In 30-plus years of practicing law, Chuck Packer has just about seen it all.  “My clients have brought me virtually every kind of sophisticated wealth, estate planning and family business issue you can imagine.”

These issues often involve complex tax concerns with high-stakes consequences for high net worth individuals and families.  Clients throughout Northern California and beyond (including France and Australia) rely on Chuck’s strategic planning counsel and experience with estate, gift and philanthropic tax planning.

“I’ve gotten a reputation for thriving on this intensely personal, sui generis kind of work.  Nothing about it is cookie-cutter.  I’m grateful for the trust individuals and families put in me, often from generation to generation.”

In addition to his focus on trusts and estates, Chuck heads the firm’s legal services for the wine and viticulture industry.  “It’s a good match.  I’ve noticed that I can better help a lot of my clients—particularly, it seems, those in the tech sector—over a glass of good wine.”

Being the right size matters
Chuck returned to Hopkins & Carley in 2006 because he liked the firm’s stability, 70-attorney size and its long-term commitment to clients’ family wealth and tax planning needs.  He was made Co-chair of the Family Wealth & Tax Planning department in 2011. “While this is one of the largest trust and estate practices in Northern California—maybe the entire state—we’re not too big.  You’re never treated like just one more client.

“There are a lot of other client benefits to being in this platform—a top-tier, full-service firm.  For example, I love being able to walk down the hall to another attorney and getting an answer to a rare land-use, tax or charitable giving question.”

• While they had no plan to sell, a small, family-operated business had been approached by two large, publicly traded buyers.  The family hired Hopkins & Carley, which negotiated a sales price twice the amount of what had originally been offered.  In addition, we transferred shares of the business to trusts for their children in a tax efficient manner, so no gift taxes were paid and the children were set up with a significant amount of wealth.  The remaining proceeds were enough for the parents to purchase a number of properties for rental and personal use, as well as to travel and never again work.
• A Bay Area telecommunications pioneer needed help with a variety of business and wealth management matters.  Working with this ultra high net worth client’s family office, our group established an entity to own a condo in London and assisted with household staff employment matters.  We also established a private family foundation as well as a public charity and continued to provide assistance with estate and wealth transfer planning.
• Several of the founders and management team members of high-profile Silicon Valley companies needed help with estate plans and wealth transfers to children and other family members.  Our Family Wealth & Tax Planning group has handled this in a tax efficient manner prior to IPO or other liquidity events, resulting in significant wealth transfers.  This has allowed our clients to retain control over their children’s wealth and, in some instances, to establish a tax and estate planning program.

Other than Hopkins & Carley
Chuck has been front-and-center in growing a regional resource for estate planners.  For the past several years, he has co-chaired the planning committee of the Jerry A. Kasner Estate Planning Symposium sponsored by the Santa Clara University School of Law.  In that period, attendance at the annual conference has exploded from a few dozen to several hundred.

In addition, the Ronald McDonald House program at Stanford has recently asked Chuck to chair the group’s Professional Advisors Council.

Yin and yang
Chuck enjoys good food and wine.  Which he works off on his road bike.

When did you decide to become a lawyer?
“Freshman biology.  I knew at that point that I would never be a doctor.  And, in my family, that left one option.” 

• Planned Giving Advisory Board at Santa Clara University
• International Science & Engineering Fair 2010 Association
• Jewish Community Endowment Fund (Legal and Tax Professional subcommittee)
• Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP)

• Estate Planning Updates, Financial Planning Forum (April 26, 2011)
• Integrating Philanthropy Into Your Client’s Wealth Planning: Family Private Foundations, Tax Strategies for the High-Income Individual (May 6, 2011)
• What Are We Doing With Estate Planning in an Uncertain Environment: A Panel Discussion, Tax Strategies for the High-Income Individual (May 5, 2011)