Overview
Whether crafting an estate or tax plan, advising on estate or trust administration issues, providing counsel with respect to closely-held business structuring and succession issues, assisting in the purchase or sale of a client’s business, or advising family offices, Brad works collaboratively with his clients and their other advisors to devise and implement their desired plan efficiently and effectively.
Brad provides sophisticated advice and counsel across a broad range of estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax issues and planning techniques, including testamentary estate and tax planning, structuring and implementing sophisticated lifetime gifting techniques (e.g., sales to defective grantor trusts (IDGTs), irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), and other insurance planning, spousal lifetime access trusts (SLATs), and beneficiary defective inheritance trusts (BDITs)), and gifts and sales transfers of voting and non-voting interests in limited partnerships and limited liability companies.
With respect to his clients who are closely held business owners, Brad works as a trusted advisor with the owner and the owner’s family, providing counsel regarding the purchase or sale of a business, the structuring of business succession plans, and the transfers of interests in the businesses to subsequent generations.
For his family office clients, Brad works with the family members and partners with their family office team to address the family's estate, tax, philanthropic, family education, and generational succession needs, helping to structure their family business ventures and investment opportunities in tax efficient, asset protected, multi-generational trust and entity structures through a coordinated estate and tax plan.
Notable
Notable
- Best Lawyers in America, Tax Law "Lawyer of the Year," 2023
- Best Lawyers in America, Tax Law, 2020-2025; Closely Held Companies and Family Business Law, 2021-2025; Trusts and Estates, 2021-2025
- North Carolina Super Lawyers, Estate & Probate, 2020-2024
- Business North Carolina Legal Elite, Tax and Estate Planning, 2017, 2020-2023
- Business North Carolina Legal Elite "Young Guns," 2014
- North Carolina Super Lawyers Rising Stars, 2010
- Co-head of Attorney Development Committee
- Board Member, Charlotte Christian School Board of Trustees, 2017-present
- Board Member, Queens University Estate Planners Day Steering Committee, 2015-2020
- Board Member (2014-2019) and Treasurer (2017-2019), InReach Board of Directors (Non-profit organization)
- Foundation For The Carolinas Cabinet of Professional Advisors, 2012-2013
- Served as Co-Chair of the Estate Planning and Probate Section of the Mecklenburg Bar Association, 2009-2010
- Served on the Public Service Advisory Committee of the North Carolina Bar Association, 2006-2009
- Served on the CLE Committee for the Estate Planning and Fiduciary Law Section of the North Carolina Bar Association, 2005-2008
News
News
Blogs and Resources
Alerts
Affiliations
Affiliations
- Mecklenburg County Bar Association: Past Co-Chairman, Estate Planning and Probate Section
- North Carolina Bar Association: Taxation Section and Estate Planning and Fiduciary Law Section
- American Bar Association: Taxation Section and Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section
- Charlotte Estate Planning Council, Member
Speaking Engagements
Speaking Engagements
- “Cleaning Up the Mess: Drafting for Flexibility and Repairing Broken Plans,” North Carolina Bar Association 2019 Estate Planning and Probate Law Survey Course, September 2019
- "Federal and State Recent Developments," North Carolina Bar Association 39th Annual Estate Planning and Fiduciary Law Program, July 2018
- "Gift Tax/Uniform Transfers to Minors Act," North Carolina Bar Association 2017 Estate Planning and Probate Law Survey Course, September 2017
- "Estate Planning Update," North Carolina Bar Association 2011 Annual Review, October 2011
- "Recent Updates," North Carolina Bar Association Estate Planning and Fiduciary Law Section Annual Meeting, July 2011
- “Eye of the Storm,” A Review of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010,” NC Bar Association, Webinar, February 2011
- “Estate Planning Update,” 2011 Annual Review, Mecklenburg County Bar Association, Charlotte, NC, February 2011
- “Who, When, How and What of CRATS, CRUTS, CLATS, and CLUTS,” Lorman Education Services Seminar, Charlotte, NC, September 2006
Capabilities
Education
J.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000, with honors; Maurice T. Van Hecke Law scholarship; Staff, Journal of International Law
B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1997, with distinction; Herbert Worth Jackson scholar; Phi Beta Kappa; Honors Program; Phi Eta Sigma
Admissions
- North Carolina, 2000