Kara P. Gray

Kara Gray focuses her practice on estate planning, estate and trust administrations, business succession planning, and charitable giving. She works closely with clients to develop an estate plan that achieves their legacy goals and minimizes taxes through the implementation of various estate planning strategies, including grantor retained annuity trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, spousal lifetime access trusts, and irrevocable life insurance trusts.

• Represent fiduciary of complex estate and trust administration exceeding $100M involving various irrevocable trusts and business interests.
• Advise client on comprehensive estate planning and business succession needs with net-worth of $150M, including the implementation of grantor retained annuity trusts and irrevocable dynasty trusts.
• Create estate plan for client saving $45M in estate taxes due to implementation of sales and gifts to intentionally defective grantor trusts, charitable giving techniques, and grantor retained annuity trusts.
• Represent client in formation of entity and sale and gift of interest to spousal lifetime access trust to achieve legacy goals and minimize estate tax.  

• Co-presenter, "Estate Planning Strategies for a Pandemic: Leveraging Uncertainty in a Locked-Down World,” Minnesota CLE, Live Webcast Seminar, June 22, 2021
• Co-presenter, "Build Your Knowledge - Duty of Loyalty," Lathrop GPM Trustee Bootcamp Session 2, January 11, 2023

• Minnesota State Bar Association
• Minnesota State Bar Association New Lawyers Section, Diversity Committee Co-Chair, 2016-2019
• Leadership Council on Legal Diversity, Pathfinders Program, 2022

• Children's Law Center of Minnesota, Board of Directors, 2022-present
• Wills for Heroes, volunteer attorney, 2015-2019
• Twin Cities Diversity in Practice and Mitchell Mentors, student mentor, 2015-present

• Thomson Reuters, "Minnesota Rising Star," 2023
• "North Star Lawyers," Minnesota State Bar Association 2015-2016, 2018