Who we serve · Family offices
Structure is the strategy.
Estate and tax counsel for single and multi-family offices, from a Scottsdale bench where every attorney holds the LL.M.
Your office already runs the portfolio, the books, and the calendar. What it needs from outside counsel is architecture: entities and trusts engineered to move wealth across generations, papered to survive examination, and maintained so they still work in thirty years. That is the whole of our practice.
The mandate
What a family office should ask of counsel.
Not everything. Three things, done completely.
Architecture
Design and paper the structures your office administers: family LLCs and partnerships, dynasty and spousal-access trusts, insurance trusts, charitable vehicles, and the governance that connects them into one coherent chart.
Transfer tax, exactly
Exemption strategy under the 2026 law, generation-skipping allocations executed to a zero inclusion ratio, and gift and estate tax returns prepared with the examination in mind rather than in hindsight.
Continuity and defense
Succession that can move control and value on separate schedules, instruments the next generation can actually operate, and representation when a position is tested, including in the United States Tax Court.
The outside perspective
Fresh eyes on a familiar chart.
Most family office structures were built in layers, by different hands, under different law. An independent review reads the documents against the chart, the chart against the funding, and the funding against the 2026 law, then reports what it finds to your whole table.
No products, no commissions, and no reason to find anything except what is there.
A written read your CPA, trustees, and existing counsel can execute together.
Unfunded trusts, unsigned amendments, missed GST allocations: found before an examination or a trustee transition finds them.
Everything that follows is scoped against a structure everyone finally sees the same way.
A structure review is a natural first engagement, scoped at consultation.
The 2026 landscape
The window is generous. It rewards execution.
Figures reflect federal transfer tax law in effect for 2026 and are subject to change. Every attorney at BLG holds the advanced LL.M. degree in addition to the J.D.
The catalog
Instruments we design, draft, and defend.
The working vocabulary of a family office, kept in one place and in one set of hands.
Estate freezes
GRATs zeroed out against the month’s rate, IDGTs, installment sales to grantor trusts, and QPRTs.
Spousal access
SLATs and SLANTs, deliberately non-reciprocal, so the household keeps access while wealth leaves both estates.
Multi-generational
Standalone dynasty trusts with GST exemption allocated in life at a zero inclusion ratio.
Entities and succession
Family LLCs and FLPs, recapitalizations, and succession plans that move control and value on different schedules.
Life insurance trusts
ILITs, single life and survivorship, with Crummey administration handled correctly year after year.
Charitable structures
Charitable remainder and lead trusts, private foundation formation, and donor-advised fund coordination.
Trust repair and protection
Decanting, nonjudicial settlement agreements and modifications, and asset-protection structuring.
Returns and defense
Estate and gift tax return posture, portability elections, and representation before the IRS and the U.S. Tax Court.
Every engagement is scoped at consultation, against your structure and your calendar.
Your advisory table
A seat at your table, not the head of it.
A family office works when its specialists stay in their lanes and share their work. We hold the legal lane: personal counsel to the principals, tax counsel to the structures their office stewards.
- We do not manage assets, sell insurance, or take commissions. Legal counsel is the entire engagement.
- Drafts circulate to your CPA, investment team, and fiduciaries before anything is signed.
- Your counsel keeps their seat. We join as tax and trusts counsel alongside the corporate and personal lawyers you already trust; consolidation is never a condition.
- The plan is documented so a successor trustee or a new advisor can pick it up cold, a decade from now.
Generations
Built to outlast its architects.
Dynasty design is the discipline of drafting for people who have not been born yet. Situs, trustee succession, decanting authority, and GST posture are decided now, so the structure keeps working after G1 and G2, and after us.
The planning year
A calendar your office already recognizes.
Exclusions reset
The annual exclusion resets: $19,000 per recipient in 2026, $38,000 with gift-splitting.
Form 709 season
Gift tax returns report last year’s transfers and lock in the GST allocations.
Housekeeping
Valuations, entity minutes, Crummey notices, and a read of the structure against the chart.
The runway narrows
Appraisers book out and year-end work compresses. Transfers still in motion get triaged.
Complete and papered
Transfers close, funding is documented, and the file is ready for the returns to come.
Ordinary practice, not a commitment. Every calendar is set at engagement, against your facts.
The bench
Three attorneys. Two law degrees each.
Every attorney at BLG holds the advanced LL.M. degree in addition to the J.D. Your matter is handled by a named partner, not a department.
Robert W. Boland, Jr.
J.D., LL.M.
Founder and nationally recognized tax attorney. The firm he built carries over 50 years of counsel to families and their businesses.
Steven A. Bloom
J.D., M.B.A., LL.M.
Business, tax, and planning counsel across operating companies, partnerships, and the estates that hold them.
Grant M. Boland
J.D., LL.M.
Tax and estate planning partner. U.S. Tax Court experience, including family limited partnership matters.
Start the conversation
Bring the chart.
Send nothing confidential yet. Bring your structure chart to a consultation and we will walk it together: what holds, what leaks, and what the 2026 law makes possible.
Visiting BLG
15100 N. 78th Way, Suite 203
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
Offices at the Scottsdale and Phoenix border, serving the Greater Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Chandler areas, with in-home appointments for Sedona and Prescott.
Questions principals ask
Family office counsel, answered plainly.
What does independent legal counsel add to a family office?+
An owner for the architecture. Your office runs the investments, the accounting, and the administration; independent family office legal counsel designs and maintains the entities, trusts, and transfer tax posture underneath, and answers for how the whole chart works together.
Do you replace our existing attorneys or advisors?+
No. We join as tax and trusts counsel alongside the corporate and personal lawyers a family already trusts. Drafts circulate to your CPA, investment team, and fiduciaries before anything is signed, and consolidation is never a condition of the engagement.
Do you manage investments or sell financial products?+
No. The firm does not manage assets, sell securities or insurance, or accept commissions. Legal counsel is the entire engagement, which is what keeps the advice independent.
What are the 2026 federal transfer tax exemptions?+
For 2026, the federal exclusion is $15 million per person and $30 million for a married couple with planning, and the top federal transfer tax rate beyond it is 40%. The annual gift exclusion is $19,000 per recipient, or $38,000 with gift-splitting. Figures reflect current law and are subject to change.
Where do you meet with family office clients?+
At our Scottsdale offices on the border of Phoenix and Scottsdale, serving the Greater Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Chandler areas, with in-home appointments for the Sedona and Prescott areas and secure video conferencing.
Notices
No legal or tax advice
This page is general information. It is not legal, tax, accounting, investment, or insurance advice, and it is not a substitute for advice on a particular family and a particular set of facts.
No attorney-client relationship
Reading this page or contacting the firm does not create an attorney-client relationship. A relationship arises only on a signed engagement letter. Do not send confidential or time-sensitive information before one is in place; unsolicited information is not treated as confidential and may not preclude the firm from representing another party.
Attorney advertising
This page may be considered attorney advertising under the rules of some jurisdictions.
Jurisdiction
The firm practices in Arizona. Matters governed by another jurisdiction’s law, or involving property or filings elsewhere, are handled with local counsel where required. Nothing here is an offer to practice where the firm is not admitted.
No investment or insurance advice
The firm does not manage assets, sell securities or insurance, or receive commissions. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security, policy, or product.
Authorities and changes in law
Statutes, figures, and thresholds are referenced to illustrate general principles, are current only as of the date of publication, and may be superseded. The firm undertakes no duty to update this page. Any example is generic and does not depict a client of the firm.