David T. Lewis
Randee Okada
704.496.6556Outside of
Work
There is a common misconception that estate planning is all about the latest fancy tax technique – some lawyers choose a favorite solution and then try to make it work for all their clients. A wealthy client once told me that after working with three large law firms, I was the only lawyer who asked him what result he wanted. We are a technically accomplished group; virtually everyone is a CPA or LL.M., and we know how to use the tax laws to our clients’ best advantage. But our focus is on the result or target that each client has – on their unique definition of success. My personal goal is to be the last lawyer they need to hire.
Outside of
Work
There is a common misconception that estate planning is all about the latest fancy tax technique – some lawyers choose a favorite solution and then try to make it work for all their clients. A wealthy client once told me that after working with three large law firms, I was the only lawyer who asked him what result he wanted. We are a technically accomplished group; virtually everyone is a CPA or LL.M., and we know how to use the tax laws to our clients’ best advantage. But our focus is on the result or target that each client has – on their unique definition of success. My personal goal is to be the last lawyer they need to hire.
David Lewis is one of the most experienced trusts and estates attorneys in the Carolinas, representing wealthy business owners and executives who have built successful closely-held companies. Having two primary areas of focus, planning/estate administration and fiduciary and probate litigation, David’s strategic, intensely personal approach to fulfilling his clients’ asset protection goals is unique. Working with generations of families for more than 25 years, David handles their most important and complex wealth management needs – asset protection, business succession and transition planning (whether to the next generation of the family or the most tax efficient sale to an unrelated purchaser), tax planning, using wealth to create charitable impact, and funding intergenerational trusts, which can protect wealth for several generations. With regard to the intensifying trend of fiduciary and probate litigation, David represents fiduciaries, executors, or beneficiaries to fundamentally preserve the testator’s or grantor’s intentions. Whether there is a will contest or Caveat, a trust modification or appointing a guardian to protect an elderly client, David matches his client’s need with precise technical skill, deep experience handling difficult and contentious relationships, and compassion. Clients also include charities that are the intended beneficiary of large bequests. In every case, David’s purpose and focus is to seek the true intent of the testator and identify a solution that prevents an unjust result.