Taxes are a structural problem
The New York estate tax cliff does not forgive oversight. We build the trusts and gifting structures that reduce tax exposure within the law.
PRACTICE · ESTATE PLANNING
Generational Wealth & Legacy Planning
Wealth without structure is fragile. Legacy planning goes well beyond a will: the coordination of family offices, private foundations, and the transition of operating businesses. We audit existing estate plans — often finding tax cliffs and outdated formula clauses — and rebuild them into structures that carry assets, relationships, and family values across generations.
- Discipline
- Estate Planning
- Engagement
- Per matter or retainer
- Counsel
- Christopher Moye
ESTATE PLANNING
Taxes are a structural problem
The New York estate tax cliff does not forgive oversight.
The problem
Most estate plans are written once and quietly go out of date — and the gap only shows when it is expensive to fix.
Formula clauses drafted for old exemption levels, the New York estate tax cliff, a business with no succession mechanism, assets never retitled into the trust — each is invisible until a death or a sale triggers it. An audit finds these while they can still be corrected.
Principles · 01
How we draft the matter.
Every engagement is composed against these commitments. They shape the protections we add, the questions we ask, and the document that leaves the file.
Operating businesses must transition
A closely held company is often the most fragile asset in an estate. We draft the buy-sell agreements and structures that hold when a founder passes.
Philanthropy requires structure
Charitable intent needs the right vehicle. We establish the private foundations and donor-advised funds that carry your intent forward.
What we watch · 02
What can break the matter.
These are the terms, structures, and practical risks that usually decide whether the work holds when the file is tested.
PATRIARCHHNW
The estate audit and NY tax cliff
Stress-testing decades-old documents to find and neutralize the vulnerabilities the New York estate tax cliff punishes most.
FAMILY OFFICESTEWARD
Family governance and philanthropy
The tax-exempt vehicles — private family foundations and donor-advised funds — that formalize a family's multi-generational charitable intent.
FOUNDEREXECUTIVE
Business succession
Buy-sell agreements, voting trusts, and closely held transitions that protect an operating company from sudden incapacity or death.
The work · 03
Four steps. One engagement.
Each step is concrete; each step has a deliverable. The scope is defined, the matter moves, and the file closes.
- 01
Audit
We review the existing estate plan for outdated tax formulas, missing fiduciaries, and misaligned asset titling.
- 02
Design
We propose an integrated structure — revocable trusts, dynasty trusts, and tailored entities — matched to the family's goals.
- 03
Drafting
We write the instruments that encode your wishes and protect the assets from avoidable tax and creditor exposure.
- 04
Funding and titling
A trust is useless if it is empty. We oversee transferring the real and intellectual property into the new structures.
Proof
What stands behind the work.
What stands behind the work — credentials and representative engagements, stated plainly.
Estate and legacy matters are handled by Christopher Moyé, Esq., who authors the firm's published writing on estate planning.
Estate-plan audits, revocable and dynasty trusts, business-succession structures, and private foundations and donor-advised funds.
Every engagement begins with an audit of the existing documents and asset titling before anything is rebuilt.
Common questions
Questions clients ask.
Plain answers to the questions that come up most. If yours is not here, send the facts — we answer in writing.
- What is the New York estate tax cliff?
- New York gives a generous estate-tax exemption, but estates that exceed it by more than a small margin can lose the exemption entirely and be taxed on the full estate — not only the excess. That cliff can cost far more than the amount over the threshold, which is why planning around it is worth the attention.
- Why audit an estate plan I already have?
- Plans drift out of date. Exemption levels change, formula clauses written years ago can now misdirect assets, businesses gain value with no succession mechanism, and trusts sit unfunded. An audit surfaces these gaps while they are still fixable rather than discovered during administration.
- What is a dynasty trust?
- A dynasty trust is built to hold wealth across multiple generations, keeping assets out of each generation's taxable estate and protected from creditors and divorce, within the limits the law allows. It is one structure among several; we use it where the family's goals and the numbers justify it.
- How do you plan for a family business?
- Succession planning combines the legal mechanics — buy-sell agreements, voting structures, and trusts — with the practical question of who runs and who owns the business next. The goal is continuity that survives a founder's death or incapacity rather than a forced sale under pressure.
- What is the difference between a private foundation and a donor-advised fund?
- Both formalize charitable intent. A private foundation gives the family the most control and its own governance but carries administrative and regulatory obligations; a donor-advised fund is simpler to run with less control. We match the vehicle to how involved the family wants to be.
BUILT TO CARRY ACROSS GENERATIONS
Audit your estate plan.
Diagnose the vulnerabilities in your existing documents before a tax cliff or a succession event exposes them.
Begin a conversation