Cara K. G. Lutz

Cara’s practice focuses on advanced estate, gift, and GST planning for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth families, with additional experience in fiduciary income tax and asset protection. She designs and implements sophisticated trust and transfer tax strategies, including grantor and non-grantor irrevocable trusts, CLATs, CRUTs, private foundations, donor-advised funds, and freeze and discounting techniques for closely held businesses, helping clients preserve wealth while maintaining flexibility and control.

Cara is drawn to estate planning because it combines rigorous tax analysis with deeply personal family decision-making. She believes estate planning is about more than the transfer of assets; it protects future beneficiaries, such as spouses, children, relatives and friends, supports beneficiaries with special needs, preserves charitable legacies, and provides families with a framework for future generations.

She begins each engagement by gaining a thorough understanding of the client’s family dynamics, assets, concerns, and existing planning. From there, she translates complex concepts into clear, practical options and helps clients evaluate the trade-offs among control, flexibility, tax impact, and administrative complexity. She helps clients build enduring plans that protect what matters most and supports the generations that follow.