Andre Hays is a member of Winstead’s Wealth Preservation Practice Group. Andre focuses his practice on personal tax planning, with particular emphasis on structuring estate plans for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals. He strives to provide innovative and practical solutions to a wide range of legal matters, including wealth transfer planning, trust and estate administration, business formation and succession, asset protection, charitable giving, and premarital planning.
Representative Experience
- Design and prepare primary estate planning documents, such as wills, revocable trust agreements, and financial and medical powers of attorney
- Advise and assist executors, trustees, administrators, and beneficiaries with the funding, administration, taxation, and distribution of trusts and estates
- Design, implement, and monitor sophisticated estate planning techniques and transfer tax minimization strategies, such as gifts to family trusts, installment sales to grantor trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), and irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs)
- Assist families with the formation of closely-held businesses to own and manage family assets
- Prepare and review federal gift tax returns (IRS Form 709) and federal estate tax returns (IRS Form 706)
- Prepare, review, and negotiate premarital and post-marital agreements
- Assist trustees with judicial and non-judicial modifications, reformations, and terminations of irrevocable trusts
- Assist clients with the formation of tax-exempt organizations
- Structure charitable gifts in a tax-efficient manner, including the creation and qualification of charitable trusts and private foundations
- Counsel clients relocating to Texas with regard to their estate planning and marital property matters
- Help professional athletes, celebrities, politicians, and other public figures protect their privacy through the anonymous acquisition of personal residences and other assets