With board-certified specialists in both elder law and estate planning and probate law on staff, Allman Spry Law Firm brings a rare depth of credentialed expertise to clients managing complex family wealth, business succession, and long-term care decisions in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Introduction
For more than four decades, the attorneys at Allman Spry Law Firm have built individualized estate plans for clients whose situations demand something better than a standardized form. Located at 380 Knollwood Street, Suite 700 in Winston-Salem, the firm serves individuals, families, and business owners across the region with a practice focused exclusively on estate planning and elder law. The collective experience of the legal team exceeds 40 years, and the results reflect that depth: plans engineered for specific familial goals, charitable intentions, and tax consequences, not generic templates that could belong to anyone.
The firm operates on a straightforward principle. Every client has distinct circumstances. A small business owner’s succession needs differ from those of a retired executive managing inherited wealth. A family caring for an aging parent with significant assets faces different Medicaid calculations than one with modest means. Allman Spry does not flatten those differences. It accounts for them.
Practice Areas
Estate Planning
Allman Spry’s estate planning work spans the full range of instruments and strategies a family or individual might need. The firm drafts wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and guardianship documents. Beyond basic instruments, it employs advanced techniques designed to reduce estate tax exposure, protect assets, and move wealth across generations efficiently.
Specific strategies the firm uses include Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs), which allow a client to transfer appreciating assets out of the taxable estate while retaining annuity payments for a fixed term. Grantor Retained Income Trusts (GRITs) serve a related purpose in certain family contexts. Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRTs) allow a client to transfer a primary or vacation home to heirs at a reduced gift tax cost while retaining the right to live in the property for a specified period. For clients with non-citizen spouses, the firm structures Qualified Domestic Trusts to preserve the marital deduction. Asset valuation freeze techniques lock in lower valuations for transfer tax purposes, and sales to irrevocable grantor trusts allow leveraged wealth transfers without triggering immediate capital gains.
Charitable giving is treated as part of the broader estate architecture, not an afterthought. The firm designs giving strategies that align with a client’s charitable goals while reducing estate and income tax burdens. Family settlement agreements provide another tool for resolving distribution disputes within a family without contested litigation.
Elder Law and Long-Term Care Planning
Elder law practice at Allman Spry addresses the financial and legal exposure that comes with aging, disability, and the potential need for long-term care. Bailey Liipfert III, a Board Certified Elder Law Specialist, leads this work.
Medicaid planning is a central component. Long-term care in a nursing facility can cost thousands of dollars per month, and without advance planning, those costs can consume assets a family intended to preserve. The firm structures Medicaid-compliant plans that protect what can be protected while satisfying eligibility requirements. This work intersects with asset protection strategies, trust design, and often with business succession where a client’s primary asset is a closely held company.
Power of attorney documents, healthcare directives, and guardianship proceedings are handled with the same attention to individual circumstance that defines the firm’s estate planning work.
Tax Planning
Comprehensive tax planning runs through every matter the firm handles. Estate tax, gift tax, generation-skipping transfer tax, and income tax consequences all factor into how plans are structured. Leveraged gifting strategies, including those employing the advanced trust vehicles described above, are deployed when they serve a client’s specific situation.
Business Succession
For business owners, the transfer of a company to the next generation or to outside buyers raises distinct planning challenges. The firm develops succession strategies that account for estate tax exposure, family dynamics, and the operational realities of the business itself.
Attorney Profiles
Bailey Liipfert III holds board certification as an Elder Law Specialist, a credential that reflects demonstrated expertise and peer recognition in this specialized area of practice. He leads the firm’s elder law and Medicaid planning work.
Ty P. Long is a practicing attorney at the firm contributing to its estate planning and elder law matters.
Karen Malay is a practicing attorney at the firm.
Edward E. Raymer Jr. is a retired attorney who held board certification as an Estate Planning and Probate Law Specialist. His work shaped the firm’s approach to sophisticated estate planning over his career at the firm.
Location and Service Area
Allman Spry Law Firm is located at 380 Knollwood Street, Suite 700, Winston-Salem, NC. The firm serves individuals, families, and business owners throughout the Winston-Salem area and surrounding communities in North Carolina. To schedule a consultation, call (336) 722-2300.
Client Focus
The firm serves three primary client groups: individuals planning for their own incapacity and eventual estate distribution, families managing wealth across generations or navigating a parent’s long-term care needs, and business owners who need succession planning integrated with their personal estate plans. In each case, the starting point is the client’s actual situation, not a predefined plan category.
Clients who come to Allman Spry are often dealing with more than one issue at once. A client planning for long-term care may also have a taxable estate, a closely held business, and charitable intentions. The firm’s practice scope allows it to address all of those threads in a single, coherent plan rather than requiring the client to seek separate counsel for each issue.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a GRAT and a QPRT?
A Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT) is used to transfer appreciating assets to heirs at a reduced gift tax cost. The person creating the trust retains the right to receive annuity payments for a fixed term, and any appreciation above the IRS-assumed rate passes to heirs free of gift tax. A Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT) serves a different asset class: it transfers a home to heirs at a reduced gift tax value while allowing the grantor to continue living in the property for the trust term. Both are techniques used to freeze or reduce the taxable value of a transfer, but they apply to different asset types and family situations.
When should Medicaid planning begin?
Medicaid has a look-back period of 60 months for nursing home care. Transfers made within that window may be subject to penalty periods that delay eligibility. Planning that begins well before a long-term care event allows the broadest range of options. Waiting until a care crisis is already underway significantly narrows what can be accomplished. The firm helps clients assess their situation and determine what steps make sense given their timeline and assets.
Does the firm handle both estate planning and probate?
Yes. The firm’s practice covers the full lifecycle, from creating documents during a client’s lifetime to administering an estate after death. This continuity means the attorneys who helped draft a plan are familiar with it when it comes time to administer the estate, which reduces the potential for misinterpretation.
What is a family settlement agreement?
A family settlement agreement is a legal tool that allows heirs to resolve disputes about the distribution of an estate without court intervention. When family members disagree about how assets should be divided or interpreted, a family settlement agreement can reach a mutually acceptable resolution. This avoids costly and time-consuming contested probate proceedings.
How does business succession planning intersect with estate planning?
For a business owner, the company is often the most significant asset in the estate. Its value, the method of transfer, and the timing of that transfer all have estate and gift tax consequences. Succession planning addresses who takes over the business, on what terms, and how the transfer is structured to minimize tax exposure while maintaining family harmony or satisfying a buy-sell arrangement with outside parties. Allman Spry integrates business succession into the broader estate plan rather than treating it as a separate engagement.
Closing
Families and business owners dealing with wealth transfer, aging, or long-term care planning face decisions that compound over time. The choices made years before a health crisis or death often determine what options remain when those events actually arrive. Allman Spry Law Firm has spent more than four decades helping clients in Winston-Salem make those choices deliberately and with full information. Board-certified specialists, individualized plans, and sophisticated strategies are the standard at this firm. To begin a conversation about your estate or elder law needs, contact the firm at (336) 722-2300 or visit 380 Knollwood Street, Suite 700, Winston-Salem, NC.
Website: https://allmanspry.com