Brett F. Baldino, Member

Estate Planning

• Trust decanting to modify irrevocable trust agreements or transition trust assets from older trusts to new trusts to achieve clients’ tax and trust administration goals
• Family Office Structuring
• Gift Tax Returns including reverse Qualified Terminable Interest Property Elections and allocation of generation-skipping transfer tax exemptions
• Intentionally Defective Grantors Trusts
• Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts
• Asset Protection Trusts
• Disclaimer Trusts
• Conduit and Accumulation Trusts for Retirement Accounts
• Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts
• Charitable Trusts
• Inter Vivos Qualified Terminable Interest Property Trusts
• Qualified Domestic Trusts for spouses who are not United States citizens
• Formula Assignments for Gifts of Business Interests
• Cryptocurrency Trusts

Estate and Trust Administration

• Estate Tax Returns involving 6166 elections to defer payment of estate taxes for estates of business owners and Qualified Terminable Interest Property Trust Elections to defer payment of estate taxes for surviving spouses
• Non-judicial settlements to distribute Estates and modify or terminate Trusts as the beneficiaries agree
• Accountings

Business Planning

• Succession planning to seamlessly transition businesses to future generations
• Section 1202 planning for qualified small business stock to substantially reduce or even eliminate capital gains on the sale of certain corporate stock
• Preferred partnership freeze transactions
• Stockholders’ agreements
• Operating agreements
• Coordination of buy-sell arrangements through redemptions and cross purchases
• Structuring compensation for key employees through profits interests, phantom equity plans, and IRC
• Section 162 bonus plans
• “Next Day” planning through contingency boards of directors, stay bonuses for employees, revocable trust ownership, and powers of attorney
• Conversions of general partnerships into limited liability companies
• Tax-free reorganizations of businesses

Fiduciary Litigation

• Successfully defended client, as personal representative of estate, in caveat proceeding against heir attempting to challenge Decedent’s Last Will and Testament
• Retrieved real estate for client who was the victim of undue influence of a family member
• Relief granted for client, as petitioner, to modify irrevocable trust, removing respondent as successor trustee
• Successfully prevented client, as trustee, from being removed by plaintiff beneficiaries based upon claims of breach of fiduciary duty as to notice and accounting for trust assets
• Prevented recovery against client, as trustee, related to claims for breach of fiduciary duty as to management and sale of trust assets
• Provided for safe discharge of patient from hospital, as client, by preventing unqualified interested party from serving as guardian of person or property
• Prevented discharge of client, as respondent, from nursing home
• Recovered real estate for guardianship upon a showing of client’s incapacity to execute no consideration deed

Tax Controversy

• Reduced claim of income tax due by the Internal Revenue Service against the owner of an international business from $9,700,000 to $17,000 through audit settlement, without litigation
• Negotiate offers in compromise and installment agreements for business and individual clients related to income and employment taxes
• Resolve estate tax audits with the Maryland Comptroller and Internal Revenue Service related to valuation discounts and taxable situs of property

Named to Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch by Best Lawyers in America® in Trusts & Estates and Litigation Trusts and Estates since 2023

Selected to Rising Stars of Maryland Super Lawyers® since 2019

Chair of the Anne Arundel Estate Planning Council

Baltimore Estate Planning Council

Maryland State Bar Association

Co-presenter, “High-Net-Worth Transformational Advisory Program,” Wells Fargo, May 10, 2023

Co-presenter, “Estate Planning for Cryptocurrency,” Maryland State Bar Association Estate and Trust Section, June 16, 2022

Presenter, “Digital Assets and Estate Planning,” Webinar

Presenter, “A Case for Sunset Planning and Strategies to Consider,” Maryland Association of CPAs

Presenter, “Estate Planning Case Study Collaboration Event,” Anne Arundel Estate Planning Council

Presenter, “Probate Update: Current Trends in Estate Litigation,” Maryland Orphans Court Judiciary