High Net Worth Business, Trust & Estate Planning Attorneys
Tyler, Texas
Continuum Counsel serves high net worth and ultra-high-net-worth families in Tyler with dedicated high net worth estate planning attorney, high net worth business attorney, and high net worth trust attorney counsel — led by a dual-licensed Attorney and CPA.
Tyler and the broader East Texas HNW base is anchored by oil-and-gas royalty families, timber and land holdings, established medical practices, and multigenerational closely-held businesses. Wealth concentration here is dominated by legacy real-property assets with deep cost-basis issues, mineral-rights portfolios, and family LLCs that need modernization. Continuum Counsel serves Tyler, Longview, Athens, and Smith County clients with a planning approach tuned for legacy-asset families rather than metro-style liquid-wealth households.
HNW Estate Planning · Ultra-High-Net-Worth Families
Built for Tyler Families at $7M, $30M, and Beyond
Whether your household is navigating its first major liquidity event at $7M–$15M, managing a closely-held business at $15M–$50M, or stewarding multigenerational wealth at $50M+, your estate plan needs to do three things simultaneously: minimize transfer tax, preserve family governance, and withstand future creditors and divorce. Continuum Counsel designs each one as a single integrated engagement.
SLAT + ILIT + revocable trust core. Pre-sunset exemption maximization. Business succession alignment.
IDGT + GRAT ladder + FLP valuation discounts. Pre-liquidity-event planning. Dynasty trust funding.
Directed trusts, multi-generational governance, private family office structure, charitable lead trusts, cross-border coordination.
Local Coverage
Serving Tyler and Surrounding HNW Communities
“Our family has held East Texas land for four generations. The last attorney who touched our plan didn't understand mineral interests or 1031-like-kind issues. Continuum Counsel's CPA lens made the difference — our dynasty trust now actually fits the assets inside it.”
Tyler · Common Questions
High Net Worth & Ultra-High-Net-Worth FAQs — Tyler
What does a high net worth estate planning attorney in Tyler do?
+
A high net worth estate planning attorney in Tyler, Texas designs and implements estate plans for families whose net worth approaches or exceeds the federal estate tax exemption (~$13.99M per person in 2025, scheduled to sunset in 2026). Continuum Counsel's Tyler practice includes dynasty trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), GRATs, intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs), spousal lifetime access trusts (SLATs), charitable remainder trusts, family limited partnerships, and pre-liquidity-event planning. Led by Darryl V. Pratt — dual-licensed Texas Attorney + CPA — the firm coordinates legal structure with tax strategy in a single engagement rather than handing work off to a separate tax advisor.
What does a high net worth business attorney in Tyler do?
+
A high net worth business attorney in Tyler advises founders, business owners, and executives with significant equity or closely-held business interests on entity structuring, buy-sell agreements, pre-exit planning, M&A, and succession. Continuum Counsel serves Tyler business owners approaching a major liquidity event — sale, recapitalization, IPO, RSU vest — as well as physicians with multi-location practices, franchisees with multi-unit portfolios, and family-owned enterprises planning generational transition. Every engagement is coordinated with the client's estate plan and asset-protection structure through the Pinnacle Protection Plan™.
What does a high net worth trust attorney in Tyler do?
+
A high net worth trust attorney in Tyler drafts and administers advanced trust structures designed to preserve wealth across generations, minimize estate and transfer tax exposure, and protect assets from future creditors and divorce. Continuum Counsel's Tyler trust practice drafts and funds Texas dynasty trusts (up to 300 years), irrevocable trusts (ILIT, GRAT, IDGT, CRT/CLT, SLAT), directed trusts, and multi-generational family trusts, coordinating with institutional trustees, CPAs, and financial advisors as a unified fiduciary team.
What does Continuum Counsel do for ultra-high-net-worth families in Tyler?
+
Continuum Counsel's ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) practice serves Tyler-area families with $30M+ in total assets who require the most sophisticated legal architecture available under Texas and federal law. UHNW engagements typically include layered dynasty trusts (often domiciled in Texas or South Dakota), family limited partnerships with valuation discounts, grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs) rolled in a laddered sequence, intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs) funded with installment sales, spousal lifetime access trusts (SLATs) used before the 2026 exemption sunset, charitable lead trusts (CLTs) and charitable remainder trusts (CRTs), private family offices, directed trust governance, and pre-immigration and pre-liquidity-event planning. Every UHNW plan is designed as one integrated strategy alongside the client's CPAs, wealth managers, trustees, and insurance advisors.
Why Tyler families choose Continuum Counsel over a downtown wealth firm
+
Three reasons Tyler high net worth and ultra-high-net-worth families consistently choose Continuum Counsel: (1) Dual-licensure — Darryl V. Pratt is both a licensed Texas Attorney and a Certified Public Accountant, so estate, business, and trust strategies are designed with simultaneous legal and tax optimization rather than handed off between two firms; (2) Direct attorney access — Private Client Services clients work directly with the attorney, not through paralegals or a staff gatekeeping queue common at large downtown firms; (3) Integrated Pinnacle Protection Plan™ — business succession, estate plan, asset protection, and trust structures are coordinated in a single engagement so they reinforce rather than contradict each other.