Overview
Michael J. Tang maintains a broad trusts and estates practice and delivers a wide array of legal services, concentrating on families, entrepreneurs, professional athletes, business owners and family offices on all aspects of income, gift, and estate tax planning. He helps families and family offices optimize the investment and deployment of family capital in both public and private markets across a variety of asset classes.
Michael has extensive experience providing creative, customized estate plans to address his clients’ most sensitive and pressing needs. He regularly creates and implements tax-efficient structures to provide for the transition of generational wealth and business succession planning. He frequently addresses transfer issues involving real estate, marketable and non-marketable investments, private aircraft, artwork, and other collectibles.
Michael is the Executive Vice President for the Asian Pacific American Bar Association and regularly volunteers at legal clinics across Southern California to provide legal services to low-income families.
Prior to joining Raines, Michael was a member of the Private Client group at McDermott Will & Schulte LLP (formerly known as McDermott Will & Emery LLP) (“McDermott”), where his team was ranked Band 1 by Chambers: High Net Worth nationwide and in Southern California. While at McDermott, Michael was a contributing editor of International Estate Planning, a multi-volume guide to U.S. estate and income taxation of foreign nationals published annually by LexisNexis/Matthew Bender.
Education
- New York University, School of Law, Tax LL.M.
- Chapman University, Dale E. Fowler School of Law, JD, cum laude
- University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business, B.S., cum laude
Admissions
- State Bar of California
Significant Engagements
- Prepared straightforward and complex estate plans for individuals and families
- Routinely advises family offices and multigenerational families on a variety of ongoing complex matters involving trust and estate administration, gift tax reporting, wealth transfer transactions and investment structures
- Represented a family office in the $4B acquisition of a controlling interest of a professional sports franchise in the National Basketball Association
- Structured tax-efficient transfer of minority interest in Major League Baseball team to a generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax-exempt trust
- Managed the administration of numerous estates valued from $20 million to more than $500 million, including preparing federal estate tax returns and implementing post-death planning techniques
- Provided Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) analysis for complex trust and entity structures
- Represented multigenerational families in the implementation of family office restructuring,
- Implement modifications to irrevocable trusts under California, Nevada and Delaware decanting statutes
- Implemented multiple gift and generation-skipping tax transfers to irrevocable trusts involving cryptocurrency and unique asset classes
- Created and implemented charitable vehicles to support a variety of charitable causes, including, but not limited to, animal preservation, art and medical research
- Advised and negotiated charitable gift agreements dealing with naming rights and restricted purposes for university grants
- Prepared grantor retained annuity trusts (“GRATs”) and coordinated funding of pre-IPO shares for various start-up companies
Languages
- English
- Cantonese
Memberships
- Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Executive Vice President and Executive Committee Member
- Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California, Volunteer
- USA Table Tennis (USATT), Board Member
Publications, Recognitions and Speaking Engagements
- Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch (2027) – Trusts & Estates