Matthew is a principal at Gray Plant Mooty and practices in the areas of estate planning, business succession planning, and estate and trust administration. He specializes in working with business owners, dentists, and physicians to address their unique estate planning issues. Matt assists clients in achieving their estate planning goals and guides families through the estate settlement and administration process after they have lost a loved one. He also helps families establish a legacy in the community through charitable planning and giving.
Among the estate, business succession, and charitable planning techniques that Matt utilizes are various types of buy-sell agreements, simple wills, disclaimer wills, marital wills, revocable living trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), family limited partnerships (FLPs), qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs), qualified domestic trusts (QDOTs), grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs), charitable remainder unitrusts (CRUTs), charitable lead annuity trusts (CLATs), private family foundations, and special and supplemental needs trusts. In addition, Matt routinely prepares health care directives, financial powers of attorney, and beneficiary designations for life insurance and retirement plans for his clients.
To help families after the loss of a family member, Matt assists them with administering trusts and estates; helping with the probate and estate settlement process; preparing estate, gift, and fiduciary income tax returns; and working to resolve trust and estate controversies.
In addition, Matt is an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law where he teaches a class on wills and trusts.
Experience
- Business succession plan for a family that owns a construction management company that involved the use of buy-sell agreements funded with life insurance and generation-skipping transfer trusts, which ensure continuity of company management and preservation of the client’s wealth
- Planning for a dentist who owns his own practice (along with the building where the practice is housed) as well as various other business and real estate interests. We achieved the client’s estate planning goals by forming a family limited partnership, multiple generation-skipping trusts, and a business succession plan to pass the business and the various interests down to his children on a tax-favored basis
- Development of an estate plan for a dentist who recently graduated from dental school and who has small children, by drafting an estate plan that included a will with a contingent trust for children and some simple estate tax planning
- Modified an estate plan for a physician who recently relocated to Minneapolis by ensuring that his documents complied with Minnesota law and updating those items that did not specifically comply with Minnesota law
- Assisted with the formulation and implementation of an estate plan for a client with assets exceeding $600 million, consisting mainly of various publicly traded companies. We formed multiple irrevocable trusts, grantor-retained annuity trusts, generation-skipping trusts, a family limited partnership, and defective grantor trusts to minimize the estate tax that will be due upon the client’s death
- Worked with a family office with over $1 billion under management in the formation and implementation of a South Dakota Private Trust Company to serve as trustee of the various family trusts
- Formulated an estate plan for a family with $50 million in assets mainly held in a closely held company. We formed various generation-skipping transfer trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, and charitable trusts, to achieve this client’s goals of minimizing estate taxes, ensuring his families long-term financial stability, and establishing a legacy in the community
- Administered an estate worth approximately $35 million by setting up and funding charitable trusts, trusts for the benefit of the surviving spouse, and children’ trusts, filing the estate tax returns, and insuring that the estate is passed to the intended beneficiaries in an orderly fashion
- Assisted a client with setting up a large private foundation in order to accomplish his charitable intentions
Publications
- “Advanced Estate Planning Issues: 2053 Regulations,” Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2010
- “Estate & Succession Planning for Business Owners,” Ramsey County Bar Association, 2010
- “Basic Will & Trust Drafting,” Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2010
- “Estate Planning for Second Marriages,” Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2010
- “Minnesota Estate Administration Deskbook,” co-editor, Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2009
- “Ethical Potpourri,” Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2009
- “Probate Problems—Insolvent Estates,” Hennepin County Bar Association, 2007
- “Commercial Real Estate Transactions,” HalfMoon, LLC, 2005
- “Marital Deduction Deskbook,” Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2004
Presentations
- “Second Marriage Estate Planning,” 36th Annual Probate & Trust Law Section Conference, 2010
- “Interpreting and Applying the Final Regulations under Section 2053—When is a Deduction Really a Deduction for Estate Tax Purposes?” 36th Annual Probate & Trust Law Section Conference, 2010
- “Advanced Estate Planning Issues: 2053 Regulations,” Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2010
- “Estate & Succession Planning for Business Owners,” Ramsey County Bar Association, 2010
- “Basic Will & Trust Drafting,” Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2010
- “Estate Planning for Second Marriages,” Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2010
- “Ethical Potpourri,” Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2009
- “Minnesota Estate Administration Deskbook,” Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2007-2009
- “Fundamentals of Probate Practice,” Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2007-2009
- “Heckerling Update” HCBA, RCBA, and the Mpls and St. Paul Estate Planning Counsels, 2009
- “The New Tax-Preparer Rules,” Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2009
- “Probate Problems—Insolvent Estates,” Hennepin County Bar Association, 2007
- “Commercial Real Estate Transactions,” HalfMoon, LLC, 2005
- “Marital Deduction Deskbook,” Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, 2004
Education
- William Mitchell College of Law, J.D., cum laude, 2001
- Winona State University, B.A., summa cum laude, 1996
Bar Admissions
- Minnesota
- U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota
Professional Activities
- University of St. Thomas Law School, Adjunct Professor
- American Bar Association, member
- Hennepin County Bar Association, Probate Section, past chair, vice chair, and program director
- Minnesota State Bar Association, Probate & Trust Law Section, estate tax repeal subcommittee member
- Ramsey County Bar Association, member
Honors and Distinctions
- “Rising Star,” Minnesota Law & Politics, 2005, 2007-2010
Community Involvement
- Catholic Charities, planned giving sub-committee
- Legal Aid Campaign, committee member
- Minnesota Dental Foundation, board member
- St. Thomas School of Law, mentor for third-year students
- United Way, volunteer
- William Mitchell College of Law, mentor for first-year students
- Wills for Heroes Minnesota, volunteer attorney