Practice Areas
The Law Offices of Richard J. Miller, Jr., PLLC offers comprehensive legal services on a variety of planning issues affecting our clients and their families. We are committed to providing sophisticated estate planning, gift planning, and private client advisement, while maintaining a practice that is personal and client-focused. We value our continuing long-standing relationships and take pride in being trusted confidantes. From explaining complex legal terms and concepts to ensuring that a client’s legal rights are fully assessed and protected, we help our clients make informed decisions regarding an array of personal, trust, estate, tax solutions, charitable, and other matters. Our goal is to provide clients with actions and strategies that are legally effective, tax efficient, and personally fulfilling.
Private Client Services
Mr. Miller provides clients with personalized and sophisticated advice on all their legal needs. He has deep knowledge of and experience with all aspects of private client services law, including estate planning, trust and estate administration, business succession planning, charitable planning and foundations, family office services, fiduciary litigation, international estate planning, as well as prenuptial and postnuptial agreements.
Backed by deep expertise, Mr. Miller assists clients to navigate their challenges with confidence and clarity, including:
Estate Planning
Extensive knowledge of and experience with estate and tax planning for unique assets, including art collections, closely held businesses and large blocks of stock in publicly traded companies, for family transfers as well as charitable purposes.
ESTATE AND TRUST ADMINISTRATION
The professionals at The Law Offices of Richard J. Miller, Jr., PLLC are experienced in all aspects of estate and trust administration, providing thoughtful and tax-effective legal services to Executors, Trustees, individual and corporate fiduciaries, and estate beneficiaries.
Our attorneys and paralegals assist Executors with preparing and filing all necessary documents with the applicable probate or Surrogate’s Court developing a strategy for fairly and expeditiously administering the estate; finding and collecting estate and trust assets; closing individual bank accounts and opening estate accounts; calculating estate taxes with a view to maximizing tax solutions for beneficiaries; preparing and reviewing estate tax returns; valuing, managing, preserving, and liquidating the estate; and effectively releasing Executors from claims and liability.
The professionals at The Law Offices of Richard J. Miller, Jr., PLLC provide guidance for the Trustees of a wide variety of trusts, including Credit Shelter Trusts, Revocable Trusts, Dynasty Trusts, Self-directed Trusts, Special Needs Trusts, Qualified Domestic Trusts, Foreign Trusts, QTIP Trusts, Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts, Qualified Personal Residence Trusts, Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts, Spousal Limited Access Trusts, Educational Trusts, and Charitable Trusts.
We assist individual and corporate Trustees with all fiduciary responsibilities. This includes the preparation and settlement of trust accountings and releases, the preparation and review of fiduciary income tax returns, organizing and overseeing distributions to beneficiaries, reviewing Trustee compensation issues, advising on Unitrust elections and the exercise of the Power to Adjust, and preparing documents for decanting or amending irrevocable trusts. We also offer practical tax solutions and advice on all phases of trust administration.
Business Succession Planning
Guiding clients through the unique legal process of developing successful business succession plans while working collaboratively across the firm’s practice groups.
Charitable Planning & Foundations
Advising charitable organizations on all types of charitable gifts, including donor advised funds, charitable trusts and life estates.
Ensuring compliance with private foundation taxes and fiduciary responsibilities.
Navigating the pitfalls of estate planning, including domicile issues, transfer taxes, family dynamics and retaining wealth over multiple generations.
Family Office Services
Creating and administering family foundations, generation-skipping trusts and life insurance trusts.
Regularly assisting clients with establishing single and multiple family offices and private trust companies, as well as advising clients on the administration of such entities.
Fiduciary Litigation
Providing personalized attention from highly skilled practitioners committed to providing outstanding service.
A successful track record in presenting cases throughout thew judicial system, including the New York Surrogate’s Court. A successful track record in presenting cases before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), state tax authorities and Surrogate’s Court.
International Estate Planning
Representing foreign nationals owning assets in the U.S., as well as U.S. citizens residing abroad.
Assisting international clients in creating corporations in the U.S., as well as the development and administration of qualified domestic and offshore trusts.
Extensive experience in pre-immigration tax-efficient planning.
Prenuptial & Postnuptial Agreements
Extensive experience in drafting and negotiating complex prenuptial and postnuptial agreements.
NON-PROFIT and tax exempt ORGANIZATIONS
The Law Offices of Richard J. Miller, Jr., PLLC offers comprehensive legal counsel to a diverse range of clients — including private clubs, museums, foundations, public charities, educational institutions, and advocacy groups — as well as their boards and donors.
With deep experience in the unique legal landscape of tax exempt organizations, Mr. Miller brings specialized knowledge in areas such as tax and private client services. He advises clients in the U.S. and internationally on issues ranging from governance and compliance to global grantmaking and historic preservation.
His work spans the breadth of our clients’ legal needs, including:
• Compliance with Tax Laws: Advising clients on federal and state tax law compliance, including Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, unrelated business income tax (UBIT) issues and filing annual information returns.
• Formation and Governance: Establishing an organization’s legal structure, preparing articles of incorporation and navigating board governance matters.
• Charitable Giving and Fundraising: Advising donors and organizations on planned giving strategies and ensuring compliance with the unique laws and regulations related to charitable giving.
PRIVATE Clubs
Mr. Miller is regarded as one of the country’s most experienced and skillful lawyers representing private clubs and their related entities and public charities. He has vast experience in representing private clubs, and clubs around the country benefit from his expertise and deep and sophisticated understanding of legal issues unique to these organizations. This includes the establishment of ancillary organizations to clubs such as public foundations and scholarship funds.