Key Takeaways

• Estate planning is not just a will — it is a coordinated set of documents (will, trusts, powers of attorney, health-care directives, and beneficiary designations) that work together.
• Trusts let you avoid probate, plan for incapacity, protect beneficiaries, support charity, and reduce estate and gift tax — the right vehicle depends on your goals.
• Estate and inheritance taxes differ sharply by state: Pennsylvania and New Jersey levy inheritance tax, New York and Maryland impose an estate tax (and Maryland an inheritance tax too), and the federal estate/gift exemption is large but scheduled to change.
• When a will is unclear, an executor breaches duty, or a family member is unfairly cut out, the firm litigates estate and trust disputes in the Orphans’ Court and Surrogate’s Court systems of all four states.

Estate Planning Fundamentals

Every plan starts with core documents. A Last Will and Testament directs who receives your probate assets and names an executor and, if you have minor children, a guardian. A Durable Power of Attorney lets a trusted agent manage your finances if you become incapacitated. An Advance Health-Care Directive / Living Will and Health-Care Power of Attorney names who makes medical decisions and states your wishes. Finally, beneficiary designations on life insurance, retirement accounts, and payable-on-death accounts pass outside the will and must be coordinated with the rest of the plan — a mismatch here is one of the most common and costly planning errors.

Trusts and Advanced Estate Planning Vehicles

A trust is a legal arrangement in which a trustee holds and manages assets for beneficiaries under terms you set. Trusts are the workhorses of sophisticated planning — they avoid probate, provide for incapacity, shelter assets, control distributions, and, when irrevocable, move value out of your taxable estate. Below are the vehicles we use most often and when each fits.

Revocable Living Trust

A revocable living trust holds your assets during life, lets you keep full control, and passes them to your beneficiaries at death without probate and with privacy. It is the foundation of most modern plans, is easily amended, and provides seamless management if you become incapacitated. Because you retain control, it offers no estate-tax savings or creditor protection during your lifetime.

Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT)

An ILIT owns a life-insurance policy so the death benefit is excluded from your taxable estate. For families whose wealth is concentrated in insurance, an ILIT can keep hundreds of thousands — or millions — of dollars of death benefit out of the estate, provide liquidity to pay estate taxes or equalize inheritances, and shield the proceeds from beneficiaries’ creditors. Proper administration (Crummey notices, premium gifting) is essential.

Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT)

A GRAT is a powerful wealth-transfer tool for appreciating assets. You transfer property into the trust and retain the right to a fixed annuity for a term of years; whatever growth exceeds the IRS “hurdle” rate (the section 7520 rate) passes to your beneficiaries gift-tax-free at the end of the term. GRATs are especially effective in low-interest-rate environments and for assets expected to appreciate rapidly, such as pre-IPO stock or a growing business interest.

Grantor Retained Unitrust (GRUT)

A GRUT works like a GRAT but pays the grantor a fixed percentage of the trust’s value, recalculated annually, rather than a fixed dollar annuity. Because the payout floats with the trust’s value, a GRUT can suit assets with variable value, though GRATs are more common in practice because of their predictability and estate-freeze efficiency.

Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT)

A QPRT lets you transfer your home (or vacation home) to your beneficiaries at a discounted gift value while retaining the right to live in it rent-free for a term of years. If you outlive the term, the residence — and all future appreciation — passes to your family outside your estate.

Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRT / CRUT / CRAT)

A charitable remainder trust pays income to you (or another beneficiary) for life or a term, after which the remainder goes to charity. A CRAT pays a fixed annuity; a CRUT pays a fixed percentage that grows with the trust. CRTs generate an immediate income-tax charitable deduction, defer or avoid capital-gains tax on appreciated assets, and create a lifetime income stream — ideal for donors holding low-basis stock or real estate.

Charitable Lead Trust (CLT)

The mirror image of a CRT: a charitable lead trust pays income to charity for a term, then returns the remainder to your family, often at a substantially reduced gift-tax cost. CLTs let philanthropic families support causes now while efficiently passing wealth to the next generation.

Intentionally Defective Grantor Trust (IDGT)

An IDGT is irrevocable for estate-tax purposes but treated as owned by you for income-tax purposes. You can sell appreciating assets to the trust without capital-gains tax and pay the trust’s income tax personally — effectively making additional tax-free gifts to your heirs while freezing the asset’s value in your estate. It is one of the most flexible advanced-planning structures available.

Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT)

A SLAT is an irrevocable trust one spouse creates for the benefit of the other, moving assets out of the taxable estate while preserving indirect access through the beneficiary spouse. SLATs are widely used to lock in today’s large federal gift/estate exemption before it is scheduled to drop.

Dynasty Trust

A dynasty trust is designed to last for multiple generations — keeping assets out of the estate of each successive beneficiary, protecting them from creditors and divorce, and leveraging the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemption to build lasting family wealth.

Special Needs Trust (SNT)

A special needs trust provides for a disabled beneficiary without disqualifying them from means-tested government benefits such as SSI and Medicaid. Both third-party SNTs (funded by parents or relatives) and first-party/self-settled SNTs (funded with the beneficiary’s own assets, such as a personal-injury recovery) are available.

Asset Protection Trust

Irrevocable asset-protection trusts — including domestic (DAPT) structures — can shield assets from future creditors when established properly and well before any claim arises. These require careful drafting to be effective and to avoid fraudulent-transfer problems.

Marital, QTIP, and Credit-Shelter (Bypass) Trusts

These trusts coordinate the estate plans of married couples. A QTIP trust qualifies for the marital deduction while letting you control who ultimately inherits — valuable in blended families. A credit-shelter (bypass) trust preserves both spouses’ exemptions. In states with their own estate tax (New York, Maryland), these trusts remain important even when the federal exemption is high.

Testamentary Trusts

A testamentary trust is created inside your will and springs into existence at death — commonly used to hold assets for minor children or young adults until they reach an age you choose, with a trustee managing funds for education and support in the meantime.

Estate and Gift Tax Planning

Good planning is tax-aware. The federal estate and gift tax exemption is historically high but is scheduled to be cut roughly in half, which makes exemption-locking strategies (SLATs, gifting, GRATs) time-sensitive. State taxes matter too: Pennsylvania imposes an inheritance tax (0% to spouses, 4.5% to lineal descendants, 12% to siblings, 15% to others); New Jersey has an inheritance tax on certain non-lineal beneficiaries; New York imposes an estate tax with a notorious “cliff”; and Maryland is the only state with both an estate tax and an inheritance tax. We plan around whichever regimes apply to you.

Estate Administration and Probate

When someone passes away, the executor or administrator must marshal assets, pay debts and taxes, file the required returns, and distribute the estate — all while meeting court deadlines and fiduciary duties. We represent executors, administrators, and trustees through the full process: probating the will (in the Register of Wills / Surrogate’s Court), obtaining letters, handling PA inheritance-tax and federal estate-tax returns, preparing accountings, and closing the estate. We also counsel families when there is no will (intestacy) and the estate must pass under state law.

Estate, Trust, and Fiduciary Litigation

When disputes arise, we litigate in the Orphans’ Court (PA), Surrogate’s Court (NY), and equivalent probate courts across the region. Common matters include will contests based on lack of capacity, undue influence, fraud, or improper execution; challenges to trusts; breach-of-fiduciary-duty claims against executors and trustees; disputed accountings; removal of a fiduciary; and disagreements among beneficiaries over interpretation of a will or trust. Whether you are a fiduciary defending your administration or a beneficiary who has been wronged, we protect your position.

What Our Firm Does

We build plans that are practical, tax-aware, and tailored — from a straightforward will package to multi-generational trust structures — and we stand behind them when it counts, administering estates efficiently and litigating disputes when families cannot resolve them on their own.

Who We Help

Young families making a first plan; business owners and professionals with significant or concentrated wealth; blended families that need careful coordination; parents of children with special needs; executors and trustees who need guidance; and beneficiaries who believe a will or trust has been abused.

Why Choose Siddons Law Firm

A litigator-first firm. Above all, we are litigators. We prepare every matter — even a routine transaction, filing, or estate plan — with the forethought that it could one day be challenged in a courtroom, because any legal matter conceivably can be. That discipline means the work we do for you is built to withstand scrutiny from the start. It is what we mean by experience guided by intelligence.

Clients get a lawyer who explains sophisticated tools in plain language, coordinates the whole plan rather than handing over a stack of forms, and can carry a matter all the way from planning through administration and, if necessary, the courtroom — across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Maryland.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a will and a trust?

A will directs who receives your assets and takes effect only at death, after passing through probate. A living trust holds assets during your life and passes them at death without probate, with more privacy and built-in incapacity planning. Most complete plans use both together.

Do I need a trust, or is a will enough?

It depends on your goals. A will is enough for many people, but a trust is worth considering if you want to avoid probate, plan for incapacity, provide for a special-needs or spendthrift beneficiary, reduce estate tax, own property in more than one state, or keep your affairs private.

What is a GRAT and who should use one?

A grantor retained annuity trust lets you transfer future appreciation of an asset to your heirs gift-tax-free by retaining a fixed annuity for a term of years. It works best for assets expected to grow quickly — business interests, pre-IPO or concentrated stock — and in low interest-rate environments.

Can an ILIT keep life insurance out of my estate?

Yes. When an irrevocable life insurance trust owns the policy and is administered correctly, the death benefit is excluded from your taxable estate and passes to your beneficiaries free of estate tax, while also providing liquidity and creditor protection.

How do I contest a will or challenge an executor?

A will can be challenged for lack of testamentary capacity, undue influence, fraud, or defective execution, and a fiduciary can be surcharged or removed for breaching duties. These cases are filed in the Orphans’ or Surrogate’s Court and are time-sensitive, so it is important to act promptly and preserve evidence.