Estate and Tax Planning


Estate Planning
Turner Padget's Estate Planning practice serves clients across South Carolina with complex estate planning and administration needs.  Our experienced estate planning and tax attorneys counsel individuals and families in the acquisition, preservation, management and transfer of their properties.  Our services combine the areas of income taxes, estate and gift taxes, charitable giving, corporate and partnership law, real estate law and employee benefits. All of our efforts are applied to serve each client's individual goals and objectives.  Our attorneys have many years of related experience, with several holding certifications by the South Carolina Supreme Court as Specialists in Estate Planning and Probate Law and in Taxation Law.

Wills and Trusts 
A key component of estate planning is providing for the transfer of assets to family members, both during life and at death.  We work with our clients to devise a plan that suits their particular needs and desires using revocable and irrevocable trusts, family partnerships and limited liability companies and wills.  Our experience allows us to create plans that preserve assets and minimize or eliminate taxes.  We also design plans that take into account special assets such as the family business, a vacation home or special individual needs such as a disabled family member who cannot manage his or her own affairs. 

Administration of Trusts and Estates 
Not only do our estate planning attorneys have experience in creating the most sophisticated estate plans; we also assist our clients in the administration of estates and trusts.  Our attorneys advise both individual and corporate fiduciaries regarding all aspects of probate and trust administration, including post-mortem tax planning and return preparation.

Charitable Giving and Exempt Organizations 
Our attorneys have assisted our clients with the formation of both private foundations and publicly-supported charitable organizations.  We often structure various types of lifetime and testamentary charitable gifts and bequests, using such tools as charitable remainder trusts and charitable lead trusts, charitable bargain sales, charitable gift annuities and conservation easements. 

Will Contests, Tax Controversies and Other Court Proceedings 
Our attorneys represent our clients before the Internal Revenue Service and state taxing agencies in connection with estate and gift tax audits, fiduciary income tax audits and other tax controversies.  In addition, our attorneys handle will contests and litigation seeking the proper interpretation of wills and trust agreements. 

Turner Padget's services include counseling and representation in the following areas:

• Estate and gift taxation
• Wills
• Trusts
• Estate and trust administration
• Fiduciary representation and counseling
• GRATS, GRUTS and GRITS
• Charitable remainder trusts
• Private annuities
• Family partnerships and limited liability companies
• Generation-skipping tax planning
• Business succession planning

Tax Matters and Other Business Transactions
Turner Padget's tax and business attorneys regularly counsel and assist clients in developing creative solutions to their most complex tax and business needs.  Our attorneys are experienced in structuring the most beneficial business entities to meet our client’s needs.  Matters typically handled by our tax and business attorneys include asset and stock acquisitions and sales, shareholder representation, general corporate counseling, mergers, corporate, partnership and LLC formations, employment agreements, and shareholder and partnership litigation. 

In addition to federal and state income tax expertise, our attorneys are also knowledgeable about state and local tax incentives.  We assist our clients in the planning aspects of tax-related matters, and we handle disputes involving federal and state income, estate, ad valorem, property, and sales and use tax matters. 

Our attorneys also have a broad range of experience in structuring and implementing tax deferred
exchanges.

Our tax and business transaction practice includes:

• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Corporate Structure and Governance
• Partnerships
• Limited Liability Companies
• Asset Purchases and Sales
• Employment Agreements
• Tax-deferred Exchanges
• Non-competition Agreements
• ERISA and other Employee Benefits
• Property and Sales Taxes
• Tax Litigation
• Shareholder and Partner Litigation
• Tax-exempt Organizations
• Property Owners' Associations

Attorneys

Shareholders
 

Michael G. Roberts, Estate & Tax Planning Practice Leader, Florence/Charleston

David G. Fawcett, Columbia
Elaine H. Fowler, Charleston

Lanneau Wm. Lambert, Jr.,  Columbia
J. Munford Scott, Jr., (Special Counsel) Florence

John M. Scott, III, Florence

Associate
Daniel G. Hart, Florence

J. David Johnson, IV, Florence