FIRM PROFILE

View Gunst & Gunst Array of Clientele

In 1987, the law firm of Gunst & Gunst was established to specialize in taxation and risk management. The field of taxation includes estate planning; financial and retirement planning; compensation and benefits analysis; and business transactions. Risk management involves limiting liability with entities, insurance, ownership choices, and jurisdiction planning. It also includes protecting and asserting individual and property rights.

Robert Gunst has a Juris Doctorate from Pepperdine University School of law and a Master’s Degree in Taxation from the University of Denver, complementing a liberal arts degree from Wake Forest University. He is Board Certified in Estate Planning and Probate Law with the North Carolina State Bar Association. Mr. Gunst is licensed as a Series 63 and 65 Registered Investment Advisor Representative with the Securities and Exchange Commission and North Carolina. He is also licensed as a Series 7 Registered Representative with the NASD and North Carolina. Other credentials include life, health and accident, and long-term care insurance licenses from the North Carolina Department of Insurance. Clients benefit from the multi-disciplinary background in each engagement.

Robert Gunst’s skills have allowed him to develop various planning concepts, such as the installment sale of a remainder interest for a self-canceling note, which was widely published in professional journals. He also developed software to compute the numbers necessary to complete the sale. The intrafamily joint purchase of property for estate planning purposes, the tax free exchange of real estate into a joint interest in new property, the private annuity for a term of years, the installment sale of a remainder interest in a personal residence and the amortization of a term interest in real estate are all estate planning techniques evolved by Mr. Gunst. Additionally, the revocable living trust with a ‘step-up’ in basis at the first death for married couples was refined for clients in 1987. Articles on these subjects published by Mr. Gunst in various technical journals have been cited in estate planning books and at the University of Miami Estate Planning Institute.

Since 1980, the firm of Gunst & Gunst has helped its clients handle many sophisticated legal matters. The firm stands ready to assist you.