For more than 25 consecutive years Mike has been listed in Best Lawyers® in America in the area of trusts and estates. With his extensive experience he has assisted clients in preserving their estates and ensuring that upon death, their wealth is transferred according to their desires. He has also served as former Chair of the firm’s Estate Planning Practice Group.
Mike has a special interest in the Wisconsin inheritance, gift, and estate tax laws and has authored articles and chaired seminars on the subject for the State Bar of Wisconsin.
In the area of estate planning he guides clients through:
- wills
- revocable living trusts
- testamentary trusts
- irrevocable trusts,
- gift tax returns
- charitable foundations,
- prenuptial agreements,
- durable powers of attorney
In the area of administration, Mike assists clients with the administration of estates and trusts and estate tax and fiduciary income tax returns.
Mike has significant experience in litigating marital property, trusts and estates and estate and inheritance tax issues at the trial and appellate court levels.
He is one of 1,397 attorneys nationwide who were honored in April 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia for being listed in the Best Lawyers® in America for 25 consecutive years.
Clients
Mike represents individuals from all walks of life in need of legal advice in the estate planning arena.
Notable Representations
- 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 (Employee Trust Funds), the consequences of mixing marital property with non-marital property and the deferred marital property election.
- Successful representation of client at the trial court level and Wisconsin Court of Appeals, involving the application of the Wisconsin estate tax law to an estate.
- Successful defense of a trustee sued for alleged breaches of fiduciary duties.
- Many successful representations of clients subject to federal and Wisconsin inheritance and estate tax audits.
Articles / Presentations
- Co-author of the three volume treatise “Marital Property Law in Wisconsin” (Fourth Edition 2009), the standard reference in the field.
- “Planning in the Face of Adversity: Wisconsin and Federal Estate and Gift Taxes”, 84 Wisconsin Lawyer (March 2011).
- “Wisconsin’s New Estate Tax”, 74 Wisconsin Lawyer 10 (December 2001).