Overview
Laura C. Walton advises clients on all aspects of trust and estate planning. She has significant experience in transfer tax planning using life insurance, generation-skipping transfers and lifetime gifting strategies for domestic and for foreign individuals. She is responsible for the negotiation, structuring and implementation of various types of family planning transactions, including the creation of grantor, “dynasty,” and foreign trusts, closely-held family business entities, prenuptial agreements, and tax-effective wills and trusts for high-net-worth individuals. Laura also has experience in estate planning with New York real estate, ranging from transferring residences to qualified personal residence trusts to transfers of interests in major commercial real estate ventures and hotels, using valuation discounts and avoiding New York transfer taxes.
Results
- Successfully transferred interests in an NBA team to a grantor-retained annuity trust to move future appreciation out of the client’s estate
- Created a revocable trust that converts to a joint purchase qualified personal residence trust upon completion of a multimillion-dollar vacation home
- Planned for the domestication of foreign trusts with US beneficiaries upon the death of the foreign family matriarch
- Serving as member of a client’s family advisory board, working with three generations to fully understand the family business and advise on wealth transfers
- Transferred fractional interests in works of art to a trust, and successfully defended the discounted valuations and transfers on audit
Recognitions
- Legal Aid Society, 2006 Legal Aid Award
Community
- Glen Rock Women in Community Service, board member
- Central Unitarian Church, Paramus, New Jersey, former board member
- The Madeira School, McLean, Virginia, former board member
Credentials
Education
New York University School of Law, LLM, 1995
University of Virginia School of Law, JD, 1991
University of Virginia, BA, Phi Beta Kappa, 1988
Admissions
New York
