Davis, Brown, Koehn, Shors & Roberts, P.C.

Biography

Thomas J. Houser

tomhouser@davisbrownlaw.com

CONCENTRATION

Tom is a senior shareholder of the Davis Brown Law Firm. He is also the chair of Estate Planning Department. Tom’s areas of practice include estate planning, business and succession planning and estate administration and trust estates.

SUMMARY

Tom’s practice concentrates on crafting comprehensive estate plans that accomplish a client’s personal objectives in a tax efficient manner. He offers advice on methods for distributing wealth to the next generation, transfer techniques for the family business, tools that leverage the transfer tax system, coordinating beneficiary designations with the estate plan, and distributions from qualified plans and IRAs. He also advises on asset protection matters, pre-marital planning and handles complex estate and trust administration.

REPRESENTATIVE ENGAGEMENTS

Estate Planning:

• Advisor to more than 100 physicians, 60 business owners, and 50 executives of Fortune 500 companies on their personal estate plans, succession plans and asset protection concerns.
• Advised on wealth transfer techniques including family limited partnerships and Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs) for patriarch of closely held business valued at more than $60 million.
• Routinely advises mature clients on revocable trust agreements as a probate avoidance technique, federal estate and state inheritance tax minimization and Title XIX qualification issues.
• Counsels parents of minor children regarding guardianships, testamentary trusts, special needs trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, advanced directives and beneficiary designations.

Business and Succession Planning:

• Advised on the transfer of several family enterprises including an excavation business, a residential appraisal business, a commercial general contractor.
• Counseled dozens of farmers on the transfer of their farming operations, including transfers to children active in the business while providing for children not involved in the business.
• Reviews, advises and drafts buy/sell agreements, non-compete agreements, covenants not to solicit and non-piracy covenants.
• Drafted non-qualified deferred compensation arrangements for senior executives of a large retirement home operation.
• Counsels business owners on general business issues including formation, termination, acquisitions, routine asset purchases and sale agreements.

Litigation:

• Sucessfully removed an individual trustee from office and forced reimbursement of mismanaged assets.
• Enjoined the sale of a closely held business and gained the appointment of a receiver in a state court action to judicially dissolve a limited liability company.
• Second chair on federal district court commercial litigation case involving a failed construction and demolition recycling system.
• Prosecuted and defended several will contest, will construction and contested probate and trust administration actions.

PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITIONS

• AV® Preeminent™ rated by Martindale-Hubbell. An AV certification mark is a significant rating accomplishment - a testament to the fact that a lawyer's peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence.

• Fellow of the American College of Trusts & Estates Council (ACTEC), a national association of lawyers skilled and experienced in and committed to improving the fields of estate planning, probate and trust law.

• The Best Lawyers in America 2008-2012, in the areas of Trusts and Estates.

• Worth Magazine Top 100 Attorneys in the nation (2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008; Note, this ranking was discontinued in 2008). Worth compiled nominations from financial advisors, family office executives, accountants, consultants, academics and subscribers to produce the Top 100 Attorney listing.

• Iowa Super Lawyers2007, Estate Planning and Probate

• Great Plains Super Lawyers 2009 & 2011, Estate Planning and Probate

SEMINARS, LECTURES & PUBLICATIONS

Seminars & Lectures:

• The Principal Financial Group, Taking Control Series speaker, estate planning (2010, 2011)

• University of Iowa College of Law, Spring Tax Institute speaker (2003, 2008, 2011)

• Iowa State Bar Association Probate CLE speaker (1996, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2007)

• Iowa State Bar Association Tax School speaker (2002)

• Iowa State Bar Association Annual Meeting Speaker (2002)

• Iowa State Bar Association Bridge the Gap speaker (2003)

Publications:

• Kurtz on Iowa Estates, contributing author to 5th edition (expected publication 2009).

• Iowa Laws Affecting IRAs, author, published on Leimburg Information Services, Inc., website.

• A Comparative Study of the Former Owner’s Right of First Refusal Upon a Lender’s Resale of Foreclosed. Agricultural Land: A New Form of State Mortgagor Relief Legislation, The Journal of Corporation Law, Vol. 13, No. 3, pg. 895 (Spring 1988).

MEMBERSHIPS

• ISBA Probate Section Council (2005-2008)

• ISBA President's Task Force for CLE Reform (2005-2008)

• Iowa State Bar Association Bridge the Gap CLE (chair, 2001; member, 1994-2000

COMMUNITY

• Iowa Health Foundation (Board of Directors, 1998 to present)

• Financial Planning Association of Iowa (President and Board of Directors,
2000-2001)

• Iowa Lutheran Hospital Foundation (Board of Directors, 1993-1998)

• Leadership Iowa Graduate (1999-2000)

• Member, Forty Under 40 Class by The Des Moines Business Record (2003)

• Greater Des Moines Leadership Institute Graduate (1995)

PERSONAL

Tom is a third generation lawyer. He was born and raised in Belmond, Iowa. Tom and his wife, Susan, live in Urbandale with their two children. His hobbies include golf, basketball, water and snow skiing, and personal finance.