Law

Reifer

Estate Planning

Estate planning is a lifetime “process” of planning for the accumulation, conservation, and distribution of wealth between the generations.

What we focus on

Wealth Preservation Planning

Wealth

Transfer Planning

Business

Planning

Wealth Preservation Planning

From relatively simple wills to complex estate planning, our lawyers have extensive estate planning experience in the context of both traditional family planning situations as well as in family situations involving multiple marriages and children by different marriages. Wills and/or living trusts can provide for simple contingent testamentary trusts for minor children, or for more complex disclaimer, marital and generation skipping testamentary trusts depending on clients’ needs and objectives.


We utilize many varieties of lifetime trusts to protect and conserve wealth and protect beneficiaries from future creditors, ex-spouses, lawsuit claimants, and themselves depending on the circumstances, including spendthrift trusts, education trusts, insurance trusts, spousal lifetime access trusts, charitable lead and remainder trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, special/supplemental needs trusts, multi-generational legacy trusts, and asset management trusts. Such trusts are also used in our business succession planning for clients with closely held business interests and family limited partnerships.

Wealth Transfer Planning

Offering clients a full range of estate planning and estate administration legal services from relatively simple wills to the most expansive planning for large estates, we have extensive estate planning experience and knowledge in the context of traditional family planning situations as well as in family situations involving multiple marriages, children by different marriages, and same-sex marriages. Wills and living trusts can provide for simple contingent testamentary trusts for minor children, or for more complex disclaimer, marital, generation skipping, and charitable testamentary trusts depending on clients’ needs and objectives.


Upon death, our lawyers provide guidance to heirs and beneficiaries in probating wills, assisting the executors in administering the estate, funding any trusts and in understanding the considerations and choices involved in post mortem planning. We also create and advise clients on the use of general durable powers of attorney, health care powers of attorney, directives to physicians, HIPAA releases, self designations of guardian, out of hospital do-not-resuscitate orders, dispositions of remains, directives regarding refusal by health care institutions, and authorizations and consents for release of electronically stored information, all as part of the testamentary planning process.

Business Planning

We design and implement structures for effecting business or family planning transactions with an emphasis on minimizing the incidence of income, estate and gift taxation. The best results are most often achieved when we have the opportunity to be involved from the inception of a transaction where the choice of entity can be made, and the planning for ownership, control and the tax consequences for eventual disposition can be evaluated from inception.


We also have extensive tax planning experience in real estate transactions, the taxation of partners in partnership structuring, the taxation of shareholders, key employees or officers in corporate transactions, the creative use of hybrid tax entities, corporate formations, acquisitions and reorganizations for closely held

businesses or majority shareholder dominated corporations.

About Sol Reifer

Sol S. Reifer is the founder of the Dallas law firm Reifer Estate Planning, PLLC, where he practices estate planning, wealth preservation and transfer, probate, asset protection, and business transactional law. His primary focus is finding practical solutions for families and businesses to avoid costly and often heartbreaking disputes in both the courtroom and the living room. Sol is a counselor dedicated to making the law work for his clients and helping them understand how best to address their legal issues. His goal is not merely to meet the client’s expectations….but to exceed them.

Sol's estate planning and wealth preservation practice involves large and small estates focusing on crafting solutions that best achieve clients' legal and personal goals. Maintaining wealth is often more difficult than building it in the first place, particularly over successive generations. While some clients' planning can be relatively straightforward, others require sophisticated solutions tailored to each family's needs. Sol understands that no single solution is appropriate for all situations, and his experience and training allow him to craft individualized plans for a wide array of clients. This process can be daunting, but Sol takes the time necessary to educate and familiarize clients with the tools available so they understand why a particular solution makes sense and how it will fit into their lives. Whether they are simply trying to protect their minor children, mitigate tax exposure, or shield assets from creditor claims, Sol strives to build the right plan for each client in a way they can understand.

Where probate of an estate is required, Sol provides assistance and advice focused on minimizing litigation and intra-family disputes. This process can be straightforward when proper planning is in place, and other circumstances allow. Other situations, however, can be more complicated. The death of a loved one can often set an entire family at odds as emotions and tensions well up. In situations like this, Sol can draw on both his personal and professional experience to ease family tensions and deploy appropriate legal strategies so that clients can move on with their lives.


Sol’s transactional corporate practice is focused on avoiding legal problems before they materialize. He helps businesses develop solutions that mitigate risk through legal exposure and tax. Employing a full-time, in-house attorney can be expensive, but every business faces situations that are best addressed with the counsel of a trusted advisor. Sol fills this role by acting as general counsel on an as-needed basis and assisting with all issues.

FORMER EXPERIENCE

  • Partner at Coats Rose, PC
  • Partner at Page & Addison, PC
  • Judicial Law Clerk, Hon. Jack Swink, Probate Court, Los Angeles


BAR ADMISSION

  • Texas, 1980
  • U.S. Tax Court, 1980


EDUCATION

  • LL.M. (Estate Planning), University of Miami Law School, 1982
  • J.D., Southwestern University School of Law, Los Angeles, California, and Southern Methodist University Law School, Dallas, Texas 1980
  • B..A. with Honors, The University of Texas at Austin, 1974





TEACHING

  • Estate Planning Instructor, SMU Certificate Program for Financial Planning (2010-2020)
  • Estate Planning Instructor, School of Business, University of Texas-Dallas (2015-2017)
  • Estate Planning Instructor, Graduate School of Business at the University of Dallas (1995-2010)
  • Estate Planning Instructor, Professional Development Institute at the University of North Texas (1993-2010)
  • Estate Planning Instructor, Southeastern Paralegal Institute (1992 –1998)

HONORS AND AWARDS

  • “Accredited Estate Planner” (awarded by National Association of Estate Planners & Councils, 1995-2024)
  • “Texas Super Lawyers”-Trusts and Estates Attorney (Top 5% of attorneys, selected by peers, awarded by Thomson Reuters, 2011-2024)
  • “Five Star Wealth Managers”-Trusts and Estates Attorney (Top 8% selected by peers, awarded by Five Star Professional, 2010-2024
  • “Best Lawyers”- Trusts and Estates Attorney (Top 5% of attorneys selected by industry peers, awarded by U.S. News & World Report, 2024)

PUBLICATIONS

  • “Best Practices for Cryptocurrency in Estate Planning,” Dallas Bar Association Newsletter- Real Property, Probate, and Trust Issue (December 2021)
  • “ Estate Planning and Probate for the Paralegal/Legal Assistant in Texas,” Institute for Paralegal Education (August 14, 1996)
  • “Are Living Trusts for You,” A.L.S. Docket (March 1991)
  • “Structural Considerations for a FSC,” Prentice-Hall, U.S. Taxation of International Operations (October 9, 1985)
  • “Choosing a FSC Jurisdiction,” Prentice-Hall, U.S. Taxation of International Operations (September 25, 1985)
  • “The Foreign Sales Corporation-An Analysis of Its Impact, Attributes and Planning Opportunities after the 1984 Tax Reform Act,” Prentice-Hall, Tax Ideas (Fall 1985)
  • “Section 401(k) Plans-An Alternative to an IRA,” Warren, Gorham & Lamont, The Review of Taxation of Individuals (Spring 1985)
  • “Auld Lang Syne for Professional Personal Service Corporations,” State Bar of Texas, Texas Bar Journal (May 1983)

CLIENT NEWSLETTERS

  • “Taking the ‘Cryptic’ Out of Cryptocurrency in Estate Planning”, Part 1 and 2
  • “COVID’s Impact on Advance Directives”
  • “Impact of COVID 19 on Estate Planning”
  • “Overuse of Beneficiary Designations Can Derail a Client’s Estate Plan”
  • “Planning Sooner…Rather than Later! The Impact a Political Shift May Have on Your Personal, Estate and Tax Planning”
  • “SECURE Act’s Impact on Retirement Planning and Estate Planning”
  • “Estate Planning Strategies Post-SECURE Act”
  • “Should You DIY Your Will”
  • “Common Estate Planning Blunders to Avoid”
  • “Discussing Estate Planning with Your Family”
  • “New Business Planning Opportunities Under the 2017 Tax Reform Act”
  • “Spousal Lifetime Access Trust”
  • “Advantages of a Living Trust”


PRESENTATIONS

  • “Asset Protection and Advanced Estate Planning Strategies for the Professional” at UBS
  • “The Future Direction of Estate Planning” at EisnerAmper, formerly Goldin Peiser & Peiser, CPAs
  • “Fundamentals of Estate Planning,” at National Active & Retired Federal Employees Association, Dallas Chapter
  • “Estate and Tax Planning in 2013 and Beyond: Planning in the Post–AFTRA Environment,” at Retirement Planners of America, formerly Money Matters with Ken Moraif
  • “Estate Planning 101” at Armor Wealth Management

Reifer estate planning, PLLC

Contact Details

14800 Quorum Drive, Suite 450

Dallas, Texas 75254


214.890.6400

sol@reiferestateplanning.com