Meet LOUISIANA ESTATE PLANNING AND TAX Attorney Ted Vicknair

My interest in estate planning and business planning was a natural outgrowth of my career as a Louisiana CPA and a tax practitioner, since tax planning is naturally an important component of overall estate planning and financial well being.  When I first began my career as an New Orleans Estate Planning Attorney, there were many estates that were subject to the Federal Estate Tax and the Louisiana Inheritance Tax.  Today, fortunately, the Federal Estate Tax only impacts clients owning assets worth over $11 million or more at death.

Although as a Northshore Estate Planning Attorney I find that the Federal Estate Tax only impacts a fraction of my clients today, I am notably qualified to help Alexandria and Northshore clients due to the many skills I learned as a Louisiana estate planning lawyer helping high net worth clients.  In many ways, helping middle income clients with their estate planning goals is a “walk in the park” by comparison.  But I never treat my clients, or their needs and goals, as insignificant.  The client whose estate is valued at $300,000 is just as important to that client (and to me), as the client whose estate is valued at $30 million.

Even for the simplest Louisiana estate plans, as a Louisiana tax attorney, I am able to look at a client’s estate and overall financial situation through a tax lens and help them achieve tax efficiency and asset protection efficiency, even if tax and asset protection planning is not a primary motivator for a client.  For example, I routinely help Louisiana clients achieve several thousand dollars in yearly tax savings on their income tax returns, even when they come to me for something as seemingly disconnected as medicaid long-term care planning, or a Last Will and Testament.  That is why I always suggest prospective Louisiana clients to not only bring with them a copy of their current estate plan (will or trust, if any), but also their tax returns from the previous year.

Since approximately 2010, my Alexandria law firm and Northshore law firm has focused more strongly on the needs and issues particular to middle income clients and small business owners.  These include issues such as medicaid long-term care planning, special needs planning (for clients with family members who are disabled or incapacitated in some way), VA Aid & Attendance planning (for veterans and their spouses), asset protection planning, and small business protection planning.

As a Louisiana estate planning and Louisiana tax attorney, I regularly recommend plans and personally draft for my clients legal documents include revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts (for long term care qualification), special needs trusts, probate avoidance plans, last wills and testaments, asset protection trusts, litigation avoidance plans, VA trusts, charitable trusts, income and estate tax savings plans, and various legal entities such as limited liability companies (LLCs) and S corporations.  I also have a steady Louisiana probate law practice and Louisiana inheritance law practice.

As a Louisiana Estate Planning Attorney, I regularly qualify clients for medicaid long-term care benefits who have not engaged me for pre-planning and who find themselves having to go into a nursing home.  For these clients, I regularly achieve savings in excess of 50%+ off their nursing home costs, even though these same clients are routinely told by others that they have to spend down their assets to $2,000 or less to qualify for Louisiana medicaid.

On a personal note, after Hurricane Katrina, I moved to Alexandria and currently live there as an Alexandria estate planning attorney and which is where my main office is located.  Because I am originally from New Orleans, I am also a New Orleans estate planning attorney and I maintain an office in Mandeville, Louisiana as a Mandeville estate planning attorney to serve my clients, friends, and business associates who live in the Greater New Orleans area, including the Northshore.  I have a home and a place to lay my head in both Alexandria, Louisiana and the Northshore, Louisiana, and I am regularly in both locations.  Depending upon my client calendar and how it fills, I am usually in the Alexandria, Louisiana office one week and in the Mandeville, Louisiana office the next.  

Louisiana Estate Planning Attorney Ted Vicknair is licensed to serve clients throught Louisiana.  I meet with clients in my Alexandria office who live in the following areas: Central Louisiana, including Alexandria, Pineville, Marksville, Natchitoches, Leesville, Oakdale, Many, and Jena.  I meet with clients in my Mandeville Louisiana office who live in the following areas: Mandeville, Covington, Slidell, Madisonville, Hammond, Ponchatoula, New Orleans, Metairie, Kenner, Chalmette, and Franklinton.  Feel free to contact Louisiana Estate Planning Attorney Ted Vicknair to get on his calendar for either location.