Steven Guise is a tax lawyer concentrating in estate planning, charitable giving, and small business and personal tax planning.
Steven’s estate planning practice reflects the depth and extent of his experience. He serves as the attorney for many prominent ultra high net worth families on a wide variety of estate planning issues, including establishment and maintenance of living trusts, insurance trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, charitable remainder unitrusts, family limited partnerships, family limited liability companies, grantor retained annuity trusts, dynasty trusts, and related income tax issues and business issues. Steven also prepares estate planning documents for single individuals and married couples on a more routine basis. Those estate plans typically include wills, revocable living trusts, a marital property agreement, durable powers of attorney for financial purposes, an assignment of assets, durable powers of attorney for medical purposes and related documents. During the course of his practice, Steven has directly handled the estate administration for approximately 30 decedents, including probate proceedings, preparation of federal estate tax returns and other tax-related issues involved in estate administration.
His charitable planning practice includes the formation of and advice to numerous public charities, private foundations and charitable remainder trusts for his clients in connection with his estate planning practice. Steven also has been actively involved in charitable advice regarding fundraising activities for several private schools, the California Governor and First Lady’s Conference on Women, the Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Steven is a frequent lecturer on various tax and trusts and estates topics, including private foundation formation, operation and termination issues; the use of family limited partnerships in estate planning; tax traps and opportunities in the formation, operation and termination of family limited partnerships; the use of grantor trusts in estate planning; and elusive tax concepts in the family law arena. He has given speeches and educational seminars at and for associations, institutions and conferences, including the California Society of Certified Public Accountants, University of Southern California Institute on Federal Taxation, the Conference of the American Society of Pension Actuaries, the American Bar Association, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, the Beverly Hills Bar Association and the Pasadena Bar Association.
A past chair of the Employee Benefits Committee of the Taxation Section of the State Bar of California and the Los Angeles County Bar Association, Steven previously served as secretary of the Board of Directors of the Music Center of Los Angeles County.
