At Epstein & O’Donovan, we devote all of our firm’s resources to the specialized areas of law in which we practice. Within this restricted practice area of trusts and estates, we provide a variety of services to clients in all parts of Maine. In the area of estate planning, we prepare wills, trusts, powers of attorney and advance health-care directives that address both the personal objectives and tax planning concerns of our clients. We assist clients in the design and execution of lifetime giving programs, including establishment of irrevocable trusts for life insurance, real estate or other assets for the benefit of family members or for charities. We also assist clients with other matters (such as family partnerships and closely-held corporations) that directly relate to their estate planning objectives.

We help establish charitable giving programs for schools, colleges, hospitals and other charitable organizations by setting up pooled income funds, charitable remainder trusts and similar planned giving devices. We also advise our individual clients when they make significant gifts to charities using these same vehicles.

In the area of estate administration (which includes probate), we work closely with individuals and corporate fiduciaries who are personal representatives of decedents’ estates, and we often serve as personal representatives ourselves. In the area of trust administration, we advise trustees of both inter vivos trusts (which are sometimes called living trusts and are established during a person’s lifetime) and testamentary trusts (which are established under a will) and serve as trustees when appropriate. On a regular basis, we represent guardians and conservators for protected persons and attorneys-in-fact acting under powers of attorney.

In our representation of personal representatives during the administration of an estate or trustees during the administration of a trust, we commonly prepare federal and state estate tax filings, income tax filings relating to the estate’s or trust’s income and federal gift tax returns for lifetime gifts and generation-skipping transfers. We sometimes prepare income tax returns for individual clients if requested to do so. Enjoying good working relationships with a number of accountants, we are happy to refer our clients to them when appropriate.

Many of our clients have multistate or multinational interests. We have developed working relationships with counsel in many other states and foreign countries and are able to refer our clients to them for advice.

In the litigation area, we act as counsel to beneficiaries and to fiduciaries in will contests and in will and trust construction and reformation proceedings. We represent our clients in state and federal courts in tax cases, contested guardianships and conservatorships or any other matter that pertains to estate planning, estate and trust administration or tax-exempt organizations. We also represent our clients in matters before the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Tax Court.

We frequently serve as associate counsel to other lawyers in Maine on matters involving estate or trust administration. We have worked with law firms in a variety of other states in connection with ancillary estate administrations in Maine, planning for Maine domiciliaries and litigation in Maine involving estates and trusts whose principal place of administration is elsewhere.

If you would like further information, please let us know.

Eileen M.L. Epstein, Esq.
Dennis J. O’Donovan, Esq.
Jennifer L. Kruszewski, Esq.