For more than 35 years we have focused exclusively on the law of fiduciaries and the law of estates and trusts. By concentrating our practice, the firm has developed deep experience and knowledge. Within this practice niche, we handle it all:
Estate Planning. We prepare wills, various types of trusts, powers of attorney, health care directives, and other estate planning documents. The documents can be simple or complex to meet specific family concerns and/or to focus on tax planning. We explore the circumstances of every client and their planning goals, suggest various ways of approaching those goals and then tailor the documents to address those needs.
Estate and Trust Litigation. We are not a general litigation firm. We focus on will, trust, and other fiduciary litigation. We handle disputes over the meaning of estate planning documents, arguments involving personal representatives and trustees, and challenges to documents based on lack of capacity or undue influences.
Estate and Trust Administration. We help clients with the process of winding up a decedent’s financial affairs by implementing the individuals’ estate plan or in accordance with state law if the person has no valid planning documents. We prepare all estate and income tax returns in-house so we can offer seamless administration services from beginning to end.
By handling every aspect of our practice area, we create a synergy that strengthens the handling of each matter. Our approach to planning, for example, is strengthened by our estate and trust administration practice. Our handling of both planning and administration is informed by the lessons learned from our fiduciary litigation practice. Our fiduciary litigation practice, in turn, benefits from our understanding of the substantive issues that arise in our planning and administration practices.
“You make the complex issues surrounding estate planning easily understandable for the layperson.”
Clients are clients of the whole firm – not just of one lawyer in the firm. This starts from the initial meeting and continues to the end. This collaborative approach, coupled with our involvement in all aspects of estates and trusts law, lets us deliver the highest quality of client services. Our approach leverages the knowledge of seasoned lawyers and staff.
The firm consists of two partners: Fred Franke and Jack Beckett; and two associates, Deb Howe and Sam Draper. Fred is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, past chair of the Estate and Trust Section Council of the Maryland State Bar Association, and he has taught at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Both partners have written articles for law reviews or other legal publications and they routinely present continuing education courses on estates/trusts topics. These activities give back to the profession and deepen and extend the firm’s collective understanding of the law of estates and trusts.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the firm developed techniques to permit us to continue to serve our clients, whether for planning, litigation, or estate administration matters. In a post-pandemic world, we will continue to use those techniques for clients upon request. We have always had clients located various distances from our physical office, whether from Anne Arundel County, the Eastern Shore, the Southern counties, and those counties surrounding Baltimore and Washington. These clients may find using a remote service option an added convenience. Once the emergency orders permitting remote execution of certain documents expire, the degree that we can offer completely remote estate planning services will depend on legislative enactments.
For more information about our firm and how we approach representing our clients, visit our website at www.frankebeckett.com.
The Law of Estates and Trusts Planning • Administration • Litigation 151 West Street, Suite 301 Annapolis, MD 21401 410-263-4876 www.frankebeckett.com
