We, your Stites on Estates publishers, are pleased and excited to launch our site. We love our practice area, and want to incorporate our readers into the conversation and issues we enjoy so much. Trusts & Estates matters usually reflect some very interesting elements: Family, Money, Taxes, and the Family Business. When these issues combine in any particular instance, the results are always unique, and the situations we are privileged to help clients with are challenging and interesting.

We see trusts and estates issues everywhere we look. We understand many of our readers aren't so afflicted (yet). Nonetheless, we hope Stites on Estates will convince readers of two things we believe wholeheartedly:

T&E has tremendously broad applications

When estate and business planning is used as a thoughtful, proactive tool for families and businesses, outcomes improve

Our firm, Stites & Harbison, is a full-service firm representing clients throughout the Southeast and across the United States in virtually all areas of the law.

At a time when many large law firms have been deemphasizing T&E practices, Stites invests substantially in its T&E offering. We think this will serve the firm's clients very well.

We always look for ways to be force multipliers for our colleagues, be they outstanding health care, intellectual property, or construction lawyers. Behind every specialty physician practice, university research laboratory, or building and engineering contractor are hard-working, talented, busy physicians, inventors, and entrepreneurs, all of whom have Families and Money, hope to reduce Taxes, and want any Family Business they have to fuel a secure retirement, or pass on strongly to the next generation.

When a firm complements all of its other strong practice areas with a vibrant T&E practice, it is demonstrating a commitment to its clients thrive in all areas of their lives. Stites is doing this, and we're excited to be part of it.

We'll be Publishers of Stites on Estates, but we're going to engage our Stites colleagues and other friends of the firm as Contributors, too. Together, we'll share case studies of how T&E issues present in a very wide range of situations touching on so many areas of law and business. We hope these case studies will prompt your own thinking about how to use estate and business planning to improve your own business and family results, or improve those results for your clients.

When new legislation, regulations, or court decisions present interesting implications, we'll discuss them â always with an eye for practical application and why the developments might matter to you.

Thank you for joining the conversation at Stites on Estates â we welcome and appreciate your involvement!