Beth, a member at Alexander Ricks, brings over 25 years of experience working with high net-worth individuals and closely
held businesses, advising on the development and implementation of sophisticated and
comprehensive estate and tax planning strategies to minimize the impact of federal gift, estate
and generation skipping transfer taxes. She works closely with multiple generations of families,
as well collaborates with their financial advisors, accountants, appraisers, and other professional
team members to ensure the efficient accomplishment of client objectives and seamless
continuity of closely held businesses through creative, cutting-edge solutions. Beth has
developed relationships lasting decades with many of her clients, and she has been the architect
of successful planning to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in assets to tax and creditor
favored irrevocable trusts for the benefit of her clients and their families.
Beth utilizes a broad range of estate and tax planning techniques, including crafting customized
estate planning documents that incorporate trusts for the optimal benefit and protection of loved
ones and to maximize exemptions available at death, structuring and implementing sophisticated
lifetime gifting and sales techniques (e.g., sales to defective grantor trusts (IDGTs), irrevocable
life insurance trusts (ILITs), spousal lifetime access trusts (SLATs), and beneficiary defective
inheritor's trusts (BDITs)), and restructuring asset and entity ownership to create voting and non-
voting interests in corporations, limited partnerships and limited liability companies to facilitate
discounts for lack of marketability, minority interests, lack of voting rights and fractional
interests in real estate as appraised for estate and gift tax purposes.
Education
- LL.M. in Taxation, Temple University School of Law, January 1997
- J.D., Temple University School of Law, May 1996
- B.S., Salisbury University, May 1992
Admissions
- North Carolina, 1996
- Georgia, 2021
MEMBERSHIPS AND LEADERSHIP ROLES
- American Bar Association
- American Bar Foundation, Fellow
- Tax Section Member
- Solo/Small Practice Section Member
- Real Property and Trust and Estate ("RPTE") Section
- Section Leadership Council , 2016 - 2019
- Business Planning Group, Council Representative
- Future Practice and Guidance Task Force, Member, 2016 - 2019
- Continuing Legal Education Committee, Division Chair, 2015 - 2017
- Planning Committee, 2015 - 2017
- North Carolina Bar Association
- Tax Section Member
- Estate Planning and Fiduciary Law Section Member
- Continuing Legal Education Committee, Co-Chair 2016 - 2017, Chair 2017 - 2018
- Future of the Law Committee Member
Beth and her husband share five children, a yellow Labrador and a Siberian cat. In her spare time, she enjoys watching soccer (Charlotte FC and Liverpool), international travel, reading a good book on any beach, and exploring live music and craft beer offerings.
PRIOR PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES:
- Law Offices of Beth A. Wood PLLC, 2017 - 2023
- Moore & Van Allen, PLLC, 1998 - 2017
- Poyner & Spruill, 1997 - 1998
- Member of Estate Planning, Tax and Solo/Small Practice Sections
EVENTS AND SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
- PPlanner for the 40th Annual Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law Program sponsored by the North Carolina Bar Association on Kiawah Island, South Carolina in July, 2019.
- Speaker at a program titled "Get Your Business Deal Ready" in Charlotte, North Carolina in May, 2019. Beth and Larry Griffin, Jr., a Principal of the Griffin Brothers Companies, discussed the importance of succession planning in conjunction with high-level business planning to realize optimum value and preservation of family wealth in the sale of a closely held business.
- Speaker at the 31st Annual Real Property Trust and Estate Section of the American Bar Association's National CLE Conference held in Boston, Massachusetts in May, 2019. The program was titled "The Future of Law - Generational Shifts, Technology Disruption and Business Challenges."
- Beth was a speaker at the Spring Symposia for the Real Property Trust and Estate Division of the American Bar Association in Orlando, Florida in May, 2018. The Program was titled "Where Tomorrowland Meets Adventureland: How to Create and Maintain a Practice that Will Attract Great Clients and Employees into the Future".
- Planner for the 39th Annual Estate Planning & Fiduciary Law Program sponsored by the North Carolina Bar Association on Kiawah Island, South Carolina in July, 2018.
- Speaker at New York University's 76th Institute on Federal Taxation (October, 2017 in NYC and November, 2017 in San Francisco). Program was titled "Beneficiary Defective Inheritors Trusts: Should You BDIT or Beat It?" and compared a number of grantor trust techniques, including grantor retained annuity trusts ("GRATs"), intentionally defective grantor trusts ("IDGTs"), and beneficiary defective inheritors trusts ("BDITs") and offered an in-depth discussion of the mechanics of BDITs.
- Panelist of e-CLE sponsored by the American Bar Association Real Property and Trust and Estate Section titled "How to Deal with Capacity and Psychological Issues in Estate Planning" in October, 2017.
- Speaker at the Law School of the University of North Carolina's J. Nelson Young Tax Institute in April, 2017 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Program topic was the Dissection of Beneficiary Defective Inheritors Trusts.
- Speaker at the American Bar Association Joint Tax and Trust and Estate Planning Sections Fall Meeting in October, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. Program topic was Estate Tax Return Preparation and Audit Mitigation Strategies.
PUBLICATIONS:
- Generation Gaps in Practice, Probate & Property, November/December 2018
- Leaving Big Law to Forge a New Path, Probate & Property, November/December 2018
- Making Misfit Trusts Work When Planning Goes Awry, Probate & Property, March/April 2016
- Best Practices Where Business Succession Planning is Coupled With Estate and Gift Tax Planning, Inside the Minds Chapter author, Thomson Reuters/Aspatore - 2016 Edition
- Joint Revocable Trusts: New Flexibility in an Old Form, Probate & Property, March/April 2012