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Douglas S. Wolgamot

Talking about estate planning can be intimidating. My job is to make sure it isn't.

Contact: P /612.604.6756E /[email protected]

Education

University of Minnesota Law School, J.D., 2009

St. Olaf College, B.A., Economics, magna cum laude, 2002

Bar Admissions

Minnesota, 2009
Wisconsin, 2019
South Dakota, 2021
Tennessee, 2023
Florida, 2023
Montana, 2024
Texas, 2024
North Dakota, 2025

My Approach

I work with entrepreneurs, executives, and multi-generational families who have complex holdings—closely held businesses, real estate portfolios, concentrated stock positions, and unique family dynamics. Together with a strong trust and estates team, I help them develop comprehensive estate and business succession plans that protect what they’ve built and ensure their legacy continues for generations. My work spans a range of sophisticated tax and wealth transfer strategies—dynasty trusts, GRATs, family limited partnerships, and intentionally defective grantor trusts, to name a few. I also help clients with charitable planning (private foundations, charitable lead and remainder trusts) and asset protection structures tailored to their specific needs.

When the time comes, my team and I guide families through the estate and trust administration process with the same care and attention I bring to the planning process. This includes probate proceedings, trust funding and distributions, fiduciary guidance, tax compliance, and resolving the inevitable questions that arise when plans are put into action. We understand that administration often occurs during difficult times, and we work to make the process as clear and manageable as possible for trustees, executors, and beneficiaries alike.

I’m a firm believer in making the complex understandable. Even for the most sophisticated plan, I make sure I can explain it on a single page. My team and I work closely with each client’s professional advisors—family offices, CPAs, investment advisors, insurance advisors, and CFOs—because we all bring something different to the table, and that collaboration leads to better outcomes. For families navigating generational transitions, I facilitate family governance discussions and help establish structures that promote communication and shared decision-making.

As clients have become increasingly mobile, we help them navigate the legal process of changing personal residency when they choose to relocate to other states. We also incorporate planning in jurisdictions with advantageous trust laws, such as South Dakota.

When I’m not working, you’ll find me water skiing on White Bear Lake or paddleboarding, surfing, or e-foiling off the beaches of 30A in Florida.

Practice Areas

Practicing Business Succession Planning

My Experience

I focus on business succession planning and have extensive experience in advising closely held business owners on issues relating to business structuring, ownership succession, wealth transfer planning, and individual estate and tax planning.

Representative Matters

• Wealth transfer planning strategies aimed to minimize taxes without giving up control of the company
• Asset protection strategies
• Tax efficient trusts
• Entity structuring for businesses and real estate investments
• Buy/Sell, Shareholder, Member Control, Operating, and Partnership Agreements
• Formalizing governance and shareholder rights and duties
• Family employment and ownership issues
• Goals, timing and structure for transitioning ownership or management of the business
• Negotiating the restrictions created by pledges, personal guaranties and bank loans
• Gifting and family sale techniques
• Planning strategies in preparation for a possible sale
• State residency planning
• Business continuity issues relating to incapacity and death
• Charitable planning (lifetime giving and giving at death)
• Administering estates and trusts following the death of a client
• Advising clients on estate and trust controversies/litigation
• Antenuptial (“Prenuptial”) Agreements

Practicing Trusts, Wills & Estates

My Experience

I focus on estate planning and business succession planning.  Estate planning and the process of administering an estate or trust following an individual’s death can seem confusing and overwhelming.  Often times this leads to clients putting off important planning they know is needed.  I take time to learn about each client’s individual circumstances, goals, and challenges; I educate clients in the areas that affect them most; I help clients focus in on the issues that matter most to them; and I provide clients with understandable recommendations that allow them to make informed decisions.  Clients don’t need to be experts in estate planning; instead they need an expert trusted advisor who can help them identify the right questions to be answered and formulate a plan to achieve their unique goals.  Clients tell me all the time that estate planning never made sense to them until they worked with me.  I take pride in my ability to communicate complicated concepts in an understandable way.

Representative Matters

• Advising clients on estate and trust controversies
• Estate planning for individuals
• Estate planning for special needs individuals
• Assisting clients with premarital agreements

Also experienced in

Trust, Estate & Fiduciary Litigation and Dispute Resolution

Honors & Awards

The Best Lawyers in America®

Trusts & Estates, 2021-2026

Minnesota Super Lawyers®

Rising Stars, 2016-2019

Top Lawyers in Minnesota

Minnesota Monthly, 2024

Associations & Memberships

Twin Cities Business

Editorial Advisory Committee Member, Topics and Trends in Trust and Estate Planning, Feb. 2013

Greater White Bear Lake Community Foundation

Board Member