Daniela Ronchetti
PARTNER
O: 303.243.3100
OVERVIEW
My experience as a lawyer spans two continents and three countries. I began practicing law in 1999, when I joined the Prague office of a top-tier British law firm, Cameron McKenna. I specialized in acquisition finance, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and had the opportunity to work on many unique cross-border transactions during the time when Eastern European governments were privatizing their banking systems and key industries. After four years working in Prague and London, I relocated to Denver and began a new chapter in my career. After obtaining (my second) law degree from the University of Colorado Law School, I knew that I wanted to focus on an area of law where I could use my analytical skills together with my ability to connect with people. Estate and private wealth planning, with its combination of sophisticated tax issues and the close connection with individuals, was the perfect fit.
Prior to joining Tuthill & Hughes in 2016, I spent seven years in the tax and private wealth planning practice at the Denver office of Baker Hostetler LLP, a large national law firm. Before that, it was my privilege to complete a one-year clerkship for Justice Alex J. Martinez (ret.) of the Colorado Supreme Court. I am thrilled to continue my work with families, fiduciaries and nonprofits in a top-tier boutique firm.
- Advise clients on structuring their wills or revocable trust to best accomplish their family and tax planning goals
- Discuss the implications of living wills, medical powers of attorney, and powers of attorney for property
- Counsel a client on benefits of premarital planning, and draft and negotiate a premarital or marital agreement
- Explain the ins and outs of life insurance planning, including creation of new life insurance trusts and strategies to update or eliminate existing life insurance trusts
- Outline options to accomplish lifetime wealth transfers, including grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), installment sales to “intentionally defective” grantor trusts, creation of family partnerships, and lifetime gifting
- Review an older trust agreement and analyze its estate tax and generation-skipping transfer tax implications
- Analyze a proposed trust modification, trust merger or a trust decanting transaction and prepare documents to accomplish such a transaction, including, where necessary, a petition for a court approval
- Draft the governing documents of a nonprofit organization and prepare an application for recognition of federal tax exemption
- Untangle a potential self-dealing issue, advise on a program-related investment, or discuss best practices for grant-making and grant administration
- Recommend a family friendly hike I enjoyed with our three school-age boys, Felix, Elliot, and Sam, or share the secret of making the boys avid skiers at a young age
- The Best Lawyers in America, 2019 – Present
- Chambers High Net Worth Top Ranked, 2019 – Present
- Rocky Mountain Estate Planning Council – Member, Past President
- Denver Women’s Estate Planning Council (past member)
Licensed
- Colorado since 2007
- Czech Republic (inactive)
Bar Associations
- American
- Colorado (member, Trust & Estates Section)
- Denver
- J.D., University of Colorado, 2007
- Mgr. (J.D. equivalent), Charles University Law School, Prague, Czech Republic, 1999
Publications
- Orange Book: Colorado Estate Planning Handbook, Seventh Ed. (David K. Johns and Julia Griffith McVey eds, CLE in Colo., Inc. Supp. 2022), Co-Author of Chapter 32-Split Interest Charitable Trusts and Chapter 45-Charitable Dispositions
Presentations
- Be Afraid: How Divorce Attorneys and Your Own Clients May Make You Regret that Prenup You Drafted and How to Best Avoid It (with K. Willoughby)
- 2019 Annual Colorado Bar Association Estate Planning Retreat - June 2019
- Unrelated Business Taxable Income
- A Primer on Advising Nonprofit Organizations - May 2018
- Unrelated Business Taxable Income
- A Primer on Advising Nonprofit Organizations - May 2016
- Can I, Should I, or Must I Pay Your Taxes - Understanding Grantor Trust Rules (with M. Stiff)
- Colorado Bar Association - Trusts & Estates Lunch Series - January 2014
- 2013 Annual Colorado Bar Association Estate Planning Retreat - June 2013