Professionals

Matthew J. Shea 
Associate

Phone: 612.672.8376
Fax: 612.642.8376
email: matthew.shea@maslon.com

Matthew Shea practices in the areas of estate planning, business succession planning, and estate and trust administration. He specializes in working with dentists and physicians to address their unique estate planning issues. He assists clients in achieving their estate planning goals and also guides families who have lost a loved one through the estate settlement and administration process. Finally, Matt helps families establish a legacy in the community through charitable planning and giving.

Among the estate, business succession, and charitable planning techniques that Matt utilizes are simple wills, disclaimer wills, marital wills, revocable living trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), family limited partnerships (FLPs), qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs), qualified domestic trusts (QDOTs), grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs), charitable remainder unitrusts (CRUTs), charitable lead annuity trusts (CLATs), private family foundations, and special and supplemental needs trusts. In addition, Matt routinely prepares health care directives, financial powers of attorney, and beneficiary designations for life insurance and retirement plans for his clients.

To help families after the loss of a member of the family, Matt assists them with administering trusts and estates; helping with the probate and estate settlement process; preparing estate, gift, and fiduciary income tax returns; and working to resolve trust and estate controversies.

Areas of Practice
  • Trusts & Estate Planning
  • Estate and Gift Tax Planning
  • Estate and Gift Tax Controversies
  • Asset Protection Planning
  • Business Succession Planning
  • Antenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements
  • Business Succession Planning
  • Charitable Trusts and Foundations
  • Probate and Trust Administration
  • Probate and Trust Litigation
  • Retirement Benefit Planning
  • Wills & Trusts
Education
  • William Mitchell College of Law, St Paul, Minnesota, 2001, J.D.
    Honors: Cum Laude
    Honors: William Mitchell Academic Scholarship Recipient
    Honors: CALI Excellence Award Recipient for Legal Accounting and Tax Clinic
  • Winona State University, Winona, Minnesota, United States, 1996, B.A.
    Honors: Summa Cum Laude
    Major: Political Science
    Major: Psychology
    Minor: History
Matthew Shea - Law Firm Maslon Attorneys Minneapolis, Minnesota Experience
  • Planning for a dentist who owns his own practice (along with the building the practice is housed in) as well as various other business and real estate interests.  We achieved the client’s estate planning goals by forming a family limited partnership, multiple generation-skipping trusts, and a business succession plan to pass the business and the various interests down to his children on a tax-favored basis. 
  • Development of an estate plan for a dentist who recently graduated from dental school and who has small children, by drafting an estate plan that included a Will with a contingent trust for children and some simple estate tax planning.
  • Modified an estate plan for a physician who recently relocated to Minneapolis by insuring that his documents complied with Minnesota law and updating those items that did not specifically comply with Minnesota law. 
  • Assisted with the formulation and implementation of an estate plan for a client with assets exceeding $600 million, consisting mainly of various publicly-traded companies. We formed multiple irrevocable trusts, grantor-retained annuity trusts, generation-skipping trusts, a family limited partnership, and defective grantor trusts to minimize the estate tax that will be due upon the client’s death. 
  • Worked with a family office with over $1 billion under management in the formation and implementation of a South Dakota Private Trust Company to serve as trustee of the various family trusts.
  • Formulated an estate plan for a family with $50 million in assets mainly held in a closely-held company.  We formed various generation-skipping transfer trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, and charitable trusts, to achieve this client’s goals of minimizing estate taxes, ensuring his families long-term financial stability, and establishing a legacy in the community.
  • Administered an estate worth approximately $35 million by setting up and funding charitable trusts, trusts for the benefit of the surviving spouse, and children’ trusts; filing the estate tax returns; and insuring that the estate is passed to the intended beneficiaries in an orderly fashion. 
  • Assisted a client with setting up a large private foundation in order to accomplish his charitable intentions.

Extended Bio

Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand, LLP 612.672.8200
3300 Wells Fargo Center
90 South Seventh Street
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402-4140
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