Practice Group / Trusts & Estates
Sheehan Phinney's trusts and estates attorneys advise individuals, families, business owners, trustees, executors, beneficiaries, family offices, and professional fiduciaries through every stage of estate planning and administration.
We design plans that protect families, preserve wealth, address incapacity, minimize tax exposure, and support charitable goals, coordinated with each client's assets, family dynamics, and long-term objectives. We also counsel fiduciaries and beneficiaries on the practical and legal issues that follow incapacity or death, including trust administration, probate, governance, and disputes. Our attorneys work closely with clients' financial advisors, accountants, and other professionals to build plans that are practical to implement and administer.
Experience That Extends Beyond Drafting
Our practice combines decades of private-client representation with senior legal, compliance, and operational experience inside independent trust companies serving high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth families. That perspective allows us to evaluate every plan from both sides: how it should be designed today, and how it will be interpreted and administered years later. We help clients choose appropriate fiduciaries, define responsibilities, and prepare family members and advisors for the work ahead.
Estate & Wealth Planning
Trust & Estate Administration
Fiduciary Counsel & Governance
Business Succession Planning
Trust & Estate Disputes
Thoughtful planning / Practical administration / Experienced fiduciary counsel
Our team handles a broad array of solutions in the following areas:
Estate and Wealth Transfer Planning
Our estate planning work ranges from essential lifetime and testamentary documents to sophisticated multigenerational wealth-transfer structures, including:
- Wills, revocable trusts, durable powers of attorney, and advance directives
- Federal and state estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax planning
- Irrevocable trusts, life insurance trusts, spousal lifetime access trusts, dynasty trusts, and other advanced wealth-transfer structures
- Charitable giving, charitable trusts, private foundations, and donor-advised funds
- Planning for blended families, closely held businesses, and other special assets
Business Succession and Continuity Planning
For business owners, personal estate planning and business planning cannot be separated. We help clients prepare for a transition to family members, key employees, co-owners, or a third-party buyer while protecting the continuity and value of the enterprise, working alongside the firm's corporate, tax, and real estate attorneys as needed.
New Hampshire Trust Planning and Administration
New Hampshire offers one of the country's most flexible trust law environments. We advise New Hampshire families, trustees, and out-of-state advisors on the opportunities available under New Hampshire law, including:
- Establishing or moving trust situs and administration to New Hampshire
- Directed trusts and the allocation of investment, distribution, and administrative responsibilities
- Trust protectors, distribution advisors, and other specialized fiduciary roles
- New Hampshire asset-protection trusts
- Trust modification, decanting, merger, division, and termination
Probate, Estate Settlement, and Trust Administration
We guide executors, personal representatives, trustees, and families through the legal and practical work that follows a death or a change in trusteeship. Our services range from focused advice on a discrete issue to overseeing a complex probate or trust administration. We assist with asset collection and valuation, accountings and beneficiary communications, tax coordination, and the distribution of trusts and estates.
Fiduciary and Beneficiary Counsel
Trustees and executors take on significant legal duties and, in some cases, personal exposure; beneficiaries have equally significant interests but often limited information. We advise individual and professional fiduciaries on their powers and duties, and we represent beneficiaries seeking information, an accounting, or appropriate distributions.
When disputes arise, our trusts and estates disputes attorneys work with the firm's litigators on will and trust contests, fiduciary removal claims, and other probate and fiduciary matters.
A Coordinated, Practical Approach
Trust and estate matters frequently cross into other areas of law. As a full-service business law firm, Sheehan Phinney draws on attorneys in corporate law, tax, real estate, nonprofit organizations, employment, litigation, and data privacy. This coordinated approach is especially valuable for business owners, fiduciaries, and clients whose planning crosses state lines.
Whether we're preparing a first estate plan or resolving a dispute, our goal is the same: technically sound advice that is clear, practical, and responsive to the people who must rely on it.
Practice Chairs
Mark B. Bartram
“We work closely with individuals, families, trustees, and family offices to develop estate and fiduciary planning strategies that are thoughtful, practical, and tailored to each client’s long-term objectives. Effective trusts and estate planning requires not only technical legal knowledge, but also an understanding of family dynamics, fiduciary responsibilities, and the importance of preserving wealth and legacy across generations.”
Bradford E. Cook
“We believe that the right estate plan goes beyond demographics and financial information. That’s why we prioritize meeting and listening to the wants and needs of our clients and their families, to develop a plan that truly works for all involved.”
