Estate & Gift Tax Planning Attorneys in North Carolina
Preserving the wealth you’ve built across generations requires more than a will. Strategic estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax planning can significantly reduce what your family loses to taxes, but the laws are complex, constantly shifting, and easy to get wrong. Manning Fulton’s attorneys help families navigate this landscape with clarity and confidence.
Our professionals assist clients with gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax planning to preserve family wealth for generations. Effective tax planning starts with understanding your family’s goals, your asset structure, and the full range of strategies available under current law. Manning Fulton’s attorneys are knowledgeable about federal gift, estate, and GST tax law which allows them to identify which strategies best fit your situation and determine which will best suit your families’ goals.
What We Do
Manning Fulton advises clients on a comprehensive range of estate and gift tax planning tools, including:
Trusts
- Grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs) and qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs)
- Irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs) — coordinating policy transfers to maximize annual gift tax exemptions and minimize estate taxation of insurance proceeds
- “Intentionally defective” grantor trusts for estate-freezing gift strategies
- Charitable remainder and charitable lead trusts
- Dynasty trusts for multigenerational asset transfer
- Marital and charitable deduction trusts to minimize or defer estate, gift, and GST taxes
Family Entities
- Family limited liability companies (FLLCs) and family limited partnerships (FLPs) — consolidating asset ownership, managing real estate investments, and planning for discounted gifting of ownership interests
- Private foundation formation and tax planning
Transfer and Gifting Strategies
- Structuring lifetime gifts to make full use of annual and lifetime exemptions
- Intra-family loans, seller-provided financing, self-canceling installment notes (SCINs), and sales to intentionally defective grantor trusts for estate-freezing objectives
- Planning for effective use of general and special powers of appointment
- Advising on the benefits of disclaiming inherited assets
- Assisting with beneficiary designations across retirement accounts, life insurance, and other assets
- Calculating projected gift and estate tax under alternative transfer strategies so you can make informed decisions
Special Situations
- Planning for a non-citizen spouse
- Portability planning — weighing the pros and cons of electing portability of a deceased spouse’s unused exemption
- Using life insurance trusts to provide liquidity for estate tax obligations
Who We Work With
Manning Fulton works with a broad range of clients whose circumstances make proactive tax planning essential:
- High-net-worth individuals and families looking to transfer wealth efficiently across generations
- Business owners whose closely held business interests represent a significant portion of their taxable estate
- Families with real estate holdings seeking to consolidate ownership and plan for gifting
- Blended families and non-citizen spouses whose situations require specialized planning strategies
- Philanthropically minded clients interested in charitable giving structures that also reduce estate tax exposure
- Executors and trustees navigating estate administration with significant tax implications
Partner With Manning Fulton
The most effective estate and gift tax planning happens well before it’s needed. Understanding the gift, estate, and GST tax laws is critical to helping our clients achieve gift, estate and GST tax efficiencies. Reach out to Manning Fulton’s estate and gift tax planning attorneys so they can assess your situation and help you build a plan that protects what you’ve worked to create.
