Stephanie routinely represents high-net-worth individuals, families, and privately held companies on a variety of sensitive and complex estate and business planning matters. Focused on trusts, estates, business law, and litigation relating to those areas of the law, the foundation of her overall practice is forming strong relationships with her clients that filter down from generation to generation. When counseling clients through the estate planning process, Stephanie has the ability to make estate planning techniques easy to understand and difficult or sensitive topics easier to discuss. Clients also benefit from her experience in wealth management, which allows her to effectively and efficiently prepare estate planning documents, including:
- Wills
- Trusts
- Family limited partnerships
- Limited liability companies
- Powers of attorneys
- Premarital agreements
- Various business succession and asset protection documents
Fiduciaries, such as executors, administrators and trustees also turn to Stephanie for representation individually and in their representative capacities in probate and trust disputes, caveats, will and trust interpretations, estate audits, and family-related settlements. She provides holistic and confidential counsel to owners of closely held businesses to create succession plans for their businesses, and she also provides legal counsel to clients entering into marriage and preparing premarital agreements.
A well-rounded lawyer, Stephanie’s trust and estate clients also look to her for advice on corporate work, including corporate creation and governance. Small to mid-size business owners find value in her corporate and litigation experience and appreciate the fact that this experience provides efficiencies as it enables Stephanie to provide counsel on these matters before involving other lawyers within the firm.
Stephanie is a co-author of the North Carolina Estate Administration Manual published by the North Carolina Bar Association and has published several legal articles on estate planning and administration.
In addition to having a busy law practice, Stephanie enjoys spending time with her husband, Russ; three children, Ian, Connor, and Spencer; and her dog, Callie. She also takes pleasure in reading, travelling, cooking, and trying new recipes.
