including will contests; claims involving the interpretation of a will; disputes involving breach of duty, neglect or delay by a trustee, agent under power of attorney, or the personal representative (i.e. executor or administrator) of a decedent’s estate; termination of parental rights and adoptions; adjudications of incapacity; and appointment of a guardian of an individual’s person and estate. Through careful listening and attention to detail, we provide our clients with solutions that are tailor-made to their particular needs.

Each state operates under a different and distinct set of rules. With six offices conveniently located throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, our team has the regional knowledge needed in order to appear before the Orphans’ Court in multiple jurisdictions. Our attorneys have decades of experience and stand ready to assist you with any questions you may have in this arena. We believe it is important for individuals to have counsel who has a clear understanding of the client’s situation, priorities and objectives.

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