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
REPRESENTATIVE CLIENT SUCCESSES:
Beth has been the architect of successful estate and gift tax planning that has resulted in the gift, estate and GST tax-free transfers of hundreds of millions of dollars in assets to irrevocable trusts for the benefit of clients and/or their families, including:
- Strategic plan for a real estate developer with $120M in real estate assets, including operating company, dozens of single member LLCs, and fee simple interests in real estate. Restructured ownership and obtained qualified appraisals that factored discounts for fractional interests in real estate, lack of marketability, lack of control, and lack of voting rights. Worked with legal departments of major lenders to obtain written consent to transfer leveraged assets without triggering due on sale clauses. Made gifts of entity interests to an intentionally defective grantor trust for the benefit of descendants and sold balance of entity interests to same trust in exchange for $85M in promissory notes. Federal gift tax returns were filed to adequately disclose transactions and to attach copies of qualified appraisals. Fast forward five years and (1) the statute of limitations has closed on gift tax returns, (2) promissory notes have been satisfied in full, and (3) none of the assets held in the trust for the benefits of descendants (now triple the original value) should be included in the estates of the client, his spouse or beneficiaries of the trust for federal estate, gift or GST tax purposes.
- Gift tax-free succession of multiple closely-held businesses with appraised fair market value of $25M in early 2000s from G1 to G2, and from G2 to G3, through the use gifts and/or sales of non-voting interests to multiple intentionally defective grantor trusts ("IDGTs") and beneficiary defective inheritor's trusts ("BDITs"). Used recapitalizations of businesses and qualified appraisals of all interests transferred to transfer assets now valued in excess of $100M to tax and creditor favorable trusts for the benefit of G2 and/or G3. None of the assets held in the trusts should be included in the estates of G1, G2, or G3 (and beyond) for federal estate, gift or GST tax purposes.
- Prior to an anticipated M&A transaction involving the future sale of a privately owned furniture manufacturing company to a private equity group in 2020, worked with multiple non-related owners to maximize discounts of interests owned in the company and other assets for gift tax purposes. The owners created and funded separate LLCs with non-voting interests in the company and other assets in exchange for a 1% Class A Voting Membership Interest and a 99% Class B Non-Voting Membership Interest. Owners gifted Class B Non-Voting Membership Interests with appraised FMVs of $12M to spousal limited access trusts ("SLATs") created for the benefit of each owner's spouse, and owners then sold remaining Class B non-voting interests to the same SLATs in exchange for promissory notes of equivalent fair market value. Assets held in SLATs should not be included in estates of donors or beneficiary spouses, and only the outstanding balance of the promissory notes, if any, that remain at death of donor spouse will be included in the estate of the donor spouse at death for federal estate, gift or GST tax purposes.