Richard Schachtili is a member of Hopkins & Carley’s Family Wealth & Tax Planning Practice in the Redwood Shores office. Richard has extensive experience representing clients with both large and mid-size estates, including private business owners, venture capitalists, public company officers and shareholders, and high net-worth individuals.
His practice consists of basic contingency planning, as well as more sophisticated wealth-shifting and preservation vehicles such as:
- Grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs)
- Qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs)
- Charitable remainder trusts (CRTs)
- Charitable lead trusts (CLTs)
Richard has specialized knowledge and expertise in the area of intra-family planning using limited partnerships and limited liability companies, from planning, organization and administration to withstanding IRS attacks at both the audit and appellate levels.
Prior to joining Hopkins & Carley in 2010, Richard spent 17 years as an estate planning attorney with Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, California.
As a three-time recipient of the John Wilson Award for Pro Bono Service, Richard also incorporates, organizes, and obtains federal and state tax-exempt status for public charities, private foundations and other nonprofit entities. He also provides ongoing tax-related and corporate advice to nonprofit entities, and has experience negotiating and drafting multi-million dollar pledge and grant agreements.
Richard is a frequent speaker for the California Bar Association’s continuing education program, as well as for various civic and professional groups on the topics of estate planning, wealth shifting and preservation, charitable gift planning, and charitable organization operation.
Publications
- "Tips of the Trade: Transferring Public Stock to a Private Foundation,” California Trusts and Estates Quarterly, Vol. 22, Issue 4, 2016
Speaking Engagements
- “Wealth Transfer Planning for Entrepreneurs”, Young Tax Lawyers Conference, March, 2016
- “Charitable Income Tax Planning”, Silicon Valley Bar Association, August, 2015
- “Private Operating Foundations – A Guide to Starting and Operating This Useful Charitable Vehicle”, Stanford Conference on Charitable Giving, May 2014
- “Putting The New Estate Tax Law Into Practice”, Lasecke Weil Wealth Advisory Group, LLC, May & August 2011
- Palo Alto Area Bar Association’s Estates and Trusts group, Co-chair
- Silicon Valley Planned Giving Council
- Silicon Valley Planned Giving Council, Incubator Program, Mentor
- State Bar of California (1992)
- J.D. (cum laude), University of California, Hastings
- B.A., Economics and Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles