Noelle Minto |

NM Law, APC

Noelle Minto | NM Law, APC

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Firm Summary

Noelle R. Minto has been a business and estates transactional attorney based in California since 2003. As the founder of the firm, Noelle has extensive experience in bridging the gap between business planning and estate planning. Her primary office is located in Tustin, CA but she represents individuals and entities based throughout the United States and abroad. Her practice is unique in that she recognizes the interplay between business management and structure and personal family and estate tax planning, specifically for closely held businesses and their owners. Ms. Minto has also represented individuals with unique business assets and income, including YouTube personalities, NFL Players, Olympic Medalists, Pro Surfers, and many real estate developers and investors.

Ms. Minto has twenty years of experience crafting comprehensive estate plans which are custom-built for each family’s unique needs, whether it’s an emphasis on family harmony, addiction, transitioning a business at death, caring for a special needs child or maximizing tax efficiency. Clients can rest assured that with Ms. Minto’s counsel they will understand the advanced planning options appropriate for their family and be empowered as the decision makers as to which vehicles are best. She routinely uses tried and true techniques such as formation and registration of tax-exempt organizations, establishing irrevocable trusts, including charitable remainder trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, spousal lifetime access trusts and gifting trusts for children and grandchildren, as well as many other traditionally used tax savings vehicles which ensure preservation and management of wealth for generations. Upon the death of a family member, Ms. Minto provides guidance and comfort to trustees and beneficiaries of the decedent during the trust administration process, and assistance in transitioning family business interests.

Ms. Minto regularly works in tandem with family law counsel to protect and preserve business and trust assets during the course of a divorce; often offering creative estate planning techniques as solutions to division of assets and support matters. She has advised numerous clients during marital dissolutions to ensure compliance with family law ATROs while managing and operating family businesses. In addition to representation of business owners during marital dissolutions, Ms. Minto serves as an on call in-house attorney by drafting and negotiating buy-sell agreements, agreements governing third-party relationships, employment matters and business relationships; insurance and financial transactions; conducting due diligence; and maintaining compliance with applicable government regulations.

Noelle has an ongoing relationship with transitioning businesses all the way from weighing the best business entity structure and jurisdiction for each client, through business formation, to eventually structuring liquidation and dissolution of business entities and the drafting of succession plans which ensure continuation of business through the next generation or a sale and divestment.

Ms. Minto has been selected as Southern California Rising Star by Super Lawyers, in 2008 and 2010. She speaks Italian, Spanish and French.

EDUCATION

• George Washington University, Elliot School of International Affairs, B.A. (1999)
• Whittier Law School, J.D. (2003)
• Certified Mediator (2008)

COURT ADMISSIONS & MEMBERSHIPS

• State of California including California Supreme Court (2003)
• 9th Circuit Federal Court, California State Bar (2003)
• State Bar of California, Business Transactions and Trusts & Estates Section Member
• American Bar Association – Business Law Section
• Past Chair, OCBA Business and Corporate Section
• Member, OCBA Trusts and Estates Section
• OC Women’s Legal Roundtable, Executive Board
• Tustin Community Foundation, Board Member
• National Charity League, Tustin Chapter

RECENT SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

• OCBA Estate and Trust Section Annual Seminar: Crossover Issues in Trust & Estate Law and Family Law  (2015)
• OCBA Business & Corporate Section Meeting: The Business of Divorce: Protecting and Preserving Business Interests during a Marital Dissolution Action (2016)
• OCBA Family Law Section Meeting: Divorcing the Company: A Family Law Practitioner’s Guide to Analyzing and Challenging Corporate Document (2016)
• Estate Planning Basics: “It’s Your Estate” hosted by Financial Empowerment & Estate Literacy, Inc. Annual presentation (2018, 2020)
• Women’s Legal Roundtable, Orange County Speaker: “Trusts and Estates Basics, a Lawyer’s Guide; What is a Probate and How to Avoid It; Clauses for Every Situation” (2020 and 2022, 2023)
• Southern California Black Chamber of Commerce Regional Meeting Speaker: Gaps Between Estate Planning and Ownership, Investment Interest in Business (2022)
• NM LAW Sponsored Webinar Presentation “I Care A Lot” 2022
• NM LAW Sponsored Webinar “Failure to Launch Children…and How to Plan for Them”
• First American Trust Company – Roundtable Presentation “How to Draft and Litigate Discretionary Trust Provisions” 2022
• Hastings College of Law (UCSF) Panelist on “Women’s Legal Journeys – Beyond Big Law” 2023
• OCBA Joint Section Meeting Panelist on “The Corporate Transparency Act”. Business Transactions and Trusts & Estate Sections 2023.

SUPPLEMENTAL EDUCATION

• Harvard Business School– Three Corporate Learning Certificates on Strategic Thinking, Leading People and Customer Focus