Travis M. Cavanaugh

Travis Cavanaugh is a member with Simmons Perrine Moyer Bergman where he is engaged in estate and wealth transfer planning, general business and corporate law, banking, municipal bond financing, and taxation law.

• Corporate Transactions and Business Counseling. Mr. Cavanaugh advises businesses of all sizes and their owners and officers regarding entity organization, operations, governance, reorganization, and tax and succession planning, which includes the review, negotiation, and drafting of contracts related to mergers, sales and purchases of assets or stock, reorganizations, redemptions and buy-sell agreements.

• Estate Planning, Wills, Trusts, Probate and Wealth Transfer. Mr. Cavanaugh advises clients regarding gift and estate tax planning, succession planning for family businesses and charitable gifting. In addition, he drafts wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, powers of attorney, premarital agreements, and estate and gift tax returns.

• Probate. To help families after the loss of a member of the family, Mr. Cavanaugh assists clients with the administration of trusts and estates and works to resolve trust and estate controversies.

• Taxation. Mr. Cavanaugh advises individual and business clients regarding the tax aspects (income, gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer) of proposed business transactions, pass-through entities (limited liability companies, partnerships, and S corporations) and estate planning techniques. In addition, Mr. Cavanaugh prepares estate tax returns, gift tax returns, and fiduciary income tax returns.

Prior to practicing law, Mr. Cavanaugh worked as a public accountant for two years at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Cavanaugh earned his Juris Doctor degree, with distinction, from the University of Iowa College of Law in 2012. He previously held a CPA designation in Iowa and Illinois (now inactive).

Place of birth: Iowa City, Iowa

Honors & Awards

• Included in Great Plains Super Lawyers Rising Star list, 2014- 2018
• Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce Community Leadership Program (CLP)
  • Class of 2014-2015

Memberships

•  Iowa State Bar Association
  • Probate, Trust & Estate Planning Law Section
    • Trust Code Committee
  • Business Law Section
  • Young Lawyers Division Member
•  Linn County Bar Association
• Cedar Rapids Area Estate Planning Council
  • Board of Directors

Community Involvement

• United Way of East Central Iowa
  • Member, Financial Stability Solutions Team, 2014-Present

• Step-Up Basis Rules and Planning, Iowa State Bar Association Webinar, April 17, 2019
• Estate Planning Basics, Financing of Caregiving, Family Caregivers Center of Mercy, March 14, 2018
• Legislative Update: 2017 Iowa Probate and Trust Law Changes, Annual Meeting of the Iowa State Bar Association, June 20, 2017
• Succession Planning for the Optional Aspects of Iowa Rule 39.18 Governing Succession Plans for Sole Practitioner Attorneys, Iowa State Bar Association Seminar, April 10, 2017
• Estate and Charitable Planning, Cornell College, October 22, 2016
• Capital Financing Options for Hospitals, Iowa Hospital Association, May 19, 2016
• Qualified 501(c)(3) Bonds, Banking and Finance Webinar, November 4, 2014

Publication

• Author, Iowa Can Do Better than the Affiliate Tax: A Proposal for an Intermediary Tax, 97 Iowa L. Rev. 567 (2012)