Todd D. Kaplan

Todd Kaplan represents a broad range of clients in various practice areas, including all aspects of estate planning and wealth preservation. Complementing his client’s personal goals, Todd serves their business objectives with his practice in the firm’s corporate and business law division. Having a Master of Laws in Taxation (LL.M.), he regularly advises his individual and business clients regarding a diverse range of income, estate and gift tax issues.

In the estate planning arena, Todd assists individuals and families in matters ranging from basic estate planning (wills, revocable trusts, durable powers of attorney and health care proxies) to sophisticated strategies for lifetime asset transfers, including grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), family limited partnerships, income tax advantaged grantor trusts and qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs). He advises his clients in making tax-efficient gifts to charity, including gifts of retirement assets and qualified appreciated stock and establishment of private family foundations. An inevitable outcome of estate planning is the need to manage its results. Executors and trustees frequently engage Todd to handle the required legal work related to the administration of estates and trusts.

Todd’s extensive corporate and business experience covers the representation of entrepreneurs, emerging growth companies and non-profit organizations in all phases of the business life cycle, including entity selection, formation, corporate governance, succession planning, mergers, acquisitions and business sales. He routinely drafts operating agreements, shareholder agreements, consulting agreements, service agreements, and various other commercial contracts.

Todd began practicing law in New York, where he is admitted to practice law, in addition to Florida and Connecticut.  He primarily practices in the firm’s Lakewood Ranch office but maintains an office and regularly meets with clients at the firm’s Main Street office in downtown Sarasota.

• Elite Top Attorneys, Sarasota Magazine, 2021, 2022
• AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell®
• Bronze Award, Legal Aid of Manasota (recognized for 20 to 49 hours of pro bono legal services), 2011, 2012, 2013

• The Florida Bar: Member; Business Law Section; Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section; Tax Section
• Sarasota County Bar Association: Member
• Manatee County Bar Association: Member
• Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance: Member
• Miracle League of Manasota: Current Vice-President, Current Board of Directors
• Lakewood Ranch Little League: Coach
• Manatee Community Foundation: Past Legacy Society Committee Member
• Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch, Paul Harris Fellowship: Past Member, Past Board of Directors
• Junior Achievement: Past Board of Directors

• Estate & Incapacity Planning in 2013
• Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods and the Restaurant Industry: Selling Frankenstein
• The Importance of Proper Beneficiary Designations
• Estate Planning is Much More than Estate Tax
• Florida Guardianship Practice 7th Ed., Chapter 5: Durable Powers of Attorney
• Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, Constitutionality of Taxing Internet Sales, Quinnipiac L. Rev