DIRECT PHONE: 512.480.5612
DIRECT FAX: 512.480.5812

About

John’s practice focuses on a broad range of client needs including estate and gift tax planning, tax planning, the management and preparation of estate plans, and the creation of various estate planning documents including wills, powers of attorney, and various trusts.  His experience also includes estate planning matters related to charitable planning, estate administration, international estate planning, and the creation and preparation of family limited partnerships and limited liabilities companies as estate planning tools. John also has experience working on matters involving probate and trust litigation and expert witness preparation.

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

  • Admitted to Texas Bar, November 2012
  • Northwestern University Law School, Chicago, IL (LL.M in Taxation, with honors, May 2013)
  • Texas Tech University School of Law, Lubbock, TX (J.D., cum laude, May 2012)
  • Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX (M.S. in Personal Financial Planning, May 2012)
  • University of Missouri – Columbia, Columbia, MO (B.J., cum laude, May 2009)
  • Bourland, Wall & Wenzel, Fort Worth, TX, Associate, June 2013 – April 2015

Representative Experience

John’s area of practice includes the following:

  • Assisting clients with protecting or preserving family wealth through application of wealth preservation and asset protection techniques
  • Federal gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer tax planning
  • Preparation of gift and estate tax returns
  • Federal income tax planning
  • Preparation of complex and tax-planned wills and trusts (including insurance trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, revocable management trusts, personal residence trusts, gift trusts, and intentionally defective grantor trusts)
  • Estate planning for land and mineral interests
  • Retirement and life insurance planning
  • Charitable planning
  • Business succession planning for family owned and/or closely held businesses
  • Planning for incapacity through the use of appropriate trusts, powers of attorney and advanced medical directives
  • Planning with family limited partnerships, limited liability companies and various gift, sale and loan transactions
  • Probate, and estate and trust administration
  • Assisting executors in the administration of decedent’s estates and trustees in the administration of trusts
  • Advised U.S. and internationally based clients on matters involving international estate planning, risk management, and asset protection

Professional Affiliations

  • Austin Bar Association, Estate Planning and Probate Section (Board of Directors, 2017 – Present)
  • Austin Bar Association, Business, Corporate and Tax Section
  • Austin Young Lawyers Association
  • Estate Planning Council of Central Texas
  • State Bar of Texas Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section
  • State Bar of Texas Tax Section

AWARDS AND HONORS

  • Estate Planning & Community Property Law Journal, Editor-in-Chief, Volume IV
  • Estate Planning & Community Property Law Journal, Staff Editor, Volume III
  • Student Speaker at Estate Planning and Community Property Law Journal Seminar(2011)

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

  • Digital Life After Death: The Issue of Planning for a Person’s Digital Assets After Death (Estate Planning & Community Property Law Journal, Volume III, Book 2, 2011).
  • Speaker at Third Annual GDHM Land & Mineral Owner Seminar – Estate Planning with Mineral Interests: Structures for Managing and Transferring Mineral Interests
  • Speaker at Fourth Annual GDHM Land & Mineral Owner Seminar – A Land and Mineral Owner’s Roadmap to the Texas Probate Process