Trust & Estates

Rated Tier 1, Band 1, and Best Lawyers in Trust & Estates Law

McDonald Carano’s Trust & Estates Practice attorneys in Reno and Las Vegas help clients preserve, protect, and transfer their wealth. According to The Cerulli Report—U.S. High-Net-Worth and Ultra-High-Net-Worth Markets 2024, wealth transferred through 2048 will total $124 trillion. $105 trillion is expected to flow to heirs and $18 trillion will go to charity. Nearly $100 trillion will be transferred from Baby Boomers and older generations, representing 81% of all transfers. More than 50% of the overall total volume of transfers ($62 trillion) is expected to come from those who are currently high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth, which together make up only 2% of all households.

High-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families continue to move millions of dollars to Nevada as a top jurisdiction for trust situs due to its innovative statutory approach to sophisticated trust administration; strong asset protection history; highly favorable state tax climate with notably no personal income tax, estate tax or inheritance tax; innovative business organizations law; supportive and efficient regulatory environment; and superior family and private family trust company laws.

Please click here to read our overview of Nevada’s high net worth Trust and Estates legal and regulatory environment.
Please click here to read our “Nevada Trends & Developments” chapter of the Private Wealth Law Guide 2024 published by Chambers and Partners.
Please click here to read our “Nevada Trends & Developments” chapter of the Private Wealth Law Guide 2025 published by Chambers and Partners.

Specialty Credentials and Qualifications – Nine McDonald Carano attorneys have an LL.M. in Taxation, two are enrolled in LL.M. Taxation programs, one has an LL.M. in Estate Planning, two are CPAs, one has an M.S. in Accounting-Taxation, and six have an M.B.A. Two of our attorneys are Fellows of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, one is an Accredited Estate Planner by the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils, and one received TEP designation from the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. One attorney is on the Board of Directors of the Nevada Taxpayers Association, one is a Fellow in the American College of Tax Counsel, and one is a gubernatorial appointee on the Nevada State Board of Equalization.

McDonald Carano advises on the legal, financial and tax interests of high net worth individuals, multigenerational family groups, closely held and family businesses, and family offices located in Nevada, across the U.S., and throughout the world. Our attorneys are particularly highly regarded for our representation of single-family, multiple-family, and commercial family offices ranging in size from a few full-time professional staff to multibillion-dollar complex organizations with many employees. In addition to advising on planning, structuring and managing wealth often across multiple jurisdictions, our scope of services includes advising on the formation, governance, daily operation, succession, and dissolution of family offices. We also advise on the formation, licensure, governance, and operation of family trust and retail trust companies in Nevada.

We counsel clients on private wealth law relating to sophisticated wealth transfer strategies, complex trust and estate planning and administration, advanced tax mitigation planning, and family business succession planning. We advise on all types of estate planning activities, ranging from the simplest of wills to the most complex of irrevocable trusts and probate and conservatorship issues, as well as every kind of fiduciary income tax matter. Our expertise includes uncontested and contested probates, conservatorship, and trust proceedings.

We also assist with high net worth estate and gift tax returns, including representing clients in tax audits and requests for private letter rulings. We also advise financial institutions regarding fiduciary and custodial issues in trust and estate administration matters, including serving as a trusted advisor on state and federal fiduciary income tax consequences, as well as generational skipping transfers, probate, and post-death trust administration.

Our team understands the unique circumstances of each client, whether they are first generation wealth builders, beneficiaries, athletes with substantial contracts, or a family-owned business. We prepare individualized plans with expert tax advice on federal and state income, gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer taxes, with a focus on minimizing tax exposure for high net worth clients. Our attorneys explain the key concepts and practices so clients can actively participate in accomplishing their wealth preservation and wealth transfer goals. We prepare 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.

For many families, their closely held business represents most of their wealth and we assist throughout all phases of the business life cycle. We help clients select the most advantageous type of entity formation, counsel them as they grow their business, and provide tax saving and asset protection strategies. Our attorneys also advise on business succession planning to ensure a seamless and cost-effective transition to the next generation or future owners. We have 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.

In connection with our estate planning practice, we assist high net worth clients with their philanthropic planning and charitable giving goals. This representation often includes establishing public charities and private foundations as well as obtaining recognition of federal income tax exemption from the Internal Revenue Service for those charitable organizations. Our experience includes legal matters pertaining to tax-exempt organizations.

We also represent fiduciaries, beneficiaries and creditors in court and when a problem cannot be resolved through the audit process. We prosecute and defend estate-related disputes involving fee controversies, ownership and creditor problems, alleged breaches of trust, will contests and trust contests. Our team represents trustees, local and out-of-state personal representatives, and beneficiaries in court supervised and unsupervised trust administration and probate proceedings. Our experience also includes negotiating and preparing settlement documents to dissolve and divide multimillion dollar trusts among beneficiaries in blended families.

Our expertise is also demonstrated by numerous publications our attorneys have authored, including the “Decedent Estates” chapter of the Nevada Civil Practice Manual, Private Family Trusts: A Handbook for Advisors, and the Nevada Chapter of the Sales & Use Tax Deskbook.

The awards and recognitions we have received include:

Tier 1 Rating
Our Trust & Estates Law Practice and our Trust, Estate & Fiduciary Litigation Practice are ranked in the highest Tier 1 category in the 2025 edition of Best Law Firms. As Best Law Firms® explains, “achieving a tiered ranking signals a unique combination of quality law practice and breadth of legal expertise.”
Lawyers of the Year
In the 2026 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, McDonald Carano celebrated our fifth “Lawyer of the Year” award in Trust & Estates Law, fifth “Lawyer of the Year” award in Nonprofit & Charities Law, fifth “Lawyer of the Year” award in Trust & Estate Litigation, and sixth “Lawyer of the Year” award in Tax Law. The Lawyer of Year designation reflects the highest level of peer review respect that a lawyer can receive from attorneys practicing in the same area of law in the same geographic region.
Band 1 Ranking
2025 is the ninth consecutive year that McDonald Carano’s Trust & Estates Practice is ranked in the highest Band 1 category in the Chambers High Net Worth Guide. McDonald Carano attorneys Scott Swain and Robert Armstrong are also individually ranked Band 1 in Private Wealth Law in Nevada.

“They have top level experience in all areas and conduct themselves with integrity and honesty.” “The firm is the best in class in Nevada for family matters, tax, trust set up, and corporate governance.” “Everyone in that office that we have dealt with has been very professional and diligent in helping us with our requests.” “I’d always feel comfortable that my work would be done correctly.” “The value-add is peerless.” “The team that has been assembled is superior, from the partners in the firm all the way through the administrative support and the paralegals. They are very thorough and they have a great deal of depth.” “McDonald Carano has a very good reputation for handling trusts and estates matters for wealthy clients.” “I like that the firm is highly reputable in the community. When I tell people who my attorneys are, everyone tells me what a great firm that is.” “McDonald Carano has tremendous staff.” “The McDonald Carano team is very knowledgeable and able to effectively communicate.”

– Chambers High Net Worth Guide: Private Wealth Law (client comments)

Our firm is also involved in legislative initiatives that improve Nevada’s tax-advantaged climate, particularly with regard to issues involving private-trust companies and asset-protection trusts. For example, Robert Armstrong co-drafted the bill that created NRS Chapter 669A-Family Trust Companies, which authorized the formation, operation, and regulation of both licensed and unlicensed family trust companies in Nevada, the first state to permit both forms of family trust companies. In 2016, he drafted NAC Chapter 669A-Family Trust Companies, which laid the regulatory framework for the examination of licensed family trust companies in Nevada. These laws and regulations fostered tremendous growth of fiduciary business in Nevada and McDonald Carano quickly became a leader in serving high net worth clients, including creating a subsidiary named Sierra Fiduciary Support Services.

We represent clients in the following areas:

Corporate Transparency Act
High net worth Private Wealth Law
Asset protection and wealth preservation strategies
Business continuation and succession planning
Charitable giving, tax, and trust planning
Estate and trust planning and administration
Family office governance and operations
Fiduciary and beneficiary representation
Generation-skipping transfer trusts and related tax planning
Nevada lifetime spousal-access trust
Private foundation creation and management
Probate, trust and fiduciary litigation
Tax planning
Tax-exempt organization initiatives
Tax exemptions and strategies to minimize transfer tax
Trust management, modification, reformation and termination

Trust & Estates

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Rated Tier 1, Band 1, and Best Lawyers in Trust & Estates Law

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