“We are very proud of Joseph’s selection as fewer than seven percent of all wealth managers receive this prestigious recognition,” said Strobl & Sharp Managing Partner Thomas J. Strobl. “The award recognizes what we all know to be true; he holds a high standard of professionalism and possesses excellent expertise.”

McGlynn provides legal and consulting services related to estates and trusts, guardianships and conservatorships, family law, real estate sellers and buyers, corporations and business entities.

McGlynn is also a 2012 dBusiness Top Lawyer and was previously recognized as a Five Star Wealth Manager in 2011.

Ayar, a shareholder with Strobl & Sharp, advises a variety of businesses, entrepreneurs, developers and investors in the Corporate, Real Estate and Estate Planning practice areas.

He represented shareholders in the sale of stock of a national consumer beauty products company to a private equity group for $24 million and successfully assisted an automotive supplier with a $20 million asset swap transaction, and with the sale of an automotive supplier in bankruptcy for $40 million.

Melamed advises clients on estate planning and probate, succession planning and business transactions. An associate with the firm, Melamed also works with charitable foundations and non-profit organizations with planned giving, establishment of non-profits, day-to-day operations and tax implications.

“Andrew and Marc have both demonstrated excellent legal abilities and a strong dedication to clients in very dynamic practice areas,” said Strobl & Sharp Managing Partner Thomas J. Strobl. “We are fortunate to have them with the firm and see them as key to our future growth.”

Both lawyers are active in their local communities. Ayar volunteers for the Chaldean Federation of America Adopt-A-Refugee Family Program, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Shenandoah Country Club. Melamed serves as co-chair of Leave-A-Legacy of Southeast Michigan, and is a board member of the Planned Giving Roundtable of Southeast Michigan. 

“Rising Stars” are identified by an attorney-led research team that reviews the credentials of potential candidates and assigns points based on a set of defined evaluation criteria in order to determine the final list of “Rising Stars.”

Brimer and Hyman join Murray Feldman, Philip Grashoff, Jr., Alan Harnisch, Paul Kavanaugh, Jeffrey Levine, Brian McCullough, Joseph McGlynn, Elaine Parson, Karl Schettenhelm, Jr., John Sharp, Thomas Strobl and Miroslav Vlcko as Top Lawyers at Strobl & Sharp.

The list is compiled by dBusiness magazine, which polled more than 21,000 attorneys among 51 specialized practice areas in Oakland, Macomb, Wayne, Washtenaw, and Livingston counties.

The full list of Top Lawyers will be released in the November/December edition of dBusiness and is available online at www.dbusiness.com.

Strobl and Sharp Summer Newsletter 2012

Mr. Sharp served on the Michigan Bar Committee that helped implement the adoption of new “discretionary provisions” that permit additional protection from creditors as part of creditor planning. Together Mr. Schettenhelm and Mr. Sharp will discuss new custom IRA beneficiary designation forms, the new Michigan Trust Code and federal tax provisions which will also allow post death payments of qualified accounts to the trust, where they will be creditor protected and income will flow through the trust to the beneficiary receiving the distribution payments.  Their topics will include:

• Designing the “discretionary trust” in order to maximize post-death payment deferral
• Federal generation-skipping tax and maintaining 401(a)(9)(B)(iii) stretch payments
• Special accounting design features to coordinate “income” with the Uniform Principal and Income Act under other trust goals
• Designing the trust to eliminate qualified plan sponsor and IRA sponsor concerns
• QDOT review

This seminar is one of several presentations Schettenhelm and Sharp are making to banks, charitable organizations, tax specialists and estate planners throughout Michigan on the discretionary trust provisions.

For further information, or to register for the State Bar of Michigan Tax Conference May 1, please contact the University of Michigan Institute of Continuing Legal Education at www.icle.org/tax or 1-877-229-4350.

On December 17, 2010, the President signed the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (the 2010 Tax Relief Act) into law.  The 2010 Tax Relief Act reinstated the federal estate and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax for persons dying and transfers made after December 31, 2009.  This created an unprecedented two-year window of opportunity for many clients that is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2012.  

Furthermore the 2010 Tax Relief Act has increased the size of a taxpayer’s estate, gift and GST tax exemptions for 2011 and 2012 as well as lowered the tax rates for each of these taxes to 35%. 

A few other important points: 

• The opportunity to transfer a significant amount of wealth exists, perhaps more than in recent history. The estate tax and gift tax exemption is $5 million for individuals.  The GST tax exemption is also $5 million for individuals. The gift tax exemption increased from $1 million in 2010 to $5 million in 2011.
• Credits for state taxes are available as a deduction through 2012.
•  The estate tax and gift tax exemptions are reunified.
•  The 2010 Tax Relief Act also extends the provisions of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA) affecting conservation easements, small and family-owned businesses, and installment payments for closely-held businesses.
•  The Act introduces a new concept called “portability.”  This concept could significantly impact the estate plans of married couples.  Basically, with proper planning, a married couple can effectively leave $10 Million Dollars to their beneficiaries by using the credits under this Act.
• There are also some specific considerations for estates that include family-owned businesses.

 In short what these changes to the federal estate tax mean is that more assets could be passed along to beneficiaries.

 However, the 2010 Tax Relief Act is set to expire on December 31, 2012 and, unless Congress and the President act to increase the exemptions, the federal estate and GST tax exemptions will be reduced to $1 million for decedents dying and transfers made after December 31, 2012.

Each individual client situation is different.  These new rules can greatly impact estate and income tax situations and opportunities exist for tremendous tax savings and asset planning.  Contact us for more information or to schedule an appointment.

IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the Internal Revenue Service, we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this communication was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, by any person for the purpose of (i) avoiding tax-related penalties or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another person any transaction or matter addressed in this communication.

Your firm is part of an extraordinary group of law firms represented in this year’s “Best Law Firms” rankings. A comprehensive choice of practice areas, coupled with our research of firms nationally and within local legal markets, makes the 2011-2012 U.S.News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” rankings a valuable tool for a broad range of legal consumers.

U.S. News Media Group and Best Lawyers® Release
2011-2012 “Best Law Firms” Rankings
Rankings of nearly 10,000 U.S. law firms by practice area
—

Washington D.C. –November 1, 2011– U.S. News Media Group and Best Lawyers® have released the 2011-2012 “Best Law Firms” rankings, and the Bloomfield Hills-based law firm Strobl & Sharp, P.C. has been recognized among the top firms in the United States.

The national first-tier rankings will be featured in U.S.News & World Report’s Money issue, on newsstands November 15, 2011. The national and metropolitan first-tier rankings are featured in the “Best Law Firms” standalone publication, which is being distributed to 30,000 general counsel and in digital format to 58,000 private practice lawyers worldwide; the rankings in their entirety are posted online at http://bestlawfirms.usnews.com.  

These rankings, which are presented in tiers, showcase 9,633 different law firms ranked nationally in one or more of 75 major legal practice areas and in metropolitan or state rankings in one or more of 119 major legal practice areas.

“This is a tremendous honor for our firm and a recognition of the knowledge and experience our professionals have,” said Firm Managing Partner Tom Strobl, one of its founders. “The methodology with which this study was handled ensures that this truly features the best and brightest.”

Full data for the law firms that received rankings is available online, from the largest firms in the country to hundreds of one-person and two-person law firms, providing a comprehensive view of the U.S. legal profession that is unprecedented both in the range of firms represented and in the range of qualitative and quantitative data used to develop the rankings. Achieving a high ranking is a special distinction that signals a unique combination of excellence and breadth of expertise.

The mission of “Best Law Firms” from the start has been to help guide referring lawyers and clients – from the country’s largest companies needing corporate legal advice to individuals needing to get a divorce or write a will – issues that have a bet-the-company implication (in the case of a corporation) or a potentially life-changing result (in the case of an individual).

“U.S News has more than two decades of experience in providing the public with the most accurate and in-depth rankings of a wide range of institutions, including our Best Law Schools rankings,” says Tim Smart, Executive Editor of U.S. News & World Report. “Law firms are an integral part of our rankings and a natural accompaniment to the law schools rankings.”

“Best Lawyers was very pleased with the reaction from the legal profession and from legal clients to the first edition of the “Best Law Firms” rankings,” says Steven Naifeh, President of Best Lawyers. “By combining hard data with peer reviews, and client assessments, we continue to believe that we are providing clients with the most thorough, accurate, and helpful rankings of law firms ever developed.”

Media inquiries: Aturbow@usnews.com or hdavis@bestlawyers.com

About the U.S. News Media Group

The U.S. News Media Group is a multi-platform digital publisher of news and analysis, which includes the monthly U.S. News & World Report magazine, the digital-only U.S. News Weekly magazine, www.usnews.com, and www.rankingsandreviews.com. Focusing on Health, Money & Business, Education, and Public Service/Opinion, the U.S. News Media Group has earned a reputation as the leading provider of service news and information that improves the quality of life of its readers. The U.S. News Media Group’s signature franchises include its News You Can Use® brand of journalism and its series of consumer guides that include rankings of colleges, graduate schools, hospitals, health plans, and more.

About Best Lawyers

Best Lawyers® is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession. For over a quarter century, the company has helped lawyers and clients find legal counsel in distant jurisdictions or unfamiliar specialties. The 2012 edition of The Best Lawyers in America includes 41,284 lawyers covering all 50 states and the District of Columbia and is based on more than 3.9 million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers. Best Lawyers® also publishes peer-reviewed listings of lawyers in nearly 70 other countries, covering many of the world’s major legal markets. Best Lawyers® lists are excerpted in a wide range of general interest, business and legal publications worldwide, reaching an audience of more than 17 million readers.