What we do

About the Glenn M. Terrones Professional Corporation

The Terrones Professional Corporation is a law office dedicated to providing, designing, and maintaining comprehensive wealth protection and estate planning strategies for its clientele. Our principals have over 30 years of professional experience in the areas of client wealth protection and asset administration. We ensure that our clients’ wealth planning needs are addressed in all respects from start to finish, and we are dedicated to making our clients aware of all planning strategies and options that may be helpful to them, from the traditional to the cutting-edge

Glenn M. Terrones, Esq, is an asset protection, estate planning, transnational tax, and income tax planning attorney in California and Texas. In his practice, Glenn has developed vast expertise working with physicians, franchisees, and small business owners in his area of practice. A substantial part of his practice consists of complex and creative estate and income tax strategies, as well as domestic and offshore creditor protection strategies. Glenn is the co-author of two books, “Wealth Protection, MD,” and “Financial Secrets to Franchising Success” and has had articles published in Yachting Magazine, Hispanic Business Review, and various medical journals on the subjects of income and estate tax planning, and asset protection. He has been a keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the International College of Surgeons, the Wharton Club of Los Angeles, the American Lithotripsy Society, the American Urological Association, the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, and the American College of Civil Engineers. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Boalt Hall School of Law at the UC Berkeley, and served as a judicial extern for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals prior to being admitted to the State Bar Associations of California and Texas.

Glenn is the principal of the Glenn M. Terrones Professional Corporation, 655 North Central Avenue, Suite 1700, Glendale, California 91203 & 4201 North McColl Road, McAllen, Texas 78504; Telephone: (626) 893-6277; Email: glenn@terroneslaw.com

Our Services

Every client is unique, and it is important that we offer a range of services that comprehensively address our clients’ needs for asset protection, income tax planning, estate planning, offshore planning, and to provide funding for liabilities at death. The Terrones law office has developed relationships with investment professionals, insurance professionals, tax and estate planning counsel, Appraisers, and Certified Public Accountants that are necessary to implement a successful client plan.

Just as importantly, we believe education is at the core of our client relationships and provides the foundation for a successful client plan. Client education is, therefore, paramount, and it is our philosophy that effective planning includes thorough periodic review, maintenance, and modification of each client plan so that the plan remains successful. Education is customized to each client, but may also include group education sessions that allow are clients to become acquainted with changes in the law, new planning concepts, and network with other Terrones clients.

Our Goal...

is to provide our clientele with effective, personalized, strategies for asset protection, income tax planning, estate planning, and intelligent funding of financial liabilities at death, and then construct an effective client plan utilizing these strategies. There are various tools we used to implement these strategies, and they are as follows:

 

  1. Asset Protection. Each case starts with construction of an asset protection strategy. Our clients are taught to use various tools and local statutes to manage risk for their business and personal holdings. These include, but are not confined to statutory protections, Limited Liability Companies (domestic and offshore), Limited Partnerships, Corporations, as well as Revocable and Irrevocable domestic and offshore Trusts.

 

  1. Income Tax Planning. Every client is unique, and their income tax planning needs will therefore be just as unique. Our clients are educated on various legal income tax reduction strategies, including but not limited to:
  • Differences between S-Corp, C-Corp, and partnership taxation, how

they work, and when to use each;

  • Retirement Planning, which range from traditional Individual Retirement Accounts (“IRAs”), to ERISA Qualified plans such as a 401K or Defined Benefit program, to non-traditional retirement programs such as annuities and cash value life insurance policies
  • Self-Insurance Programs for your business that can generate substantial and legitimate deductions and provide highly effective creditor protection for liquid assets;
  • Capital Gains Tax Deferral Strategies that allow business owners to effectively manage their capital gains tax liabilities, and provide alternatives to 1031 exchanges for sales of real estate and transit
  • Effective Bonusing Programs for Business Owners and Employees utilizing life insurance policies; and
  • Bracket Borrowing, which is the art of transferring ownership interests in a family business or real estate portfolio so that earnings from these assets are shared with other family members, such as children or parents, who are subject to significantly lower income tax rates than the typically high income tax brackets facing many of our clients.

 

  1. Estate Planning. Clients are educated on how to use different commonly used estate planning tools, including but not limited to:

 

  • Revocable Living Trusts, which are a highly effective way to allocate and distribute estate assets at death without loved ones having to subject themselves to the costs, delays, and loss of family privacy that results from the Probate process
  • Life Insurance Trusts that remove death benefits from your taxable estate and can provide substantial protection for your heirs from creditor actions and divorce proceedings
  • Other Irrevocable Trusts that take title to estate assets such as a family business or real estate holdings as a result of a highly tax-efficient gift and/or sale strategy, and thus remove potential “high appreciating” assets from your taxable estate and provide protection from creditor actions
  • Offshore Trusts, which are desirous for those seeking to take advantage of favorable privacy and creditor protection laws offered by jurisdictions outside of the United States, and that are useful estate planning tools for Non-US residents planning a transition to United States residency
  • Business Succession Programs utilizing gift and sales strategies for effective transition of business interests being passed to heirs, life insurance planning strategies that equalize or ensure fairness to all heirs when only one or some heirs are inheriting the family business to the exclusion of others, and Buy-Sell strategies that allow for efficient buyout of a deceased partner’s share of the business from a deceased partner’s family or estate
  • Living Will & Healthcare Directives that enable clients to provide guidance and direction to their loved ones and to healthcare professionals in the event that our client is incapacitated and unable to make healthcare decisions on their own behalf, and also guide the deceased client’s loved ones on what is to be done with a deceased client’s bodily remains
  • Power of Attorney for Financial Management that enables clients to appoint someone to manage their financial affairs in the event that our client is incapacitated and unable to make financial decisions or manage their financial affairs on their own behalf
  • Conservator Nominations that allow our clients to nominate someone to act on their behalf in legal proceedings in the event that a client is incapacitated and unable to act on his or her own behalf in a legal proceeding

 

  1. Liability Funding. Many people don’t realize that just because one dies, this does not mean that your debts and other financial obligations no longer need to be paid. In our experience, it is common for a deceased client, especially a high net worth deceased client, to have substantial debt due and owing at the time of their demise – debt that must be then paid by their surviving loved ones. These debts or obligations can include estate taxes, unpaid mortgage balances, other unpaid loans, income taxes owed by the Decedent, and funding necessary to transition business interests. Our Clients are educated on the extent of the liabilities that may be due at death (or the death of their spouse), and intelligent ways to fund payment of these liabilities at the time of their demise.

How We Do It

We believe it’s important that clients understand what they are getting themselves into, and what they can expect from start to finish in the planning process. So, what can clients expect?  

Step 1; Initial Meeting & Data Collection. To start, we need to know our clients. We set an initial consult so we can find out a little about each client’s situation, and their planning concerns. In order for us to help, we will need to know much about each client, so our  clients must provide us with reliable information/data with respect to their assets such as valuation and titling, ownership structure, earnings, and any previous planning with regard to their assets. Once this information is received, the client education process begins. Planning issues and a range of solutions are explained, and decisions are made as to the direction our client wishes to take his or her planning

Step 2: Plan Design. With help from our network of professionals, each client’s data is magically turned into a comprehensive plan for creditor protection, income tax efficiency, estate planning, and intelligent funding of liabilities at death. A second meeting is set, and the client is then educated on our plan recommendations, how their plan design works, and why it is of benefit.

Step 3: Implementation. With the help of our network of professionals and our client’s CPA or other trusted advisors, we construct and implement a plan, ranging from formation of the entities needed to operate our client’s business and to insulate client assets from risk, and to structure one’s business and estate for optimal tax efficiency. In this phase of the planning, our client may be asked to meet with their existing advisors so that optimal coordination between our team of professionals and any existing client advisors is achieved and execution of whatever is necessary to complete plan construction is consummated

Step 4: Maintenance & Case Management. Here is where the Terrones law office distinguishes themselves as planning professionals. Experience has taught us that

  • Many other professionals and advisor groups can do effective planning, but clients are usually too busy to follow-up with maintenance of their plans, or are unaware of what maintenance is necessary, or are unaware of changes in the law;
  • As a result, many terrific client plans fall apart or go into disarray because there is a lack plan maintenance and follow-up;
  • The cost of repairing a neglected plan can be substantial, often resulting in the client having to spend a lot of money for plan repair, or worse yet, having to re-do their planning altogether;
  • It is therefore critical you work with professionals who will manage and administer your plan year in and year out;
  • The Terrones law office ensure ongoing maintenance and administration of client plans through periodic reviews of each client plan, and reviews that are necessary as a result of any change in the law or in a client’s personal or financial situation. Our objective is to make sure everything has been done and done right! We see to it that our clients’ entities are in compliance with the law, their assets are properly titled and funded to their family business entities and/or trusts, and that all requisite tax filings are brought to their attention.

Costs & Fees

Our Initial Consultation and Presentation are typically free of charge. If our team of Professionals is necessary to provide legal work, accounting services, or other professional services, our team of professionals will charge for their services separately. It must be understood that the cost of this type of work can be substantial, but we find that most clients are at ease with paying these fees to protect their family’s assets for generations from lawsuits and unnecessary taxation.

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