Andrew W. Holstine

Andrew W. Holstine concentrates his legal practice in the areas of estate and gift tax planning, legacy planning, estate and trust administration, business transactional work and succession planning. He works closely with clients – including families and business owners – in successful, long-term relationships that generate custom plans for the transition of management and the transition of personal and business wealth in tax-efficient ways.

Holstine’s estate planning service addresses personal family objectives layered with a perspective that accounts for tax planning and financial management issues. He utilizes a wide variety of strategies and documents to meet his client’s goals, including:

• basic wills and testamentary trusts
• generation-skipping trusts
• Crummey trusts
• GRATs (grantor retained annuity trusts)
• guardianships
• charitable planning
• defective grantor trusts
• installment sales

His tax return preparation experience includes fiduciary tax returns for trusts and estates, federal and state estate tax returns, gift tax returns and IRS 1040 personal income tax returns, providing a working knowledge of tax questions often faced by clients.

Holstine also works with many business owners and corporations, routinely assisting clients with:

• corporate formations, including for profits and not-for-profits
• succession planning
• advising clients on corporate structures for asset protection planning
• corporate maintenance, including minutes, bylaws and corporate resolutions
• buy-sell agreements
• transactional planning such as lease negotiations, asset sales, commercial real estate sales and IRS Section 1031 tax-deferred real estate exchanges

He is currently the vice president of The Chicago Farmers, a group founded in 1935 that includes agricultural professionals and investors interested in domestic and international developments in production agriculture and agribusiness.

Holstine serves as general counsel for two foundations concerned with the welfare of Vietnam. The Medical & Technological University of America Foundation promotes the transfer of medical technology, applications and training to doctors and clinics in Vietnam. The country has a strong interest in advancing medical care options, which requires modern management and resources. The United States-Vietnam Foundation is active organizing educational conferences and supporting small projects within the country. A strength of the group is the ability to successfully identify areas of need within the country and to then find human and other resources from within the broad contacts and associations of the board members. This work has given Holstine a unique network of professional relationships and contacts that allow him to be a great resource for Illinois business owners interested in opportunities in Asia.

During Holstine’s third year of law school he studied comparative European Union law. He presented a paper on the limitations placed on the newly formed European Central Bank to manage monetary and economic policy, as well as the challenges of transitioning to a common currency. This enabled him to successfully secure a research grant from the European Union to further supplement his thesis through travel to banking centers in Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany.

Holstine enjoys gardening at a family farm in central Illinois. An intercollegiate basketball player, he currently resides in Evanston.

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

Holstine is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association and the Iowa Bar Association. He is currently a member of the Greater North Shore Estate and Financial Planning Council which caters to the needs of professionals in the fields of financial and estate planning.

PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

Over the course of his career, Holstine has been a featured speaker on many topics including IRS Section 1031 tax-deferred real estate exchanges of investment properties, estate planning for agriculture landowners, retirement planning, and financial planning for young families. He also recently published an article on conservation easements for The Chicago Farmers magazine.

• Author, “Business success reflects succession,” McHenry County Business Journal, p. 9, December 2011

PRIOR EMPLOYMENT

Before entering his current field of practice, Holstine began his legal career performing litigation and trial work for a Chicago-based insurance defense law firm. That background helps him advise corporate clients on the risks, costs and benefits of pursuing litigation. Holstine’s professional legal experiences also contributed to his decision to teach an MBA class on international contract law as a visiting professor at Thang Long University in Hanoi, Vietnam.

PRO BONO

Holstine has enjoyed assisting a friend who set up the nonprofit Lawndale Christian Legal Center in Chicago. He also represented landowners in an eminent domain action heard by the Illinois Commerce Commission that was filed by a petroleum pipeline company.