Mr. Young's Practice

Mr. Young focuses his practice on advising small and medium sized business, their owners and key personnel in the areas of taxation, business transactions and real estate, and advising individuals in the areas of taxation, estate planning, probate and real estate.

The core of Mr. Young's practice is taxation. Mr. Young is both a lawyer and a certified public accountant. He works with businesses and individuals to minimize income taxes, sales and use taxes and estate and gift taxes. Mr. Young has successfully represented dozens of clients in federal and state tax audits. He also prepares income tax returns for individuals, estates, trusts, partnerships, limited liability companies, S corporations, C corporations and private foundations.

Mr. Young works with individual clients to develop and implement estate plans that minimize estate and income taxes, minimize the cost of administration and achieve the client's personal goals for the distribution of his or her estate. Some of the techniques implemented by Mr. Young to minimize taxes and achieve client-specific goals include estate freezes, the creative use of trusts, charitable transfers, targeted lifetime gifting and proper titling of assets.

Hand in hand with estate planning, Mr. Young represents personal representatives and trustees in administering a decedent's assets. Mr. Young counsels fiduciaries in day to day matters, and assists in minimizing taxes by the effective use of available tax elections and the creative use of disclaimers.

For many clients, the largest single asset is an interest in a qualified retirement plan or individual retirement account. Mr. Young advises clients in the effective use of beneficiary designations to maximize plan assets available to the plan participants, as well as to their beneficiaries.

Mr. Young's tax expertise plays a pivotal role in organizing and advising start-up companies. The most common forms of business organization used by start-ups are S corporations and limited liability companies. Each type of organization has its advantages and disadvantages, from both a tax and operational standpoint. Mr. Young counsels start-ups in the use of these types of organization and drafts all necessary organizational documents.

A key issue for all privately held businesses is succession planning. Mr. Young counsels business owners and implements succession plans for businesses when the successors are both family members and non-family members. Mr. Young successfully uses creative buy-sell and other agreements to implement a smooth transition of ownership of a business from one party to another.

Mr. Young's tax background is invaluable to clients in purchasing and selling businesses. Mr. Young has represented several buyers and sellers of businesses over the years in outright purchases and sales, mergers, divisions and split-ups.

Mr. Young also counsels businesses in the use of qualified and non-qualified executive compensation plans for key executives. Some of the strategies implemented include the use of stock options, restricted stock and phantom stock plans.

Real estate is often a key asset in the purchase and sale of a business. Mr. Young represents business owners and others in the purchase and sale of real estate, including the use of like kind and deferred exchanges.

The firm has a thriving family law practice. Mr. Young assists the firm's family law attorneys in using available tax code provisions to maximize the cash flow available to both spouses after divorce, and to minimize the tax consequences of a property division.

Primary Practice Areas

Taxation
Estate Planning
Probate and Trust Administration
Business Start-Ups
Purchases and Sales of Businesses
Retirement Plan Distribution Planning
Executive Compensation Planning
Divorce Tax Planning

Professional Summary

Education

Marquette University Law School J.D., 1980
Marquette University B.S. in Accounting and B.S. in Economics, 1976
Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society

Bar Admissions

Wisconsin
United States Tax Court
U.S. Court of Federal Claims
United States District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin
United States District Court, Western District of Wisconsin

Biography

Mr. Young was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and later moved with his family to West Allis. He attended Marquette University High School.

Upon graduating from law school, Mr. Young joined the Tax Department of a Big 8 CPA firm in Milwaukee. While there, he enjoyed a short term assignment to the firm's Toronto office serving as a U.S. tax resource for the Toronto office's expatriate tax practice.

Mr. Young joined Fox, O'Neill & Shannon, S.C. in 1986. He became a shareholder in 1988.

Mr. Young is married to Susan, who is from Davenport, Iowa. They have two children, Emily and Michael.

Mr. Young is active in several professional organizations. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Bar Association Taxation Section. He is a member of the WICPA State Taxation Committee. He also is a member of the Milwaukee Bar Association Taxation Section and is a former chair.