Tom Houser is a senior shareholder in the firm’s trust and estate practice. Tom is a Fellow of the American College of Trusts & Estates Council (ACTEC), a national association of lawyers skilled and experienced in and committed to improving the fields of estate planning, probate and trust law, and is listed in Best Lawyers in America, Trusts and Estates.
Tom practices primarily in the fields of estate planning, business and succession planning and probate administration. He has a particular concentration on crafting comprehensive estate plans, addressing distributions from qualified plans and IRAs, and drafting irrevocable life insurance trusts and charitable remainder trusts. He is experienced with succession planning for closely held business interests including buy-sell agreements, non-compete agreements, stock purchase agreements, self-canceling installment notes and family limited partnerships. He also handles complex estate and trust administration.
The following is a sample of Tom’s areas of concentration.
Estate Planning
- Advisor to more than 60 physicians, 30 business owners, and 25 executives of Fortune 500 companies on their personal estate plans, succession plans and asset protection concerns.
- Advised on wealth transfer techniques including family limited partnerships and grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs) for patriarch of closely held business worth more than $60 million.
- Routinely advises mature clients on revocable trust agreements as a probate avoidance technique, federal estate and state inheritance tax minimization and Title XIX qualification issues.
- Counsels parents of minor children regarding guardianships, testamentary trusts, special needs trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, advanced directives and beneficiary designations.
Business and Succession Planning
- Advised on the transfer of several family enterprises including an excavation business, a residential appraisal business, a commercial general contractor.
- Counseled dozens of farmers on the transfer of their farming operations, including transfers to children active in the business while providing for children not involved in the business.
- Reviews, advises and drafts buy/sell agreements, non-compete agreements, covenants not to solicit and non-piracy covenants.
- Drafted non-qualified deferred compensation arrangements for senior executives of a large retirement home operation.
- Counsels business owners on general business issues including formation, termination, acquisitions, routine asset purchases and sale agreements.
Litigation
- Successfully obtained injunctive relief preventing the sale of a closely held business and gaining the appointment of a receiver in a state court action to judicially dissolve a limited liability company.
- Second chair on federal district court commercial litigation case involving a failed construction and demolition recycling system.
- Prosecuted and defended several will contest and will construction actions and contested probate and trust administration issues.
Professional and Civic Involvement
- Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC).
- Member, ISBA Probate Section Council (2005-2008).
- Member, ISBA President's Task Force for CLE Reform (2005-2008).
- Speaker at continuing legal education courses including the University of Iowa College of Law, Spring Tax Institute (2003) and Probate CLE (1999); Iowa State Bar Association, Tax School (2002), Probate CLE (2002, 2001, 1996), Annual Meeting (2002), and Bridge the Gap CLE (2003).
- Author, Iowa Laws Affecting IRAs, published on Leimburg Information Services, Inc., website.
- Author, student comment published in The Journal of Corporation Law, Vol. 13, No. 3, pg. 895 (Spring 1988).
- Member, Forty Under 40 class by The Des Moines Business Record (2003), which recognizes 40 community leaders under the age of 40.
- Member; Iowa Health Foundation (Board of Directors, 1998 to present); Leadership Iowa graduate (1999-2000); Financial Planning Association of Iowa (President and Board of Directors, 2000-2001); Iowa Lutheran Hospital Foundation (Board of Directors, 1993-1998); Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute graduate, (1995); Iowa State Bar Association Bridge the Gap CLE (chair, 2001; member, 1994-2000).
Tom is a third generation lawyer. He was born and raised in Belmond, Iowa. Tom and his wife, Susan, have two children, Charlie and Clare.
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Davis Brown Law Firm 4201 Westown Parkway Ste 300 West Des Moines, IA 50266 |
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