Professional Background

Michael Whittaker is a Partner in the Trust & Estates Practice Group and Tax Law Practice Group, focusing his practice on counseling high-net-worth individuals and their families in connection with estate and tax planning, trust and estate administration, and business succession planning. He also advises financial institutions regarding fiduciary and custodial issues and serves as a trusted advisor on generational skipping transfers, probate, and post-death trust administration.

Mr. Whittaker understands the unique circumstances of each client, whether they are first generation wealth builders, beneficiaries, athletes with substantial contracts, or a family-owned business. He prepares individualized plans with a keen mind toward minimizing estate, gift and generation skipping transfer taxes. Michael explains the key concepts and practices so clients can actively participate in accomplishing their wealth preservation and wealth transfer goals. He prepares trusts, wills, financial powers of attorney, and healthcare powers of attorney to ensure that clients’ financial and healthcare desires are followed throughout their life and their wealth is transferred as planned upon their death. 

Mr. Whittaker represents trustees, local and out-of-state personal representatives, and beneficiaries in court supervised and unsupervised trust administration and probate proceedings during emotional times, such as when a loved one passes. He works to help guide families, prevent conflict, and  allow individuals to deal with the loss of a loved one without the added stress of legal concerns. His experience also includes negotiating and preparing settlement documents to dissolve and divide multimillion dollar trusts among beneficiaries in blended families.

For many families, their closely held business represents most of their wealth and Mr. Whittaker assists throughout all phases of the business life cycle. He helps clients select the most advantageous type of entity formation, counsels them as they grow their business, and provides tax saving and asset protection strategies. He also advises on succession planning to ensure a seamless and cost-effective transition to the next generation or future owners. Mr. Whittaker has prepared all types of transactional documents including, but not limited to, entity formation documents, company governance agreements, partnership agreements, statutory conversion, merger agreements, buy-sell agreements, dissolution agreements and other disposition agreements of closely held or corporate entities.

Community Engagement

• The Nevada Office of Military Legal Assistance – Pro Bono Estate Planning Volunteer
• Southern Nevada Estate Planning Council – Member
• National Business Institute – Faculty

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