Matt E. Kirk

Matt E. Kirk is a private wealth services attorney in Holland & Knight's Atlanta office. Mr. Kirk focuses his practice on designing and implementing sophisticated wealth planning and transfer strategies for high-net-worth individuals that often combine objectives of tax minimization, wealth preservation, succession planning and business planning.

Mr. Kirk works in close collaboration with individual clients, their family offices, other existing investment and tax advisers to understand each client's current individual circumstances, identify current and future planning needs, and execute a strategic plan that fulfills client objectives while maximizing wealth planning opportunities at a lowered personal, legal and accounting risk.

Wealth Planning and Tax Minimization for Entrepreneurs. Mr. Kirk advises entrepreneurs and other high-net-worth clients around the United States on the tax implications of their existing personal and business structures and builds tax-advantaged vehicles to achieve tax minimization, avoidance and deferral opportunities regarding ordinary income tax, capital gains tax, state and local tax, gift and estate tax, generation-skipping transfer tax, and international and territorial tax. Mr. Kirk regularly designs strategies with component projects to address pre-liquidity event planning, mergers and acquisitions, family investment entities, full asset restructuring, tax deferral sales, other tax-efficient wealth transfers, charitable trusts and giving, loans and mortgages, establishing and maintaining international and territorial operations, and private placement life insurance and other insurance planning. Each strategy seeks to provide the ideal tax benefits while maximizing the appropriate flexibility, access and control by the clients and their families, both immediately and for the generations to come. Once these structures are in place, Mr. Kirk serves as a resource to the clients and their other advisers to maintain the underlying structures, promote the proper utilization for enhanced wealth planning and make strategic changes as objectives, relevant laws and facts change over time.

Wealth Preservation. Asset preservation is an integral component of any wealth plan for every high-net-worth client or business owner. Mr. Kirk designs, integrates and develops wealth preservation plans to protect client assets from any personal, business or spousal creditors. These plans are built to provide protection from potential future creditors, impending or current judgments, or prior or existing creditors, depending on the facts and circumstances of the client and the creditors.

Personal Succession Planning. Each family has a culture, a set of values and a potential legacy, and high-net-worth individuals have an opportunity to develop and maintain that legacy for their children and future generations. Through trust planning, estate planning, charitable structures and other wealth transfer mechanisms, Mr. Kirk designs and frames every personal succession plan so that each client can continually develop and protect his or her personal legacy.

Digital Assets. As cryptocurrencies and other digital assets on the blockchain become a larger component of many client portfolios, Mr. Kirk works to ensure clients and their advisers are aware of the tax, logistical and regulatory considerations unique to such assets. Mr. Kirk then applies those considerations and specific strategies to successfully incorporate digital assets and any associated wallets into a client's overall tax and succession planning.

Private Company Business Planning. Mr. Kirk advises entrepreneurs and business owners on their private companies, particularly on partnerships and other flow-through private companies, for business succession planning, corporate structuring and preparation for potential liquidity events. Business interests are often the largest and most important asset in a client's portfolio, so careful planning is integral to his or her financial and professional legacy. Mr. Kirk primarily focuses on organizational and operational documentation to properly allocate profit, loss, equity and control, specialized employment contracts, and any associated tax filings and their implications. Each operational and succession plan is designed to optimize the relationships between the clients, their families, other owners, employees and any associated charities, all while minimizing current and future potential taxation.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Kirk worked with boutique private client and estate planning firms in Atlanta.