Clayton Chan is a shareholder and a member of Moss & Barnett's Wealth Preservation and Estate Planning Practice Area. Mr. Chan believes that, at its core, estate planning is about people, relationships, and families. In this connection, Mr. Chan emphasizes personal attention in working closely with individuals and families to craft customized and holistic estate plans that address their personal, emotional, financial, and tax-driven goals and objectives. A large part of Mr. Chan's practice also involves working closely with owners of closely-held businesses regarding succession and family legacy planning. In the tax area, Mr. Chan focuses his practice on helping clients efficiently pass their wealth onto the next generation and reducing their estate, gift and generation-skipping taxes. His specific areas of experience include:
- Drafting core estate planning documents such as a variety of Wills and Revocable Trusts
- Using sophisticated estate planning techniques such as Family Limited Partnerships, Generation-Skipping Transfer Trusts, Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts, Qualified Personal Residence Trusts and the strategic use of lifetime gifting and gift trusts
- Business succession planning, including the use of Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts and Buy-Sell/Shareholder Agreements
- Charitable planning, including the use of charitable trusts and private foundations
- Preparation of Private Letter Ruling requests to the IRS involving tax transfer issues
- Trust litigation matters
- International estate planning
- Preparation of settlement trust agreements in personal injury cases
Prior to practicing law in the private sector, Mr. Chan served as law clerk to Minnesota Tax Court Chief Judge Diane L. Kroupa, Judge George W. Perez, and Judge Raymond R. Krause. He also interned for the Probate Court of the Second Judicial District of Minnesota under Judge Michael T. DeCourcy.
