Private Wealth Services

McGuireWoods’ Private Wealth Services Practice Group is distinguished by its roster of sought-after thought leaders who frequently serve in leadership roles for pre-eminent organizations, such as the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and the American Bar Association’s Real Property, Trust and Estate Section.

We help clients navigate wealth, tax and fiduciary matters for individuals and closely held businesses. Forward-thinking in our approach, we advise on effective estate and succession planning to achieve clients’ short- and long-term goals. Our lawyers focus on the unique needs of high-net-worth clients and the institutions that work with high-net-worth clients. The depth and breadth of our experience and our dedication to shaping the wealth services landscape allow us to serve clients efficiently and effectively.

The team maintains decades-long relationships with clients, including advising some of the world’s wealthiest families in their most complicated, sensitive matters.

Our clients include:

  • high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs, executives, artists and producers, and professional athletes;
  • closely held business owners;
  • banks and trust companies;
  • executors and trustees; and
  • private and public charities.

How We Help

McGuireWoods handles clients’ local and national needs involving estate and tax planning, business structuring, fiduciary duties and litigation. Our legal services are tailored to the unique needs of families and family offices, as well as the financial institutions that serve them. Augmenting the firm’s work with financial institutions, we maintain and enhance their relationships with high-net-worth customers and referral sources, attract new business, and manage and minimize risks.

When disputes arise, the Private Wealth Services Practice Group mobilizes McGuireWoods’ nationwide bench of litigators to prosecute tax and fiduciary controversies. The firm has cemented its reputation for leading tax and fiduciary litigation matters by obtaining numerous groundbreaking rulings for clients in this area.

The team’s strengths include:

  • business succession planning;
  • charitable giving;
  • will contests;
  • fiduciary litigation;
  • risk management;
  • closely held and family office planning;
  • estate and trust administration;
  • nonprofit administration and tax compliance; and
  • tax controversies and IRS ruling requests.

Representative Experience

  • Leading financial institution in matters involving its largest trust relationship, in excess of $4.5 billion, including advising on fiduciary tax issues, alternative investment matters, trust modifications, and principal and income allocations;
  • Single-family office with significant wealth originating in real estate holdings on gift and estate planning and administration of the trusts to transfer assets through multiple generations;
  • Individual trustees in connection with a dispute over the sale of a closely held family company valued at over $1 billion that involved the trustees’ proper exercise of their fiduciary duties under the governing trust instruments and corporate governance documents, and serving as the primary trusts and estates firm on extensive federal court litigation;
  • Closely held family company operating for six decades as a retail industry leader on estate and charitable planning, as well as on business succession and charitable planning;
  • Family with a $2 billion net worth on tax and estate planning mechanisms, including a $1 billion testamentary charitable lead annuity trust, irrevocable trusts, the family foundation’s large gifts and administration, international issues related to overseas family members, and the sale of family assets to trusts for tax planning purposes; and
  • Ultra-high-net-worth individual on preparations for a confidential divorce involving significant trust and tax issues.

McGuireWoods’ Private Wealth Services Practice Group — consistently ranked among the top U.S. firms for private wealth law — provides 360-degree advisory services that enable individuals and institutions to operate successfully in a highly competitive environment.