Freddy Faircloth is the owner and attorney at The Faircloth Law Firm, LLC.  He focuses his practice in the areas of estate and wealth transfer planning, probate, estate and trust administration, business succession planning and taxation.

 

Freddy’s practice includes advising clients about and drafting wills and revocable and irrevocable trusts appropriate to meet the clients’ wealth transfer, tax planning, charitable planning and asset protection planning needs.  Specifically, Freddy has significant experience drafting a wide variety of sophisticated irrevocable trusts to accomplish these broad goals, including dynastic trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, grantor retained interest trusts (both annuity and unitrust), charitable lead and charitable remainder trusts (both annuity and unitrust), life insurance trusts, “Crummey” trusts and spousal access trusts.

 

Freddy also regularly advises clients about business succession matters.  This advice and counsel includes the creation of family limited partnerships and limited liability companies, as well as preparing restrictive stock agreements appropriate to accomplish the clients’ various tax and non-tax objectives.

 

Freddy’s practice includes advising personal representatives, trustees and other fiduciaries regarding their duties in estate and trust administration.

 

Freddy’s practice also includes advising trustees and trust beneficiaries on ways in which the terms of otherwise irrevocable, older trusts can be altered to account for changes in laws or circumstances.  Freddy’s efforts in this area include significant experience with unitrust conversion (including the unitrust conversion of dozens of related, “grandfathered” GST trusts under court approval and pursuant to an IRS private letter ruling), decanting and trust modifications and terminations under court order.

 

Freddy frequently advises clients, fiduciaries, other attorneys and accountants on fiduciary income tax matters.  Also, as estate and gift tax consequences have given way to more income tax consequences, Freddy routinely advises clients, other attorneys and accountants on ways in which wealth transfer plans can be structured to mitigate income tax consequences. 

 

Freddy received a B.S. in Accounting from Clemson University in 2000.  He received a J.D. from the University of South Carolina in 2003, where he was a member of the South Carolina Law Review and a recipient of the Arthur B. Custy Tax Award.  He received his Masters of Law (LL.M.) in Taxation from the University of Florida in 2004. 

 

Freddy was admitted to the South Carolina Bar in 2003 and the North Carolina Bar in 2005.  He is a South Carolina Supreme Court Certified Specialist in Estate Planning and Probate Law and currently serves on the South Carolina Supreme Court Estate Planning and Probate Law Specialization Advisory Committee and previously served as a member of the South Carolina Bar Probate, Estate Planning and Trust Section Council. 

 

Freddy is a frequent lecturer in the areas of estates and trusts.  In March 2020 he was elected as a Fellow of The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (“ACTEC”), an organization of approximately 2,500 trust and estate lawyers and law professors from across the country who are elected by their peers in recognition of having made outstanding contributions to the  practice of trust and estate law.

 

In addition to being a full-time practicing attorney, Freddy is Executive Vice President of The Rock Hill Coca-Cola Bottling Company, an independent Coca-Cola bottler that has been owned by his family since 1908.

 

Freddy and his wife, Catherine, are both Rock Hill natives and active members of the community.  Outside of work and community involvement, you can find Freddy and Catherine with their three daughters, often at a Clemson football or basketball game.

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Admissions

• South Carolina, 2003

• North Carolina, 2005

 

Education

• Clemson University, B.S. (Accounting) 2000

• University of South Carolina School of Law, J.D. 2003

• University of Florida School of Law, LL.M. (Taxation) 2004

 

Professional Involvement

• Fellow, The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (2020-present)

• South Carolina Certified Specialist in Estate Planning and Probate Law (2018-Present)

• Member, South Carolina Estate Planning and Probate Law Specialization Advisory Board (2019-present)

• Member, South Carolina Bar Probate Estate Planning and Trust Section (Council Member, 2017-2020)

• Member, North Carolina Bar Estate Planning and Fiduciary Law Section

• Member, South Carolina Bar Tax Section (Council Member, 2010-2012)

• Member, North Carolina Bar Tax Section

• Member, York County (SC) Bar

• Member, Mecklenburg County (NC) Bar

 

Civic Involvement

• Robert Haywood Morrison Foundation (Board of Directors 2005-present)

• Come-See-Me Festival, Inc. (Board of Directors 2016-present; Vice President, 2019-2020)

• York County Disabilities Foundation (Board of Directors 2007-present; Vice-Chair 2011-present)

• York County Clemson Club (Board of Directors 2007-present)

• York County (SC) Community Foundation (Board of Directors 2008-2016, Past Chair)

• Rock Hill Country Club (Board of Directors 2009-2012; Treasurer and Chair, Finance Committee 2012)

• Rotary Club of Rock Hill (Board of Directors 2007-2010)

 

Speaking and Writing

• “Attorneys as Fiduciaries: Ethical and Practical Considerations for Estate Planning Attorneys,” presented at the ACTEC Southeast Regional Meeting, November 2019

• “Attorneys as Fiduciaries: Ethical and Practical Considerations for Estate Planning Attorneys,” presented at the Al Todd Estate Planning Workshop, July 2019

• South Carolina Business Law Handbook: A Practical Guide for Business Owners, Entrepreneurs and Their Counsel, Chapter Author, “Estate Planning and Your Client’s Business, November 2018

• “The New South Carolina Uniform Power of Attorney Act: New Rules of the Road for Powers of Attorney in South Carolina,” Co-Authored with Donna Sands and published in SC Lawyer, May 2017

• “The New South Carolina Uniform Power of Attorney Act,” presented at the South Carolina Bar Convention, January 2017

• “Changing the Dispositive Provisions of the Smith Family Trusts Without Threatening Their Grandfathered GST Trust Status,” presented as the NC Bar Estate Planning and Fiduciary Law Program, July 2015

• Unitrust Conversions of Grandfathered GST Trusts: A Case Study,” presented at the ACTEC Southeast Regional Meeting, November 2014