Chris Coats focuses his practice on estate planning, tax law and business law matters, routinely handling sophisticated estate, gift, and generation-skipping tax planning, business succession planning, business transactions, income tax planning, and estate and trust administration for family offices, high-net-worth individuals and families, and large family-owned and closely held entities.
Additionally, Chris has extensive experience in wealth transfer planning, including drafting complex wills and generation-skipping trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs), grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), revocable trusts, inter vivos QTIP trusts, life insurance trusts, charitable remainder trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, disclaimers and other estate planning instruments. He also regularly prepares and reviews federal estate and gift tax returns and works with appraisers (both business and real estate) with respect to complex valuation issues related to such tax returns.
Chris also represents clients in both gift and sale transactions of business interests (including voting and non-voting limited liability company interests, general and limited partnership interests, and voting and non-voting closely held corporate stock) and real property (including farm property, investment property, vacation homes and undivided interests in various types of real estate). He is also adept at drafting and negotiating antenuptial (premarital) agreements, as well as assisting clients in protecting and preserving wealth for future generations.
From a business transactions perspective, Chris is skilled at drafting limited liability company agreements, limited partnership agreements and shareholder agreements, and frequently assists clients with the formation, operation and disposition of family limited liability companies and family limited partnerships. He also works on transactions and other matters involving corporate tax and partnership tax issues.