Principal
Clayton represents clients across a wide spectrum of backgrounds, including retirees and young couples, Fortune 500 senior management and C-suite level executives, high net-worth closely-held business owners, physicians and dentists, and large agricultural business and farm owners. His clients cite his wise counsel, strong judgment, compassion, technical competence, and discreet handling of sensitive family matters.
Clayton was previously a partner at the downtown Minneapolis law firms of Lindquist & Vennum, PLLP (Ballard Spahr), Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A., Moss & Barnett, P.A. and chaired the estate planning department of the Minneapolis office of the national law firm Stoel Rives, PLLP.
Clayton knows that people, their relationships and their families form the basis for successful legacy, estate and wealth preservation planning. He guides his clients toward their financial, personal and tax-driven goals with a level of close attention that results in comprehensive customized estate plans for individuals and families.
He provides his clients with a wide array of basic and sophisticated estate and tax planning techniques, wealth preservation and asset protection planning strategies, as well as sound charitable giving counsel. Clayton also has extensive experience in working with families in a multi-generational context, and coordinates closely with financial and other professional advisors, to provide a “family office” type environment for his clients.
Clayton and his team also have extensive experience in probate and trust administration, in handling complex estates and trusts when a loved one passes. He has also authored numerous authoritative national texts and treatises in the areas of estate planning, wills, trusts, and business succession planning.
Among his many professional honors, Clayton has been recognized as a Minnesota “Super Lawyer,” and is the recipient of the Five Star Wealth Manager Award for estate planning.
