Charitable Planned Giving
Estate Planning
Family Disputes and Will Contests
Preserving Wealth
Providing a Future for Your Business
Retirement Planning

Stradley Ronon provides in-depth planning to ensure that your family is cared for, your assets are distributed exactly as you wish, and your estate is managed by people who understand your ideas and will carry out your goals.

We prepare hundreds of wills each year. We have designed many wealth-preserving estate plans and helped create charitable foundations of many types. We are often called on to manage the transfer of our clients’ wealth. But our most rewarding role may be in providing continuity and a steadying force between the generations of families we have served for decades.

Retirement Planning
With life expectancies increasing, “retirement planning” has become just as important as “estate planning.” We devote much of our effort to ensuring clients’ financial security in later years. Proper planning can minimize the taxes and penalties that otherwise accompany retirement when plan distributions are either “too early,” “too late” or “too much.”

Providing a Future for Your Business
You may justifiably fear that your business and the income it produces will dissolve upon your death. However, there are many ways to minimize death taxes so that your family or others can continue to operate the business with minimal disruption. For example, a successful solution may include a plan that motivates and retains key employees who continue your business and sustain its value after your death.

We have advised many entrepreneurs on their personal and business concerns regarding the succession of business ownership, intellectual property assets, environmental liabilities and other legal issues, in ways that benefit both the family and the business.

Preserving Wealth
Death taxes can devastate the assets that one has accumulated. No one plans to fail; people simply fail to plan. With proper planning, taxes may be deferred either until the death of the survivor of a married couple or until later date established by our client and attorney. Our lawyers can assist with other ways of minimizing taxes through estate and tax planning before death.

Estate Planning
Whether you have definite concerns – such as charitable goals or children requiring special accommodations – or a general desire to provide security to loved ones in the event of a catastrophe, we have the capabilities to develop an estate plan tailored to your goals. Techniques range from the simple will, living will and general durable power of attorney to more sophisticated instruments such as life insurance trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, charitable split-interest trusts, dynasty trusts, charitable foundations, offshore asset-protection trusts, shareholder agreements and family limited partnerships.

Our team of tax accountants and paralegals is here to service all aspects of your estate plan. Our services include maintaining ledgers and accounts, making distributions to beneficiaries, and preparing fiduciary and other tax returns.

Family Disputes and Will Contests
We firmly believe that proper planning is the key to minimizing disagreements. When disputes arise, we are fortunate to be able to call on our lawyers who are skilled at litigation, mediation and other techniques for resolving even seemingly intractable difficulties. Should the need arise, our clients may rely on our practiced judgment and sound application in successfully litigating will contests and other disputes.

Charitable Planned Giving
Stradley Ronon represents both donors and recipients of charitable giving; this bilateral interaction has given us a keen understanding of the needs of each group, affording us the ability to accommodate each interest better.

On the donor side, we represent many individuals and family foundations and trusts. We help them adopt policies and procedures, provide sample donor documents, establish planned-giving vehicles and select administrators and investment advisors. We also help them structure such tax-saving devices as charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, gift annuities, pooled-income funds, personal-residence trusts and other plans that allow the grantor to control the assets while minimizing taxes.

In addition to our individual clients, we advise health care, religious and educational institutions throughout the Delaware Valley, including the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia. We have helped them establish planned-giving programs, including drafting foundation documents, reviewing marketing materials, assisting donors and serving as general counsel to planned-giving programs.