Michael Duran is a member of Winstead’s Wealth Preservation Practice Group. Michael is Board Certified in Estate Planning and Probate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His practice centers on estate planning and estate and trust administration for high-net-worth individuals and families, focusing on the preparation of trusts and other estate planning techniques, lifetime transfers of assets, analysis of tax issues, and uncontested and contested matters involving fiduciaries.

Representative Experience

• Design and prepare core estate planning documents, including wills, revocable trust agreements, and medical and financial powers of attorney
• Advise and assist executors, administrators, trustees, and beneficiaries regarding the funding, administration, taxation, and distribution of estates and trusts
• Implement sophisticated estate planning techniques and transfer tax minimization strategies, including gifts to family trusts, installment sales to grantor trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), and irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs)
• Assist individuals and families with the formation of limited partnerships and limited liability companies to own and manage family farms, ranchland, mineral interests, vacation residences, and other family assets
• Prepare, review, and negotiate premarital and post-marital agreements
• Assist trustees with judicial and non-judicial modifications, reformations, and terminations of irrevocable trusts
• Counsel corporate fiduciaries and trust departments regarding trust and estate administration
• Assist individuals with the formation of tax-exempt organizations