Kevin D. Klagge, Esq.

I help families and business owners hold on to what they’ve built, from the family home to the family business, and pass it on instead of losing it to probate, creditors, or taxes.

This work is personal for me.

My grandfather was a decorated World War II veteran and a civil engineer. He worked his whole life to support his family and to buy the home they grew up in. When he had a stroke, the ambulance didn’t take him to the VA hospital, where the care he had earned through his service would have been covered. The cost of the care that followed slowly used up everything he had saved, and after he died the state moved to recover what Medicaid had paid. Within months, the home and savings he had built over a lifetime were gone.

He had spent his life providing for his family. But no one ever showed him how to protect it.

I became an attorney to protect what matters most. After beginning my career as a prosecutor, I built my practice in estate planning and business law and disputes, so families and businesses could protect their assets and legacy. I help my clients put wills, trusts, deeds, and business plans in place that keep their property and businesses out of the hands of the courts, creditors, and unnecessary taxation.

I also advise on tax planning and business structuring, which means choosing the right entity, deciding how the company and its real estate are owned, and putting the operating and buy-sell agreements in place that control what happens when an owner dies, divorces, or walks away.

Many estate and business plans are written by professionals without experience in court. For more than fourteen years, I have litigated (including trials before juries and judges) cases of poorly drafted documents, including probate, tax controversy, trusts, and business disputes. I’ve seen how a single ambiguous phrase can keep assets stuck in courts for years and tear people apart, and how simple planning could have avoided creditors and costs sweeping away the assets of a family or business. Because I know how these plans get attacked, I draft legal documents that avoid disputes and, in many cases, keep your family out of court in the first place.

How I Work

• Explanation. I clearly explain legal concepts and your right course of practical action.
• Flat fees, up front. You’ll know what your plan costs before you hire me for the majority of issues.
• Wherever you are. I serve Florida, multi-state, and international clients by phone and video, which is helpful for snowbirds, ex-pats, Non-Resident Aliens, and investors from abroad.
• Availability. I make myself available, including Sunday hours, by email, phone, Zoom, WhatsApp, and text.

Background

Education. I earned my law degree summa cum laude (highest honors) from Suffolk University Law School in Boston, and received Book Awards for the highest grade in several classes. I served on the Suffolk Transnational Law Review and published a case comment on international law and jurisprudence, analyzing the US Supreme Court's decision in Garcia v. Texas on the International Court of Justice and consular notification, which was cited by Law Professor S.I. Strong, Ph.D. (law), University of Cambridge, in his law review article, “Writing Reasoned Decisions and Opinions: A Guide for Novice, Experienced, and Foreign Judges”, written while he was serving as a U.S. Supreme Court Fellow. 2015 J. Disp. Resol. 93, 102 (2015).

Credentials. I am admitted to The Florida Bar (Fla. Bar No. 99502), to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and to the United States Tax Court, and I am a member of the Bar's Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section. Best Lawyers has recognized me in its Ones to Watch in America list (2021). I co-authored an analysis of Florida's first remote jury trial, which was published in JDSupra and cited by Law360.

Training. I began my legal career as an Assistant State Attorney at the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, where I tried 35 cases (17 of them to a jury) and served as a supervising attorney. Utilizing my extensive courtroom experience, I then moved into civil law, representing families and businesses in drafting and planning estates, businesses and tax planning, and receiving training from lawyers with decades of experience at reputable firms and an AmLaw-rated firm.

Experience. My clients range from individuals and families to Fortune 100 companies, in Trusts & Estates, and Business & Tax. I regularly represent American families and businesses who live abroad, as well as non-resident alien and foreign entities who invest and own assets in the U.S. I have experience representing high-profile clients, such as an international hotel chain, a federally recognized sovereign tribe, a subsidiary of a national bank, a Fortune 100 specialty insurance company, a Miami high-rise development, a national real estate investment company, and high net worth families and multi-million dollar trusts and estates.

I am currently a Partner at Assouline & Berlowe, P.A. in Miami, a law firm with 15 attorneys, which ensures clients can receive help with issues such as intellectual property, employment law, bankruptcy, and real estate title and closings.

I focus my practice on estate planning, probate, elder law, tax, and business structuring. My website stepuplaw.com helps educate clients and the public on practical and complex legal issues, as well as providing another painless way for clients and people in need to connect with me.