About Us

Heidi Royal is a trusts and estates attorney in Charlotte, North Carolina offering unparalleled expertise in a boutique firm setting. After practicing as a partner in the trusts and estates practice group at Robinson, Bradshaw and Hinson, Heidi decided to offer her services in the more personalized and relaxed atmosphere of a boutique practice.

Heidi is an accomplished trusts and estates attorney.  She is a Fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and is a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Estate Planning and Probate Law.

Heidi assists clients in estate planning to design wills, revocable trusts and irrevocable trusts to ensure the desired disposition of assets upon death in a tax efficient manner.  When an individual passes away, Heidi assists families with the administration of the estate, including the probate process, trust funding and implementation, and estate, gift and income tax returns.

Heidi received her undergraduate degree in 2001 from Rhodes College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.  In 2004, Heidi graduated summa cum laude from the University of Georgia School of Law, where she was a member of the Georgia Law Review and Order of the Coif.

Maria is a senior associate attorney with Heidi E. Royal Law, PLLC.  She is certified by the North Carolina State Bar as a Board Certified Specialist in Estate Planning and Probate Law. Her practice focuses on estate planning and the administration of trusts and estates. As part of her practice, Maria employs sophisticated techniques to accomplish her clients’ estate planning goals, including the preparation and implementation of spousal lifetime access trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, generation-skipping transfer (“GST”) exempt dynasty trusts, charitable remainder trusts,  grantor retained annuity trusts, and qualified personal residence trusts. Maria also prepares federal estate tax returns, gift tax returns, and fiduciary income tax returns.

Maria received a Bachelor of the Arts in History as well as Classical Studies from the University of Florida in 2014. Maria earned her Juris Doctorate from the Wake Forest University School of Law in 2017. During her time at law school, she was a member of the Wake Forest Moot Court and served as a Notes and Comments Editor for the Wake Forest Journal of Business and Intellectual Property Law. She received the CALI Excellence Award for Appellate Advocacy and Federal Income Tax Law. Maria also served as a research assistant for several professors and as a teaching assistant for Appellate Advocacy. Additionally, Maria practiced as a student attorney for the Wake Forest Elder Law Clinic.

David Vines has been counseling clients with estate, tax and business planning for over 30 years. David’s experience ranges from preparing relatively simple estate planning documents such as wills and powers of attorney to planning and implementing more sophisticated strategies involving complex irrevocable trusts and family-owned business entities, and he has lectured to other attorneys and CPAs on these topics. David has assisted his clients with all manner of business succession, asset protection, tax minimization, wealth transfer and philanthropic goals, as well as with both simple and complex estate and trust administration. He also has extensive experience working with ultra-high net worth families in the family office arena, having held leadership positions with multifamily offices and served as the CEO of a single-family office. He understands the benefits that families with complex structures and multi-generational wealth can obtain by having well-coordinated advice from all of their professional advisors and enjoys working as part of a team in that setting. Mr. Vines is also a licensed certified public accountant.

Jodi P. Zbinden is Of Counsel and practices in the area of trusts and estates.

Jodi began her practice in 1989 in Dallas, Texas with the law firm of Thompson & Knight before moving to Charlotte in 1990 to join the trusts and estates group of Moore & Van Allen. In 1996 she joined the Personal Estate Strategies group at First Union as legal advisor before returning to private practice with Moore & Van Allen in 1998.  In 2001, Jodi opened her solo practice office to continue to provide estate planning and estate administration services for twenty years in a more personal setting.

Jodi received her undergraduate degree in 1986 from Davidson College, cum laude with honors in history, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.  In 1989, Jodi graduated with honors from the University of Texas School of Law, where she was a member of the International Law Journal.

Jodi brings thirty years of trusts and estate experience assisting clients with the estate planning design and implementation process as well as assisting families with the estate administration and probate process.