R Eric Viehman
A Global Law Firm Serving Business Clients
Wills, Trusts, and Estates
Lawyers in the Wills, Trusts, and Estates practice group are involved in income, gift, and estate tax planning and related issues for individuals, family businesses, and families of substantial wealth. Our practice includes traditional trust and probate matters; estate planning; income tax planning for individual clients, trusts, and estates; organizational structuring; contested tax matters with the Internal Revenue Service; advice with respect to charitable contributions; all legal aspects of tax-exempt organizations (including private foundations and public charities); and international estate planning. We provide counseling, advocacy, and consultation to our clients in response to specific needs.
The Wills, Trusts, and Estates group consists of six lawyers and one paralegal; however, because the practice of tax law involves a wide range of activities, lawyers in the group have broad general tax knowledge and most have developed other areas of tax experience as well. In addition, the lawyers in the Wills, Trusts, and Estates group call on other lawyers throughout the firm on banking, corporate, energy, international, litigation, intellectual property, public law, real estate, and other matters.
V&E has tax lawyers in our Washington office who are able to represent clients in dealings with the Treasury Department Office of Tax Policy and the National Office of the IRS and with staff of Congressional tax-writing committees.
V&E's Wills, Trusts, and Estates practice involves a wide range of activities, including:
* Structuring and preparing wills and trusts, including charitable remainder and lead trusts, trusts designed to hold life insurance, grantor retained annuity trusts
* Qualified personal residence trusts, insurance trusts, and generation-skipping trusts
* Advising fiduciaries and beneficiaries of estates and trusts and negotiating settlements of family disputes
* Negotiating and structuring corporate, real estate, partnership, and other types of business transactions involving family ownership
* Counseling on valuation issues and advising on the retention of appraisers with respect to income, gift, and estate matters
* Advising clients with respect to qualified plans, IRAs, and other similar tax-deferred arrangements
* Negotiating with Internal Revenue Service and state agencies personnel, including the obtaining of IRS rulings and technical advice and opinions from state agencies
* Serving as litigation counsel before various courts
* Drafting federal and state legislative proposals
* Appearing before Treasury Department and State of Texas officials concerning proposed regulations
* Creating and advising private foundations; advising clients with respect to their philanthropic objectives and numerous other similar activities
Fellow - American College of Trust & Estate Counsel
R Eric Viehman
Vinson & Elkins LLP
1001 Fannin St #2500
Houston TX 77002-6760
Tel: 713 758-4548
Fax: 713 615-5532
E-mail: eviehman@velaw.com
Industries/Practices:
Wills, Trusts, and Estates
Eric concentrates on estate and tax planning for wealthy individual clients and closely-held family businesses. He also spends a large amount of his time on the administration of decedents' estates, and has successfully handled several federal estate tax audits involving multimillion dollar estates. Eric has unique experience in the generation-skipping transfer tax area, and has devised several innovative strategies related to that tax.
Eric has substantial experience in other estate planning areas as well, including the creation of family partnerships, life insurance planning (e.g., the use of irrevocable life insurance trusts and split-dollar arrangements), charitable giving, and planning for qualified retirement benefits. Eric also has the ability to do individualized computer modeling, which is often essential to properly evaluate various estate planning options being considered by clients. Eric has been involved in trust litigation, representing both beneficiaries and fiduciaries in trust modification actions.
Representative Experience
* Handled all aspects of the audit of the federal tax return for a $200 million estate containing substantial real estate holdings and oil and gas interests, which was settled on an extremely favorable basis
* Provided the estate and gift tax planning advice and services related to the firm's work in connection with the restructuring of a highly complex $200 million family-owned real estate business
* Implemented revised estate plans for various clients involving the use of second-to-die life insurance policies owned by multi-generation trusts exempt from federal generation-skipping transfer taxes; each trust was drafted to accomplish the client's unique goals and was integrated into an overall estate plan that maximized the potential tax benefit of available transfer tax exemptions
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