PRACTICE AREAS

Wealth Planning/Administration

Tommy W. Taylor has more than 30 years' experience in estate and business planning for owners of small- to medium-sized closely held businesses. He is also experienced in the use of living trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, charitable foundations, charitable trusts, shareholder agreements and deferred compensation agreements for estate and business planning purposes.

Estate Planning

Mr. Taylor’s extensive experience in estate planning includes:

Trust Agreements and/or Wills

Durable Powers of Attorney

Living Will documents

Revocable Living Trusts. When estate tax is an issue, the trust document is drafted to maximize the available estate tax exemptions and deductions. If estate tax is not an issue (for smaller estates), a trust document is still recommended for individuals and married couples for probate avoidance and asset administration purposes, in particular, if the individual client should become disabled.

Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts. Such trusts purchase life insurance on the life of a client (or the client and spouse) in order to provide cash for the payment of estate tax on the death of the client and/or spouse while avoiding the includability of the life insurance proceeds in the estate of the client and/or spouse for estate tax purposes. The premium payment is provided by way of cash gift from the client to the Irrevocable Trust coupled with the use of Crummey powers.

Numerous gifting strategies to reduce the size of an individual’s estate for estate tax purposes, including strategies utilizing the gift tax annual exclusion, the creation of a Family Limited Partnership or Limited Liability Company to take advantage of gifts of the ownership units in those entities to family members at discounted values, and transfer of assets to a Grantor Retained Annunity Trust (GRAT) and/or an Intentional Defective Grantor Trust (IDGT).

Charitable estate planning, including the implementation and funding of Charitable Remainder Trusts, Charitable Lead Trusts, and the creation of an individual’s own Charitable Foundation, where appropriate.

Strategies for maximization of the charitable deduction for current income tax and gift tax purposes as well as the estate, gift and income tax benefits of the testamentary transfer of retirement plan benefits to charity.

Estate tax, gift tax and generation-skipping tax planning and return preparation.

Trust and Estate Administration

Mr. Taylor has been involved in the administration of hundreds of probate estates and in the administration of individual trusts after the death of the creator of the trust. His experience includes:

Preparation of Federal Estate Tax Returns and of income tax returns for estates and trusts.

Advice to clients on the settlement of estates and trusts.

Administration of assets and the distribution of assets to beneficiaries at the conclusion of the trust and/or estate administration.

Business Succession Planning

Many of Mr. Taylor's clients own their own businesses. Often, the most valuable asset they have is their interest in that business. Mr. Taylor assists these clients with:

Transition Planning

Shifting ownership to the next generation of owner (family member, key employee or others), including utilization of Shareholder Agreements that provide for the sale of the interest in the business upon death, disability or termination of employment of the owner. Many times the Agreement is accompanied with an employment or consulting agreement that provides for the payment of deferred income to the owner from the business.

Developing strategies to maximize the sale of the business when the client wants to retire.

Sale of stock to an ESOP.

Charitable Foundations

Formation of the trust or not-for-profit corporation creating the Foundation.

Completion of the forms necessary to obtain tax-exempt status for the entity from the Internal Revenue Service, shepherding that request through the IRS and obtaining the tax-exempt letter from the IRS.

Liaison with Community Foundations when they offer the client a viable option to their own charitable foundation by the creation of a donor advised or donor designated fund with the Community Foundation.

Marital Agreements

Mr. Taylor has prepared numerous Marital Agreements for clients in Missouri and Kansas dealing with:

Protection of property rights should the marriage subsequently end in divorce.

Disposition of assets on death.

He has also worked on agreements between individuals who live together on a permanent basis but do not plan to marry.

General Business and General Tax Matters

Mr. Taylor has also developed expertise in working with business owners on their overall business matters.

DISTINCTIONS

Military Service: 1969-73 Lt., JAGC, USNR

Mr. Taylor was honorably discharged from the Judge Advocate General Corps in the United States Naval Reserve. He spent two years in the Law Center at Millington Naval Air Station near Memphis, Tennessee where he worked on numerous legal assistance and claims matters and also participated in numerous special courts-martial as both prosecuting and defense attorney. He then spent 16 months at Subic Bay in the Philippines handling special courts-martial at all levels and serving as Military Judge in over 50 cases.

COMMUNITY AND BAR INVOLVEMENT

The Missouri Bar

Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association

Avondale United Methodist Church

Endowment Committee and Finance Committee

Acts as legal advisor to the J.O.B. Scholarship Fund

Chairman of the Pastor-Staff Relations Committee

Donald H. Chisholm Planned Giving Council of Children’s Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri

Park University

Planned Giving Council

Estate Planning Society of Kansas City

Greater Kansas City Community Foundation

Heart of America Tax Institute

Board of Directors (1977-86)

Co-Chaired the Institute’s two-day Tax Continuing Education Seminar (1981)

Missouri United Methodist Foundation

Director and Treasurer; member of Executive Committee

Northland Regional Chamber of Commerce

Past co-chair of the Leadership North Committee

Synergy Services, Inc.

Board Chair (2004-2006)

Executive Committe/Finance Committee member

EDUCATION

J.D., Columbia University, 1969

B.A., History, University of Missouri, 1966, Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Eta Sigma