Estate Planning And Tax Partner
CurrentBrenda Jackson-Cooper crafts customized estate plans designed to achieve clients’ tax and non-tax objectives, implements a range of lifetime giving strategies to transfer wealth with maximum transfer and income tax efficiency, administers estates with multi-jurisdictional components and helps clients avail themselves of non-judicial trust modifications, including trust decanting. Ms. Jackson-Cooper also assists individuals who are neither citizens nor residents of the United States with creating domestic trusts for the benefit of U.S. beneficiaries, and she works with non-U.S. counsel to design integrated estate plans for U.S. citizens with holdings outside the United States.Prior to the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in U.S. v. Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges, Ms. Jackson-Cooper worked extensively with same-sex couples to address the challenges presented by the lack of recognition of same-sex marriage for federal estate and gift tax purposes. She continues to work with a number of same-sex couples on their estate planning matters. Representative MattersAssisted in the design and implementation of a plan whereby beneficiaries of a terminating trust transferred trust interests to grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs) in order to leverage the mortality risk associated with the trust termination date. Administered the estate of a decedent with holdings in nine jurisdictions. Worked closely with ancillary probate attorneys to file disclaimers in every jurisdiction, with family office staff to transfer widespread real property interests to limited liability companies, and with accountants to comply with tax and basis filing requirements. Pre U.S. v. Windsor, developed an estate plan using a grantor retained income trust (GRIT) funded with interests in a start-up enterprise to transfer substantial wealth to the client’s same-sex spouse in a tax-efficient manner.
