Taylor Bechel
COUNSEL
O: 303.243.3100
OVERVIEW
I knew I wanted to be a tax lawyer as soon as I took a basic income tax course in law school at the University of Colorado. I have always enjoyed math and solving puzzles with an emphasis on the details. After later taking wills and trusts and an estate planning seminar, I knew I wanted to focus my legal career on sophisticated estate and tax planning. This area of law allows me to combine my legal and analytical skills with my understanding and appreciation of family dynamics to offer practical solutions to our clients.
I have over a decade of experience advising individuals, families, trustees and beneficiaries on estate and tax planning, probate, estate and trust administration, family business entities, charitable planning, asset protection, cross-border estate planning and more. My tax background allows me to counsel clients on the most effective ways to minimize income, gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes and how to properly file any required tax returns.
Prior to joining Tuthill & Hughes in 2025, I spent twelve years in private practice at two large national law firms and one regional mid-sized law firm. I began my career in 2012 as an associate in the Private Wealth Planning practice group of Venable LLP’s Washington, D.C. office. After relocating to Denver in 2016, I joined Baker & Hostetler LLP’s Private Wealth practice group as an associate and later counsel. I then spent two years as a partner in the Trusts, Estates, Probate & Tax practice group of Boulder-based firm Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti LLP. During law school, I was an extern at the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, Counsel to the National Taxpayer Advocate, in Washington, D.C., and prepared income tax returns for low-income taxpayers as part of the IRS’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program.
When not reading the Internal Revenue Code for fun, I enjoy spending time with my husband (who is also a tax lawyer) and two young children.
- Counsel a surviving spouse on what is required to file a federal estate tax return and postmortem tax planning strategies.
- Advise a trust beneficiary on his or her interest in the trust and whether to exercise any powers of appointment under the trust agreement.
- Design a comprehensive estate plan for a business owner.
- Analyze whether an irrevocable trust is exempt from the generation-skipping transfer tax and, if not, what can be done to mitigate the tax.
- Prepare a gift tax return to report transfers to an insurance trust.
- Determine how a client’s premarital agreement will impact his or her estate plan.
- Explain the difference between a medical power of attorney and a living will.
- Advise a client on the tax benefits of creating a charitable trust or leaving certain assets to a charitable organization.
- Counsel a client on creating a limited liability company to hold a vacation rental property.
- Draft a client’s custom will, revocable trust agreement and financial and medical powers of attorney.
- Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch, Closely Held Companies and Family Business Law, 2023
- Chambers and Partners High Net Worth Guide: Private Wealth Law in Colorado, Associate to Watch, 2021
Admitted to the bar in
- Colorado
- District of Columbia (inactive)
- Florida (inactive)
- M., Taxation, and Estate Planning Certificate, with distinction, Georgetown University Law Center, 2012
- D. with Emphasis in Taxation, University of Colorado Law School, 2011
- A., International Affairs and French, summa cum laude, Florida State University, 2008
- Special Valuation Rules of Sections 2701-2704 of the Internal Revenue Code, Colorado Estate Planning Handbook, 2018-Present Editions
- The New Paradigm: Wealth Transfer Planning During an Economic Downturn, https://www.bakerlaw.com/alerts/the-new-paradigm-wealth-transfer-planning-during-an-economic-downturn, 2020
- Electronic Wills: Some States Allow Them, But Not Yet Colorado, Law Week Colorado, 2017
- Back to Basics: The Federal Estate Tax Return, DC Bar Presentation, 2015
- Top 10 Revenue Rulings Every Estate Planner Should Know, ABA Webinar and DC Bar Presentation, 2015
- Introduction to Estate Planning, Family Services, Inc. Presentation, 2014
- The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, https://www.venable.com/the-american-taxpayer-relief-act-of-2012/, 2012