William Hughes counsels individuals and families that have achieved uncommon success to do thoughtful wealth transfer planning in a tax-efficient manner. He is a partner in the firm’s Estates & Trusts Practice and has extensive tax and estate planning experience, including:

• Estate plans to make use of available estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemptions and qualified disclaimers.
• Sophisticated wealth transfer techniques, such as Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs) and Rolling GRATs, Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRTs), Installment Sales to Grantor Trusts, and Family Limited Partnerships (FLPs).
• Life insurance planning with beneficiary designations and irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs) to create liquidity and to minimize wealth transfer taxes.
• Planning for retirement accounts to minimize income and transfer taxes, including stretch IRA planning techniques and the use of trusts as beneficiaries of retirement accounts.
• Charitable giving and nonprofit organizations, including use of Charitable Remainder Trusts and Charitable Lead Trusts.
• Estate administration for complex estates with illiquid and hard-to-value assets, such as closely held business interests and specialized artwork requiring auction, and estate tax deferral under Section 6166.
• Counseling personal representatives, executors, and trustees on fiduciary obligations for estate and trust administration.
• Fiduciary income tax planning for estates, trusts, and beneficiaries.
• Planning for closely held business owners for business succession, buy-sell agreements, deferred compensation arrangements, and split dollar life insurance planning.
• Premarital agreements to protect and preserve spousal assets.

Will is a director and member of the Milwaukee Estate Planning Forum. Will served on the Digital Property Committee of the Real Property, Probate, and Trust Section of the State Bar of Wisconsin. The committee was tasked with drafting Wisconsin legislation for fiduciary access to digital assets, which resulted in the 2016 passage of the Wisconsin Fiduciary Access to Digital Property Act.

Will has been integral to establishing the Wisconsin Wills for Heroes program, a national program designed to provide eligible emergency personnel (publicly employed or volunteer police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics) with free estate planning documents to protect themselves and their families. He was previously a member of the board of directors for the Grand Avenue Club, the Milwaukee County Winter Farmers Market, and Wild Space Dance Company.