Merry H. Balson

Education:

B.A., Political Science, St. Mary's University, San Antonio, Texas, 1991

Admitted:

October 1997

Place and Year of Birth:

San Antonio, Texas, 1970

Practice Areas:

Tax, Nonprofit and Tax-Exempt Organizations, Estate Planning, Trust and Estate Administration

Contact Information:

P: 303-592-8365
F: 303-629-7610
E: mbalson@bw-legal.com

Merry H. Balson's practice focuses on nonprofit organizations, lifetime and testamentary charitable giving, estate planning, and trust and estate administration.

Ms. Balson's nonprofit practice includes counseling clients regarding the creation and maintenance of nonprofit organizations, including private foundations, supporting organizations, and publicly supported charities. She also advises clients on state, local and federal tax and other compliance issues, including unrelated business income tax, political and legislative activities, charitable donation and solicitation rules, fiduciary duties of board members, property tax and sales tax exemptions.

Her estate planning practice emphasizes planning for both taxable and non-taxable estates, preparing wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, including life insurance trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, and qualified personal residence trusts, medical and financial powers of attorney, living wills, and guardian designations for minor children. Ms. Balson's trust and estate administration practice includes representing personal representatives, trustees, and beneficiaries in the administration of taxable and nontaxable estates and trusts in Colorado.

She earned her B.A. in 1991, magna cum laude, in political science from St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas. Ms. Balson graduated with honors from the University of Denver College of Law in 1997 (Order of St. Ives) and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge C. Jean Stewart of the Denver Probate Court following graduation.

Ms. Balson is a member of the Exempt Organizations Committee of the American Bar Association's Tax Section, and a member of the Real Property Probate and Trust Section of the American Bar Association. She is also an active member of the Trust and Estate Section of the Colorado Bar Association, serving on the Executive Council (2006-2008), the Statutory Revisions Committee (Chair, 2004-2005; Co-Chair, 2003-2004), and the Uniform Estate Tax Apportionment Act subcommittee. Ms. Balson is also co-editor of Council Notes, the Trust and Estate Section's quarterly newsletter. She is also a member of the Denver Bar Association, the Rocky Mountain Estate Planning Council, the Women's Estate Planning Council, and the Colorado Planned Giving Roundtable.

Ms. Balson has co-authored the "Selecting, Forming and Maintaining the Organization" chapter in A Guide for Colorado Nonprofit Organizations (CLE in Colo., Inc.), the "Nonprofit Organizations" chapter in the Practitioner's Guide to Colorado Business Organizations (CLE in Colo., Inc.), and the "Principles of Wills" chapter in Colorado Estate Planning Handbook (CLE in Colo., Inc.), and authored the "Uniform Transfers to Minors Act" chapter in the Gifts to Minors monograph (CLE in Colo., Inc.).

• Nonprofit, Tax Exempt Organizations
• Wills, Trusts Estate