A. Max Kohlenberg

Assisted five siblings with limited financial resources in developing a mechanism for the shared use and multigenerational preservation of an heirloom property on an island off the New England coast, which was acquired at a modest price many years ago and was then-valued by arms-length appraisal at more than $30 million at the time the planning was undertaken, when the property's value was depressed by a bargain sale of development rights to a conservation organization; formed partnership that permitted discounted gifts of partnership interests to future generations, subject to rules and regulations that promote family harmony and protect the family interests against the claims of creditors, including those arising in the event of divorce or bankruptcy of a family member, and proceeds of the bargain sale of development rights also funded insurance on the lives of the siblings, to defray estate tax costs on the passing of the first generation

Worked with a couple holding substantial financial and multistate real estate interests to develop an equitable plan for their respective adult children of prior marriages, including provisions for an emotionally handicapped child and for a spendthrift child, incorporating elements to minimize estate and generation-skipping taxes, as well as asset-protection components, rights of first refusal allowing certain children a priority in certain properties, mechanisms to permit discounted gifting of appreciating assets and mechanisms to permit the surviving spouse to adjust distributions after the death of the first spouse, while simultaneously preventing the surviving spouse from improperly favoring his or her children

Assisted the owners of a regional prepared foods business (serving states from Pennsylvania to Maine) to transfer substantial equity in their company (with control retained until the parents ultimately chose to relinquish it) to their children, who had followed in the family business; simultaneously, accomplished distributions of portfolio assets to the founders' other children (who were not active in the family business) in a fashion that all children accept as "equitable" despite the risk that the family business interests passing to some children may ultimately have substantially greater or lesser value than the marketable assets passing to the other children, as well as trust mechanisms that have funded the education of seven grandchildren, partnerships that have significantly discounted the value of multiple commercial properties and estate tax funding vehicles that will protect the full value of the estate that this family has labored to build from a single storefront in a modest community to a multimillion dollar enterprise