Trusts & Estates and Family Law
The attorneys of Stites & Harbison’s Trusts & Estate Planning Group routinely serve clients in a range of matters that include:
- Wills
- Living trusts
- Irrevocable trust agreements
- Marital deduction trusts
- Generation-skipping trusts
- Qualified personal residence trusts
- GRATs and GRUTs
- Trusts for minors
- Powers of attorney
- Advance medical directives
- Tax counsel for minimizing current income taxes, future inheritance and estate taxes, and taxes on retirement
- Handling of income tax matters at death
- Planning to avoid the generation-skipping tax
- Exercising powers of appointment
- Beneficiary and distribution decisions under qualified retirement plans and IRAs
Family Law
The Nashville, Tennessee-based Family Law practice of Stites & Harbison focuses almost exclusively on divorce, child custody, support, and family issues. Representing clients with marital estates ranging from a few hundred thousand dollars to more than a hundred million dollars, the group handles a wide variety of issues that arise before, during, and after marriages and other family relationships. The "before" includes the negotiation and drafting of prenuptial agreements. The "during" includes issues related to separation, divorce and custody. The "after" includes post-divorce disputes, appeals and other challenges to divorce or custody decrees.
Members of our group have a combined 90-plus years of family law experience. This experience includes the valuation and division of substantial business interests and intellectual properties, as well as structuring workable parenting plans in difficult situations.
Our experience has taught us that there is no such thing as a "cookie cutter" family lawsuit. Our attorneys have represented clients in divorces that cross state and national boundaries, and which involve international custody disputes and difficult jurisdictional issues. We commit to every client the same level of care, attention to detail, accessibility and sensitivity to privacy. We bring to bear in each case the resources necessary to properly resolve that case, including obtaining expert assistance for the appraisal of property and finding psychological and counseling professionals when needed.
One of the things that makes Stites & Harbison’s family law practice unique is our ability to draw upon the knowledge of other attorneys in the firm for assistance with issues involving real property, taxes, retirement plans, business disputes, immigration, and a host of other difficult questions.
UPDATE: FinCEN and Treasury Department Announce They Will Not Enforce CTA Despite March Deadline
There is yet another update with respect to the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”). Less than two weeks after the U.S. Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) set a new deadline for CTA compliance, both FinCEN and the U.S. Department of Treasury issued separate press releases announcing their intent to not enforce the CTA until new rules are finalized. Stites & Harbison's Corporate Transparency Act Committee takes a look at the update in this Stites & Harbison Client Alert.
UPDATE: Corporate Transparency Act Back on as Potential Changes Loom
Compliance with the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”) is no longer voluntary. Businesses subject to the CTA, which includes the majority of entities formed or registered to do business in the United States, will have until March 21, 2025, to file their beneficial ownership information reports with the U.S. Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”).
University Wins Jury Verdict Over Online Retailer for Trademark Infringement
A trial over a trademark dispute relating to an unlicensed online retailer’s sale of apparel and other merchandise bearing historic or retro logos and images of universities has concluded. In 2021, the Pennsylvania State University (“Penn State”) brought suit against Vintage Brand (“Vintage”) for trademark infringement and other claims in federal court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, styled as The Pennsylvania State University v. Vintage Brand, LLC et al., 4:21-cv-1091. Since that time, at least a dozen other schools have sued Vintage on similar grounds, but this was the first case to go to trial and it has been watched intently by the trademark world as a bellwether case in the sports merchandising industry landscape and perhaps beyond.
Kentucky Super Lawyers Honors 47 Stites & Harbison Attorneys for 2025
The 2025 edition of Kentucky Super Lawyers recently honored 47 Stites & Harbison, PLLC attorneys in the Covington, Frankfort, Lexington and Louisville, Ky., offices. The publication named 34 attorneys to the Super Lawyers list and 13 attorneys to the Rising Stars list.