Practice Areas

Estate Planning, Trusts, Estates and Guardianship Administration, Corporation, Charitable and Tax-Exempt Organizations, Taxation

Experience

Steve Dunegan devotes his practice primarily to estate and tax planning, asset protection planning, and trusts and estates, and often counsels clients on the problems of owning and transferring interests in closely held and family businesses. He is skilled in the various aspects of charitable gifts, including formulation of lifetime and testamentary gift programs to minimize tax and other costs of transferring family wealth among members of different generations. Mr. Dunegan is experienced in the areas of business succession planning, charitable planning and charitable trusts, estate and family wealth planning, foundations and other tax exempt organizations, pass-through taxation, planning for asset protection, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, tax-exempt organizations, trusts, estates and guardianship administration and fiduciary litigation, and wills and trusts. He has been board certified in Wills, Trusts & Estates since 1991 and Tax Law since 2001 by The Florida Bar Board of Legal Specialization and Education. He is a member of The Florida Bar (Elder Law Section; Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law Section), the Orange County Bar Association, the Central Florida Estate Planning Council (former Board Member), the Charitable Gift Planners of Central Florida (former President and Board Member), the Valencia Community College Legal Assisting Advisory Committee (member) and various other nonprofit advisory councils.

Education

Mr. Dunegan received his B.A. degree, magna cum laude, from the University of South Florida, his J.D. degree, magna cum laude, from Cornell Law School and his M.B.A. degree with a Finance concentration, summa cum laude, from Cornell University.

Awards and Recognition

  • The Florida Bar, Board Certified in Wills, Trusts & Estates (1991 to present)
  • The Florida Bar, Board Certified in Taxation (2001 to present)
  • Orlando Lawyer of the Year (2020), Listed for Trusts and Estates by The Best Lawyers in America
  • The Best Lawyers in America (2007-2025), Listed in Florida for Trusts and Estates Law
  • Super Lawyers magazine (2006-2025), listed in Florida for estate planning and probate, and tax law

Representative Client Work

  • Planning family wealth transfers consistent with family goals and tax savings, including the use of family limited partnerships (FLPs), grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), sales to intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs), marital deduction alternatives, generation-skipping tax-exempt trusts, qualified domestic trusts (where the client has a noncitizen spouse), charitable trusts such as charitable remainder annuity trusts (CRATS), charitable remainder unitrusts (CRUTS) and charitable lead trusts, titling of assets as tenants by the entireties (TBE) between husband and wife, and beneficiary designations of insurance proceeds and employee benefit plans.
  • Asset protection planning, including the use of domestic and foreign asset protection trusts (APTs), limited partnerships and limited liability companies (LLCs), and various exemptions available under Florida law, including homestead and tenancy by the entireties (TBE).
  • Planning for the future of closely held businesses, including buy-sell agreements, liquidity needs, transfer tax consequences of various alternatives, and structuring of purchases and sales of such entities consistent with family financial planning for the future.
  • Representation of estates and trusts, including probate and trust administration, ancillary probate for out-of-state decedents, accounting questions, post-mortem tax planning, death tax preparation, trust interpretation questions and probate and trust litigation.

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