IN DEPTH: ESTATE PLANNING -- W. Gerald Thornton

RALEIGH - Most folks would never place the words "tax attorney" and "exciting" in the same sentence. But to Gerald Thornton, the words flow together as smoothly as his boyhood memories of hunting and fishing with his father.

"This work is extremely exciting for me," says Thornton. "Unlike litigious law, the value of my work is evident. You see it in the numbers. It can be measured in tax savings."

Thornton, 61, is a managing partner at Raleigh law firm Manning Fulton & Skinner. As a tax lawyer specializing in estate planning, he has helped many wealthy Raleigh businessmen, such as Alfred Williams III and Acres Moore, manage their fortunes so that their heirs received all benefits allowed under U.S. and state tax laws.

"The most important thing about estate planning is asset preservation and management," Thornton says. "You don't want the taxes to eat it all up so there's nothing left for your loved ones."

The younger of two children, Thornton was born and raised in Clinton where his parents and grandparents had been tenant farmers. "My dad was the oldest of three boys," Thornton says. "His father died when he was in the fifth grade so he had to drop out of school to help support the family."

He remained a farmer, married and started a family. But trying to raise a family on what he could earn as a farmer proved difficult. "Six months after I was born he got a job as a policeman," Thornton says.

The elder Thornton continued pulling himself up by his bootstraps, earning his GED, obtaining a private pilot's license and working his way up to become chief of police in Clinton. He was the chief for about 15 years before he suffered a stroke at the age of 63 and retired.

"Everybody in Sampson County knew Bill Thornton. He treated everybody fairly and was well-respected by all races," says Thornton. "He was strict, but he was fair."

Thornton credits his parents for much of the success he's achieved, both in his career and as a husband and father. "I had wonderful parents," he says. "I never doubted the love they had for me."

Thornton recalls his father's interest in watching his prowess on the football field.

Although his duty as a police officer kept him away from most of the games, the young Thornton often saw his father's patrol car pull up next to the high school football field during practice. From that vantage point, he would watch his son play until duty forced him back onto the road.

Thornton says his mother helped support the family by taking a job in a factory that made vacuum tubes for radios.

Thornton credits a neighbor for steering him in the direction of tax law.

"In Clinton, I had a paper route and two of my customers were federal judges," he says. "As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a lawyer. Howard Hubbard, who was a district judge, recommended that I major in accounting. So when I went to UNC (the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), I majored in accounting. The natural extension was to go into tax law."

Thornton went to work in the chief council's office of the Internal Revenue Service in Louisville, Ky. in 1967 after receiving his law degree from UNC. He remained there for a little more than three years. He was lured back to North Carolina by a former UNC classmate, John McMillan. McMillan was working at Manning Fulton & Skinner and there had been some discussion about starting a tax practice within the firm. McMillan thought of Thornton.

Roy Epps, a retired agent with the State Bureau of Investigation, also recommended Thornton for the job. Epps had worked with Manning Fulton for two years on an embezzlement case. When Manning mentioned he was looking to expand the law firm, Epps immediately thought of Thornton. Epps had known both Thornton and his father.

"I've never known a man with more integrity," says Epps of Thornton.

Another Raleigh law firm was also pursuing Thornton so he completed both interviews in one trip. "Forty-five minutes with Howard Manning was the extent of my interview," he says.

Although Thornton says he would have liked to spend at least one more year in government service, the birth of his second child and his wife's homesickness gave him the incentive to move back to North Carolina.

His wife, Katrina, whom he married in 1963, is also from Clinton.

He remembers pursuing her from the time he was in the eighth grade and she was in high school.

"There was this one particular girl with a pony tail who was the most gorgeous girl I'd ever seen," Thornton says of Katrina.

By the time Thornton became a freshman, he had made friends with some upperclassmen and these friendships helped him catch Katrina's eye. "She's still my best friend and she's still beautiful," he says.

While Thornton has no trouble managing assets, he says managing time is his biggest personal challenge.

"I try to be the kind of lawyer every lawyer should be, the kind of husband every husband should be, and the kind of father every father should be," he says. "My biggest challenge is not having enough time to see clients, do church work and still have time for my family."

And you can add hunting and fishing to the list of Thornton's activities. One of his hunting buddies, Joe Barnes, now retired from a position as director of operations at the Lufkin Divison of Cooper Industries in Apex, says, "I doubt you'd find anybody who would say anything bad about Gerald." But then, tongue in cheek, Barnes notes, "He's a lousy hunter."

After talking to another friend of Thornton's, one begins to wonder if there is some truth to that statement.

Bill Bateman, president of Insured Benefit Design Inc. in Raleigh has been a friend of Thornton's for 30 years. He says of Thornton, "As a hunting partner, he's great company. You get to shoot your limit and even part of his."

Thornton is also active in his church, accepting many leadership positions in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

At the office, Thornton's focus is totally on his clients, who are mostly interested in preserving the wealth they spent their lives accumulating and to be able to pass it on to their children.

"Estate taxes are the most onerous taxes" because people spend all their lives paying taxes on their income and then they - through their heirs - get taxed again when they die, says Thornton.

Helping clients preserve those assets requires careful navigation of complex, and changing, tax laws.