All Practice Areas

Estate Planning

Guzman Law Group provides you the tools necessary to secure and protect your hard-earned business or investments. We advise you in the preservation of your wealth for subsequent generations. Each particular asset – whether it is a family business, partnership interest, family residence – is different, and we understand each unique situation.

Life brings lots of changes, whether it’s a marriage, divorce, death, a decline in the market – all of those events affect your estate plan.

As assets pass to subsequent generations, their values can be impacted. Guzman Law Group provides you security in knowing that the maximum value of the asset is being preserved for future generations. We tailor your plan and assist you in making educated and informed decisions on these wealth preservation matters. Each family and its dynamics present a unique situation, and we listen. We can also tailor your estate plan to include special needs trusts, guardianships, conservatorships, minor needs trusts, or dynasty trusts.

Finally, our Trusts will ensure that your wishes are carried out in the event of your death by your designated successor trustees. This relieves you and your family from the unnecessary time, stress and expense of the probate process. Again, we attempt to preserve your wealth in this process and make the distribution seamless during the administration of the trust.

Powers of Attorney

You have spent your life building what you and your family call “home”. But what would happen if you were no longer able to make decisions for yourself?

Guzman Law Group specializes in Estate Planning packages that leave your family prepared to deal with this type of crisis. Our Advance Health Care Directives provide your physicians with the proper authorization to communicate information regarding your care to your loved ones. This gives certainty to your loved ones and sets forth your wishes for the quality of your life.

A Power of Attorney for Assets will allow your designated agent to continue business as usual on your behalf. If you are incapacitated for any reason, this document will allow your agent to take care of any and all financial matters.

Our Wills and Trust package can be tailored to your family’s unique situation. We consider and are sensitive to your family’s unique dynamics and interrelationships.

Gifts and Charitable Planning

Guzman Law Group will assist you in determining the effects of gifts during the course of your lifetime, or upon your death. The decision is ultimately yours and you maintain the control of how your assets are distributed, i.e., gift is administered during the course of your lifetime and you see the results now, versus later.

Many clients also choose to make donations to non-profit organizations as an integral part of their overall estate plan. In addition to passing on part of your legacy to those in need, there can be significant estate tax savings if the transaction is properly structured during your lifetime.

Corporate Succession Planning

Guzman Law Group has extensive experience in guiding closely held businesses through the stages of corporate succession planning in order to insure the future success of the company. Here, estate planning meets the business and transactional side of the practice to craft agreements that both comport with the law and provide for the desires of the owners in passing the interest on to their successors. Succession planning may not always be handing over the business to the next generation – it may be a matter of creating the proper exit strategy. In the event of a sale of your business, our duty is to advise you as to the most opportune time to maximize your value.

Celebrity Estates

The Guzman Law Group team is pleased to provide advice to the heirs of those talented persons who have created valuable intellectual property and are the holders of ‘celebrity rights’ that will continue to inspire future generations. What is commonly referred to as, “celebrity estates” often include valuable music, plays, films, books, artwork and other intellectual property that will serve as the basis of motion pictures, stage plays, documentaries and other “new” products created and interpreted for future use. What kinds of issues arise with “celebrity estates”? A few types of matters that we handle for rights holders:

  • Structuring of appropriate entities (LLC, Inc.) to hold intellectual property rights and license to third parties;

  • Review of “library” materials and legacy product including copyright searches, updating and registrations, as appropriate to ensure valid registrations;

  • Review of materials for trademark protection and applications, as appropriate;

  • Analysis and review of “chain of title” of materials and previous licensing of rights, e.g., plays, films, books, etc., to determine status and available rights for additional exploitation;

  • Deal structuring and contract negotiation for the exploitation of derivative works based on prior intellectual property;

  • Negotiation of deals for merchandising and publications.

In addition to the transactional matters for the protection and exploitation of rights, Guzman Law Group can provide heirs with estate planning tools and suggestions for the efficient management of celebrity estates.