Partner
Taylor
Bechel
Legal Assistant
Taylor is a partner in Berg Hill’s Private Client Services group. Her practice focuses on advising individuals and families on estate planning, probate, estate administration, and trust administration. Her extensive tax background allows her to advise clients on the most effective ways to minimize income, gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer taxes during life or after death. Taylor can assist with a wide variety of trust and estate matters, from establishing a basic estate plan to advising on sophisticated tax-saving strategies for high-net-worth individuals. She aims to be your trusted advisor to help you achieve your goals without unnecessary complications, expense, or delay.
Prior to joining Berg Hill, Taylor spent ten years practicing high-net-worth estate and trust law at two AmLaw 100 national law firms. During law school, she served as an extern at the IRS Office of Chief Counsel in Washington, DC, and prepared pro bono income tax returns for low-income taxpayers for the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.
Taylor (formerly Taylor Perodeau) received her J.D. with Emphasis in Taxation from the University of Colorado Law School in 2011. She received her LL.M. in Taxation and Certificate in Estate Planning with distinction from Georgetown University Law Center in 2012. She is admitted to practice in Colorado, Florida, the District of Columbia, and before the US Tax Court. She is a member of the Boulder County Estate Planning Council, Rocky Mountain Estate Planning Council, Colorado Planned Giving Roundtable, and the American Bar Association’s Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law.
Taylor lives in Denver with her husband, who is also a tax attorney, and young son.
Experience
Estate Planning
Taylor offers both will-based and revocable-trust-based estate planning packages for individuals and couples. She guides and educates clients through the estate planning process to create customized wills, revocable trusts, financial and medical powers of attorney for incapacity, and more. She also advises on beneficiary designations for life insurance and retirement assets, retitling assets for probate avoidance at death, and compliance with prenuptial and divorce settlement agreements in a client’s estate plan.
For clients with large or complex estates, Taylor can incorporate a variety of advanced estate and tax planning vehicles. For example, she can advise on lifetime gifting and the creation of irrevocable trusts and closely held business entities, including, but not limited to, family limited partnerships (FLPs), limited liability companies (LLCs), intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs), generation-skipping dynasty trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs), annual exclusion gift trusts, special needs trusts for incapacitated or disabled beneficiaries, domestic asset protection trusts (DAPTs), qualified domestic trusts for non-citizens (QDOTs), charitable lead trusts (CLTs), charitable remainder trusts (CRTs), and more.
Probate and Estate Administration
Taylor has considerable experience helping clients navigate the transfer of assets after a loved one’s death through the processes of probate, estate administration, and revocable trust administration. She can ensure the probate and estate administration process goes smoothly and protects the personal representative or trustee from potential litigation. She also represents heirs and beneficiaries who want to be sure that their interests are protected in the estate administration process. In addition, Taylor can advise on post-mortem tax planning and frequently prepares federal and state estate tax returns.
Trust Administration
Taylor has in-depth knowledge of all types of trusts which allows her to advise trustees and beneficiaries on trust administration and compliance, selection, appointment and removal of trustees, and federal and state income taxation of trusts. She can advise trustees on their fiduciary duties to avoid being sued and advise beneficiaries on their rights to distributions, notices, and information about their trusts. Further, Taylor can assist with amending or modifying existing trusts that no longer serve a family’s goals through judicial reformation, non-judicial settlement agreements, trust decanting, trust mergers, trust divisions, and trust terminations. She also prepares federal gift tax returns to report transfers to irrevocable trusts.
EDUCATION & ADMISSIONS
JURIS DOCTOR
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO LAW SCHOOL, 2011
MASTERS IN TAXATION
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY LAW CENTER, 2012
BACHELOR OF ART
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY 2008
Colorado
District of Columbia
Professional Associations
Rocky Mountain Estate Planning Council
Colorado Planned Giving Roundtable
Colorado Bar Association
American Bar Association, Sections of Taxation and Real Property, Trust and Estate Law
Honors & Awards
Chambers and Partners HNW: Private Wealth Law, Associate to Watch, 2021
Publications & Speeches
Special Valuation Rules of Sections 2701-2704 of the Internal Revenue Code, Colorado Estate Planning Handbook; 2018-2021 Editions
The New Paradigm: Wealth Transfer Planning During an Economic Downturn, 2020
Electronic Wills: Some States Allow Them, But Not Yet Colorado, Law Week Colorado, 2017
Back to Basics: The Federal Estate Tax Return, DC Bar Presentation, 2015
Top 10 Revenue Rulings Every Estate Planner Should Know, ABA Webinar and DC Bar Presentation, 2015
Introduction to Estate Planning, Family Services, Ind. Presentation, 2014
The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, https://www.venable.com/the-american-taxpayer-relief-act-of-2012/, 2012
Taylor’s Blog
UPDATED: COVID-19 IRS Tax Filing Relief: 90-Day Automatic Extension
On Saturday March 21, 2020, the Treasury Department and IRS issued Notice 2020-18, which extended the filing deadline for federal income taxes to July 15, 2020. This extension for filing is also automatic and taxpayers need not have to file for an extension on their...
COVID-19 IRS Tax Payment Relief: 90-Day Automatic Extension
On Wednesday March 18, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) released guidance regarding an automatic 90-day extension for federal tax payments via Notice 2020-17. The previous due date for making federal tax payments of April 15, 2020, has been moved instead to July...
IRS Form 1023 (Tax Exemption Application) Update
The Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) recently issued Rev. Proc. 2020-8, which seeks to make the transition away from the current paper filing system of Form 1023, Application for Recognition of Exemption Under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, to,...
In the News
Nichols Named Top Environmental Lawyer by 5280 Magazine
Hitting stands around Colorado is the latest issue of 5280 Magazine. Included in this issue is the announcement of 5280's ninth annual Denver's Top Lawyers list. To compile this list, the team at 5280 invites lawyers to vote for their peers. Once the votes are in,...
BHGR Welcomes Geoff Klingsporn
Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti LLP is pleased to welcome Geoff Klingsporn to the team. Geoff Klingsporn joined the firm this month, returning to private practice after many years of representing Denver and its officers and employees in the Civil Litigation Section of...
BHGR x Community Food Share
Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti has been a long-time partner of the Community Food Share - Food Bank of Boulder and Broomfield Counties. Our partnership has been displayed in a few different ways - donations, golf tournaments, and so on - over the years, but today,...
Firm Happenings
Partner Peter Nichols Talks Super Ditch Project at the Colorado Law Conference on Natural Resources
The University of Colorado Boulder hosted the 42nd Annual Colorado Law Conference on Natural Resources on June 16th and 17th. The Colorado River was the focus of this year's conference given the dramatic decline in the levels of Lakes Powell and Mead. Low Water At...
CA CLIENT ALERT: The Supreme Court Holds That Individual Claims Brought Under California’s Private Attorneys General Act Can Be Compelled to Arbitration
California employers scored a victory with the Supreme Court’s June 15, 2022 decision in Viking River Cruises, Inc. v. Moriana, Case No. 20-1573, which finds that individual claims brought under California’s Private Attorneys General Act (“PAGA”) can be compelled...
Kathleen Alt Talks Remote Work and the Challenges Companies Might Already Be Experiencing
In an article published in the Daily Camera today, Monday, April 25, partner Kathleen Alt offers some updates on the complexities of remote work, particularly, out-of-state remote workers. Check out the article here*. Writer: Paula Aven Gladych Contributors: Kathleen...