With estate and gift planning, you can leave your legacy as you intended for your family, your business, and your charities.
You’ve worked hard to grow your wealth and build a comfortable life for you and your loved ones. Now you want to ensure that they– and future generations – are cared for after you’re gone. You also want to share your good fortune with others. To accomplish both, you need a tax-efficient estate and gifting plan.
Our advanced estate planning and wealth preservation strategies and solutions help you achieve your goals while mitigating your tax liabilities and those of your heirs. The recommendations from our estate preservation and planning advisors are tailored to your unique situation and reflect our expansive knowledge of estate, trust, gift and tax laws.
Estate planning and wealth management are some of the most priceless and enduring gifts you can give your loved ones—and yourself.
Your legacy provides loved ones with the resources to pursue their passions and puts them on the path to financial well-being. But ensuring that these resources last is a challenge. We help you build a legacy that:
Your life isn’t static, and your estate preservation plan shouldn’t be either. We monitor it regularly to make sure it keeps up with you, your family, and changing tax laws.
The most important reason for estate planning is to give yourself and your loved ones peace of mind. Creating your estate plan gives you control. As I’ve often said to many clients, if you don’t have an estate plan, the state will write one for you, and its likely not what you would want. At Cerity Partners, we work with clients to create a full comprehensive financial and estate plan to protect both their wealth and well-being."Susan Hartley-Moss, Partner
State and federal estate taxes can significantly erode a family’s wealth over time—more so than income taxes. This is especially true for individuals who live in high-tax states. We work with you and your attorney to create and execute a comprehensive wealth and estate plan for your unique needs and intentions.
Wealth Protection and Transfer Strategies
How you pass your wealth from one generation to the next directly impacts your taxes and the protections afforded in the event of a lawsuit, divorce, or bankruptcy. Dynasty Trusts and Private Trust Companies are just two ways we help address these concerns and sustain the viability of your estate.
Review of Wills, Trusts and Other Estate Planning Documents
The first step to enhancing your estate plan is understanding where you’re at today. Reviewing your existing documents helps us ensure that all your assets are addressed, including investments, real estate, jewelry, and artwork, and identify opportunities for improvement. Once identified, we work with you and your attorney to close any gaps so you can feel confident your legacy and loved ones are protected.
Review of Beneficiaries and Titling of Assets
The type of asset and how it is owned impacts who receives your property after your death. For example, IRA accounts automatically pass to your beneficiaries. Any property owned jointly with rights of survivorship passes to the other owner. Our review helps ensure your assets are titled according to your intentions and that your beneficiary information is up to date.
Coordination of Estate Plan with Life Insurance Coverage
Life insurance is more liquid than many assets you may own, making the proceeds a good source for paying estate taxes and other liabilities while leaving the rest of your estate intact. We help you determine the level and type of life insurance that’s right for you.
Charitable Planning and Gift Coordination
Should you make your gift now or in the future? Should you bundle your gifts together in one year? Does a Donor Advised Fund make sense for you? Should you make a monetary gift or donate investments or real property? Our estate planning and financial advisors answer these questions and more to help you maximize the value of your gifts while minimizing taxes.
Estate Succession Planning
If you’re a business owner, the future of your company is an essential part of any estate planning conversation. Do you want to transfer ownership to family members? Do you plan to sell the business and allocate the proceeds amongst loved ones? Whatever your vision, we help you create a comprehensive exit strategy that prepares you, your business, and your family for the transition.
Next-Gen Education
Loved ones who understand the reasoning behind the provisions in an estate plan are more likely to embrace the plan and carry it forward. We offer educational materials that focus on the rising generation to help you have this important conversation.
July payrolls badly missed expectations with 23,000 jobs lost versus a projected 93,000 gain, but statistical quirks like seasonal education adjustments and World Cup hiring payback likely overstate the weakness; meanwhile, the household survey showed a falling unemployment rate, no evidence of layoffs, and softening wage growth that is easing some near-term rate-hike expectations.
A Trump Account is a new type of tax-advantaged savings account created under the federal tax code meant to give every American child a long-term financial foundation. If you have a minor child, it’s worth taking a few minutes to learn how a Trump Account works and decide whether opening one fits your family’s plan.
As part of the Opportunity Zone program, Qualified Opportunity Funds can provide significant financial and tax benefits. At the same time, owners of these funds must be knowledgeable about the estate-planning aspects of their investment.
You’ve saved diligently. You have an IRA, a 401(k), and maybe an annuity. But there are decisions embedded in common retirement account structures that many people don’t realize until it’s too late.
The concept behind PPLI is simple: by investing inside a life insurance policy, you take advantage of the favorable tax treatment granted to life insurance. Learn more.
California’s proposed 2026 Billionaire Tax Act is a one-time wealth tax that voters will decide in November 2026. If you have a net worth at or above $1 billion and any connection to California, the proposal deserves your attention now.
A liquidity event—whether from a business sale, IPO, merger, or other transaction—creates a unique opportunity to design plans that minimize tax exposure and shape a lasting legacy. Watch our webinar to learn more.
Plan sponsors are simultaneously confronting heightened cybersecurity and distribution-fraud risk, SECURE 2.0’s Roth catch-up requirements, and an ERISA litigation environment increasingly focused on process and meaningful benchmarking.
When going through a divorce, the process of dividing assets can be a frustrating and confusing one. Retirement assets are an important issue in any divorce proceeding, since, after the marital home, they often represent the largest category of marital assets to be divided in a divorce settlement.
Canada is an appealing destination for successful Americans: It has a high quality of life, stunning scenery, and a culture that feels familiar yet refreshingly different. But the financial picture that comes with a move to Canada is genuinely complex in ways that catch even sophisticated people off guard.
Schedule your complimentary 30-minute discovery call so we can understand your unique financial goals and match you with an advisor well suited to your needs.
Principal & Client Experience Director
Principal & Client Experience Director
Schedule a complimentary discovery call now:
Principal & Client Experience Director
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