Attorneys. Counselors. Business Partners.
As a founding Partner of Goodspeed Merrill, Mr. Merrill advises affluent families and individuals and successful, entrepreneurs and businesses in relation to their personal, family and business legal needs. Mr. Merrill heads the firm's Advance Tax Strategies practice which incorporates all aspects of corporate, estate planning and tax planning in a strategic and integrated focus. Mr. Merrill’s practice involves addressing a wide range of challenges, including essential start-up questions such as choice of business entity and initial formation and capitalization issues, the growth process, financing, general business counsel, shareholder disputes, executive compensation, and business transactions such as asset and stock acquisitions and divestitures, and mergers.
Strategic Tax Counsel: Mr. Merrill received a master's degree (L.L.M.) in taxation and applies this unique skill set and passion to help clients achieve the highest degree of tax efficiency that supports each client’s individual goals and tolerances. Mr. Merrill endeavors to consistently develop and identify bespoke strategies to facilitate unique and customized solutions that serve a wide variety of his client’s needs.
Estate Planning: In the area of estate planning, wealth preservation and family and business succession planning, Mr. Merrill advises families and individuals with respect to the preservation of their intended legacy. He accomplishes this through properly conceived and drafted estate plan, which include the creation of wills, revocable trusts, a variety of lifetime irrevocable trusts for wealth transfer, charitable and insurance planning, and business and family succession planning, for affluent families. Mr. Merrill assists with the establishment and ongoing legal support for family offices, which serve multiple generations of family members and helps to promote the family’s growth and development through managed deployment of legacy. Mr. Merrill has partnered with best in class “Fam-Tec” provider More than Money 360 to obtain exclusive access to essential “non-legal” services that support the estate plan.
Business and M&A: In the area of business and M&A counsel, Mr. Merrill has acted as counsel and trusted advisor to entrepreneurs and investors in developing legal and business strategies surrounding growth and exit. Mr. Merrill has provided material counsel to many clients in selling or acquiring businesses, with an integrated view of business and personal needs. These engagements include transactions ranging from consolidating ownership of closely held start-up ventures to raising equity for growing businesses, to divestitures and public offerings in excess of $100 million.
Many of Mr. Merrill's clients are involved with real estate investment and development while others are wanting to structure their current real estate holdings to further their business goals or investment objectives.
Personal: Mr. Merrill is married and a father of four children. He is a music lover and an avid musician (percussion) and hobby gardener/gentleman rancher who loves to spend time on his remote ranch, which he intends to keep in the family for generations as part of his family unity plan. Mr. Merrill’s primary passions are his faith and his family, specifically the well-being and development of his posterity and recognition of the contributions and sacrifices of his ancestors.
Education
- Washington University School of Law, St. Louis, Missouri
- Juris Doctorate - 2001
- Honors: Order of Barristers
- University of Denver College of Law, Denver, Colorado
- LL.M. Taxation - 2003
- University of Utah, Utah
- B.S.
- Major: Communications
- University of Utah, Utah
- B.S.
- Major: Political Science
Practice Areas
- Advanced Tax Strategies
- Family Office Planning
- M&A and Business Law
- Trusts and Estates
Professional Associations
- Colorado Bar Associations
- Denver Bar Associations
- Utah Bar Association
- J. Rueben Clark Law Society
Bar Admission
- Utah, 2016
- Colorado, 2003
- Missouri, 2001
- U.S. Tax Court, 2001
Employment
- Partner
- Head of Advanced Tax Strategies Practice
- Past CEO - Goodspeed Merrill
Publications And Presentations
- Chapter 30 – Real Estate Businesses – Colorado CLE - Practitioners Guide to CO Business Organizations (pub. through 2012) – Co-Author (w/ Suzanne Goodspeed)
- Corporate Structuring with Captive Insurance – Risk Managment Advisors Captive Insurance Symposium – (Sept. 2018, March 2021)
- Planning with Qualified Small Business Stock – Advisor Symposium – Private Capital Management Group, Denver, Colorado (2020)
- Strategic Planning for Tax and Liability – (w/ Nick Rudden) – PRSN Business Advisors Symposium – Merrill Lynch PWM Group – Denver, Colorado (Nov. 2021)
- Planning with Qualified Small Business Stock (“QSBS”) - Exit Planning Institute Symposium, Denver, CO (virtual) (2020)
- Expert Network Team Podcast – Founding Host/Contributor
Honors
- Super Lawyers “Rising Star”, 2009 – 2013
- Five Star Wealth Manager, 2009 – 2014
- Best Lawyers in America – Corporate Law
Services provided through Nathan S. Merrill, Esq., LLC.