Michael Wilcox has extensive experience in estate planning and probate, and served as the chairperson of the law firm's Estate Planning Practice Group. His practice includes wills, revocable living trusts, planning for employee benefits and IRAs, irrevocable trusts, charitable foundations, pre-nuptial agreements, durable powers of attorney, administration of trusts and estates, estate and gift tax returns, fiduciary income tax returns, and litigation at the trial and appellate levels of marital property, trusts, and estates issues.
Mr. Wilcox has lectured frequently at the University of Wisconsin Law School and for the State Bar of Wisconsin. He participated in the writing of Wisconsin's marital property legislation, and is a co-author of the three-volume treatise, Marital Property Law in Wisconsin, the standard reference in the field.
Mr. Wilcox is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, and is a fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. In April 2009, Mike was honored in Atlanta, Georgia, as one of 1,397 lawyers in the United States to be listed in The Best Lawyers in America 25 years in a row. Also, he has been designated a Wisconsin Super Lawyer by Law & Politics magazine. He is also listed by Madison Magazine as one of the area's "top lawyers." To read the article, click here.
After graduating from law school, Mr. Wilcox served as a law clerk on the Wisconsin Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago.
Mr. Wilcox has recently been involved in assisting clients in the following matters:
- The creation of complex wills, revocable living trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs), pre- and post-nuptial agreements, durable powers of attorney, living wills, charitable trusts, and charitable foundations; planning for distributions of employee benefits and IRAs to trusts, charitable organizations, spouses, and children.
- The preparation and filing of gift tax, estate tax, generation skipping tax, and fiduciary income tax returns; representation of the taxpayer before the Internal Revenue Service and Wisconsin Department of Revenue.
- The administration of complex estates, testamentary trusts, and living trusts.
- Successful representation of two clients before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals involving the application of Wisconsin's marital property law to benefits provided by the Wisconsin Retirement System, the consequences of mixing marital property with non-marital property, and the deferred marital property election.
- Successful defense of a trustee sued for alleged breaches of fiduciary duties.