Wealth-transfer counsel for the founders, principals, and families behind the companies we advise. Wills and trusts, generational structures, and the digital-asset estate, drafted so intent survives both the tax code and the next generation.
A beneficiary designation on a retirement account overrides the will, and so does the joint title on a house. Most plans that fail do so there, on a form signed at a bank years before a lawyer was involved, so this practice begins with a census rather than a draft: every entity, account and deed, and how each is titled.
Firm facts · ReachA corporate and private-capital boutique with international reach: a principal office in Chicago, a second office in Oakbrook Terrace, offices in London and Dubai through partner firms, meeting locations by appointment in seven further US cities, and a partner network across ~51 jurisdictions on five continents. Founded 2013.
The instruments follow the census: a revocable trust usually carries the core, irrevocable structures go where creditors or the estate tax can reach, and generation-skipping allocations where the plan has to cross a generation. The families we act for hold operating companies, fund interests and, increasingly, digital assets, so succession is drafted alongside the corporate and tax work. A buy-sell agreement that contradicts the trust is not a plan. It is a dispute scheduled for later.
Then the step most plans skip: deeds and accounts are retitled into the trust, because an unfunded trust governs nothing, and the signing is done with witnesses, a notary and capacity on the record. The firm has represented clients in matters before the IRS, and it drafts accordingly.
Will drafting, financial and healthcare powers of attorney, and advance directives form the foundation of every plan, so that authority and intent are clear before they are ever needed.
Enter the practice: Wills & Powers of Attorney →Trust structures that move assets outside the probate process while you retain control during life, giving privacy, continuity, and a cleaner transition than a will alone can provide.
Enter the practice: Revocable Living Trusts →Irrevocable trust and irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) structures that remove property from the taxable estate and position life-insurance proceeds outside it, drafted for durability.
Enter the practice: Irrevocable Trusts & ILITs →Generation-skipping and dynasty trust planning to transfer wealth across generations, coordinated with the generation-skipping transfer tax and the family’s long-horizon governance.
Enter the practice: Dynasty & Generation-Skipping →Charitable trust and foundation planning that gives a gift lasting form, structured for compliant operation and integrated with the family’s broader transfer-tax strategy.
Enter the practice: Charitable Foundations & Trusts →Medicaid and long-term-care trust planning that addresses eligibility and asset preservation through structures built and timed to withstand scrutiny.
Enter the practice: Medicaid & Long-Term Care →Succession planning for the closely held business, covering ownership transition, governance continuity, buy-sell agreements, and key-person planning, coordinated so the company passes alongside the rest of the estate.
Enter the practice: Executive & Business Succession →The need does not begin at a particular age or net worth. The only question is which will govern what happens next, your intentions or a state formula.
Without a plan, assets pass under rigid state intestacy laws and court discretion, in distributions that often bear no relation to the relationships that mattered.
Properly structured trusts can move assets outside probate, preserve privacy, and protect beneficiaries from creditors and from decisions they are not yet ready to make.
The same transfer can carry very different estate, gift, and generation-skipping tax consequences depending on the vehicle chosen and when it is put in place.
For closely held companies, an estate plan and a succession plan are one project, with ownership, control, and continuity drafted to survive a founder’s absence.
Marriages, births, sales, and statutory change all alter the calculus. A plan that is never revisited is a plan that quietly stops reflecting your intentions.
Private-client work at this firm is rarely a standalone engagement. The families we advise hold operating companies, fund interests, real estate, and digital assets, and a will drawn in isolation from those holdings tends not to survive contact with them. Our estate practice is drafted alongside the firm’s corporate, asset-protection, and tax benches, so the plan accounts for the enterprise as well as the personal accounts.
Domestic and international structures, captive insurance, and family limited partnerships that shield wealth before any claim arises, the defensive layer beneath the transfer plan.
Asset Protection →Estate, gift, and generation-skipping tax planning, trust and estate taxation, and controversy work, which together decide how much of an estate actually transfers.
Tax →Token, custody, and regulatory counsel for the digital-asset holdings that an increasing number of estates now carry, and the front end of the crypto-estate question.
Digital Assets →Hart David Carson LLP's estate planning and private client practice provides wealth-transfer counsel for the founders, principals, and families behind the companies it advises. The work spans wills and powers of attorney, revocable living trusts, irrevocable trusts and ILITs, dynasty and generation-skipping planning, charitable foundations and trusts, Medicaid and long-term care, and executive and business succession.
Everyone needs a plan, because the need does not begin at a particular age or net worth. The only question is which will govern what happens next, your intentions or a state intestacy formula.
Without a plan, assets pass under rigid state intestacy laws and court discretion, in distributions that often bear no relation to the relationships that mattered. For families behind closely held businesses, that default can fracture ownership, trigger avoidable tax, and put a years-long enterprise in the hands of a probate calendar.
Properly structured trusts can move assets outside probate, preserve privacy, and protect beneficiaries from creditors and from decisions they are not yet ready to make. The right vehicle and its timing also determine the estate, gift, and generation-skipping tax consequences of a transfer.
For closely held companies, an estate plan and a succession plan are one project, with ownership, control, and continuity drafted to survive a founder's absence. The estate practice is drafted alongside the firm's corporate, asset-protection, and tax benches so the plan accounts for the enterprise as well as the personal accounts.
Yes. The estate practice was drafted with digital assets in view from the start, and it coordinates with the firm's digital-assets bench on the custody, key, and regulatory questions that an increasing number of estates now carry.
Before anything is drafted, everything is counted: entities, real property across state lines, retirement accounts, policies, digital assets, and how each is titled. Most estates fail here, on beneficiary designations and joint titles that quietly override the will.
Instruments are chosen for the work each must do: a revocable trust as the core, irrevocable structures where creditors or estate tax reach, and GST allocations where generations do. Tax, asset-protection, and succession counsel sit in the same room rather than at the end of a referral chain.
Documents are signed with full statutory formality, with witnesses, notarization, and capacity on the record. Then comes the step most plans skip, retitling accounts and deeds into the trust, because an unfunded trust governs nothing.
The plan is reviewed at every trigger: a sale, a marriage, a move, a change in the exemption. Amendments and restatements keep the architecture current, so the plan that executes is the one you meant.
A will speaks only at death. A plan speaks for the decades before it.
Reviewed by Jonathan D. Herpy, Sr., Senior Partner · Last updated October 2026 · Educational overview · Not legal advice
Coordinated with locally admitted counsel through the firm's partner network.
One partner is accountable for the whole matter, and you have that partner's direct line. Chicago, London, and Dubai work to the same standard.