Trusts and Estate Planning

Hilton S. Bell, Sheila Moragas, Carrie H. Pailet, and Ryan C. Toups provide years of experience in providing legal guidance in the Trusts and Estate Planning practice of LaFleur & Laborde.  The Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization certified Bell and Toups as a specialist in tax and certified Moragas in estate planning and administration. Moragas has also earned membership in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.  

Our Trusts and Estate Planning section encompasses the design, development, and administration of estates and trusts.  Our lawyers assist individuals, and their businesses, to properly plan for each client's particular situation. The Tax Trusts and Estates group provide tax and estate planning services for individuals, including wills, successions, charitable trusts, gifting, federal estate tax planning, and transactional planning. Our attorneys regularly create special needs trusts for families to address these complex personal and legal matters. Further, we assist with succession planning for family businesses, with pre- and post-marital agreements, and with charitable giving.

We handle interdictions and tutorships and represent the fiduciaries appointed in these cases. Our attorneys represent parties in contested successions and trust administration disputes. We also advise corporate as well as individual trustees administering special needs trusts.

We administer Louisiana successions as well as ancillary estates that own Louisiana properties. Our clients have also been represented by us before the Internal Revenue Service, the Louisiana Department of Revenue and the Louisiana Board of Tax Appeals in all manner of tax disputes. We also represent nonprofit organizations in connection with compliance and planning issues.