Wealth Planning Law Group is a New Orleans law firm handling estate planning, tax, asset protection and business succession for owners of operating businesses in Louisiana and across the country. Todd M. Villarrubia holds an LL.M. in Taxation from Emory University and is Board Certified in Estate Planning & Administration by the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization.
Most estate planning firms treat tax as a section of the plan. Here it’s the same conversation as the plan itself, because a structure that looks right on paper and ignores the tax consequence isn’t actually right. That’s what the LL.M. is for: reading a plan the way the IRS will, before they do.
Estate freezes
An estate freeze locks the value of an asset, a business interest, appreciated real estate, at today’s number for estate tax purposes, while the future growth moves to the next generation outside your taxable estate. It’s one of the more direct ways to stop a growing business from also growing your estate tax exposure. Structuring it correctly means getting the valuation, the trust, and the timing right together; getting any one of them wrong can undo the benefit of the other two.
Lifetime gifts before the exemption changes
The federal gift and estate tax exemption is set by statute, and statutes change. Waiting to see what happens is itself a decision, usually the wrong one, because gifts made while the exemption is high can lock in tax savings that aren’t available if you wait until it drops. This is one of the more common reasons a plan gets accelerated rather than started on the client’s original timeline. (See our resource, Advanced Estate Planning Opportunities Ahead of Estate Tax Changes, for the current numbers.)
Domicile planning
Where you’re legally domiciled, not just where you own property, affects your state income tax, and for some families, your state estate tax exposure. For business owners who split time between Louisiana and another state, or who are considering a move, domicile isn’t just a mailing-address question. It has to be documented and defensible, not assumed.
Appreciated land and business sales
Land or a business held for decades has usually appreciated well past its basis, which means a sale creates a real tax bill the moment it closes. Structures like an installment sale to a grantor trust can spread that gain and move future appreciation out of the taxable estate, but only if they’re in place before the sale, not after. (See our resource, Installment Sale to a Grantor Trust.)
Louisiana, and wherever your assets actually are
Much of this work is federal law, which means living in Louisiana doesn’t limit you to Louisiana’s trust code. The firm writes Delaware dynasty trusts and Nevada non-grantor trusts from a Louisiana desk for clients who benefit from a different state’s rules, already true for roughly 40% of the firm’s clients, who live outside Louisiana.
What this actually costs, and how it’s structured
The fee is set before the work starts. In 32 years, Todd has not sent an hourly bill, and the first consultation is free. Before anything is signed, every structure is tested against the scenarios that actually break plans, a divorcing spouse, a disinherited heir, a former business partner, not just against the tax code.
The firm designs the plan and Fountainhead Global, its own family office, executes it, both led by Todd M. Villarrubia, with the legal fee fixed before the work starts. Once the structure is signed, that’s the difference between a plan that sits in a drawer and one that’s actually maintained.
