Fiduciary Advisory Services

Fiduciary Advisory Services, a collaborative offering of Maynard’s Estate Planning and Fiduciary Litigation Practices, provides individual and institutional fiduciaries with advice and counsel to assist them in fulfilling their fiduciary duties while minimizing potential liability. Maynard’s Fiduciary Advisory Services Group brings to bear multiple state and federal law disciplines, providing a breadth of experience that enables us to advise our clients effectively in every aspect of their fiduciary responsibilities. Our Fiduciary Advisory Services Group includes seven highly-specialized attorneys who practice primarily in the area of trusts and estates, providing comprehensive counsel in gift and estate tax issues, estate planning, and trusts and estate administration. In addition, our group includes eight fiduciary litigators whose Litigation Practice is focused exclusively or primarily on the representation of trustees, executors and other fiduciaries in risk assessment, pre-litigation evaluation, alternate dispute resolution, litigation avoidance, and, when necessary, fiduciary litigation. We routinely serve our clients in the following areas:

• Relationship acceptance, including the review and analysis of governing instruments and other risk factors prior to acceptance of appointment
• Relationship termination, including resignation, releases, indemnities, and court proceedings;
• Petitions for instructions
• Review and revision of forms
• Review and revision of marketing materials
• Advice with regard to applicable state laws throughout a multi-state footprint;
• Represent clients in tax controversies and audits
• Analyze opportunities for decanting, change of situs, and change of principal place of administration
• Advise clients regarding the administration of estate and trusts, such as distributing assets to the appropriate beneficiaries, minimizing risk and identifying successors-in-interest, and analyzing tax implications
• Draft or revise policies and procedures for trust departments and trust companies
• Present seminars to trust advisors regarding current legal trends affecting trust administration

For advice and services to ERISA fiduciaries, see our related Employee Benefits and ERISA Litigation Practice Groups.