Grantors, Trustees, and Beneficiaries: A New Look at Roles and Responsibilities

Jonathan Blattmachr, Eagle River Advisors

Jonathan Blattmachr is a Principal of Eagle River Advisors, a boutique advisory firm dedicated to developing and implementing innovative wealth and gift and estate tax planning strategies on behalf of high net worth individuals and families.  Mr. Blattmachr brings over 35 years of experience in trusts and estates law.  He is a retired member of Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy and the Alaska, California and New York Bars. Mr. Blattmachr has been recognized as one of the country’s most creative trusts and estates lawyers. He writes and lectures extensively on estate and trust taxation and charitable giving and has authored or co-authored five books and over 400 articles on estate planning topics.
 

Gail E. Cohen, Fiduciary Trust Company International 

Gail E. Cohen, Vice Chairman and General Trust Counsel, is responsible for Fiduciary Trust Company's trust and estate services, client relationships, and for Fiduciary Trust's regional offices.  She has over 30 years of experience in the area of trusts and estates.Ms. Cohen is a member of Fiduciary Trust's Board of Directors, as well as a member of the Management and Executive Committees. Before joining Fiduciary Trust in 1994, Ms. Cohen was a trusts and estates associate at the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton. Ms. Cohen is currently serving as Treasurer of the New York Bankers Association (NYBA).  She is also a member of the Trust Management Association of the American Bankers Association and former chair of the Trust and Investment Executive Committee of the New York State Bankers Association.  She currently sits on the Investment Committee of the New York City Bar Association,  is a former member of that Bar Association's Committee on Estate and Gift Tax, which she chaired from 1998-2001. 

Lee Hausner, Ph. D., First Foundation Advisors

Paul S. Lee, Bernstein Global Wealth Management

Paul S. Lee is a National Managing Director of Bernstein Global Wealth Management, a position he assumed in 2006; he is also a member of the firm’s Wealth Management Group, which he rejoined in 2008. Previously, he had been a managing director in the London and New York offices. Prior to joining the firm in 2000 as a Wealth Management Group director, he was a partner in the Atlanta-based law firm of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP. Lee received a BA, cum laude, in English and a BA in chemistry from Cornell University, and a JD, with honors, from Emory University School of Law, where he was notes and comments editor of the Emory Law Journal; he also received an LLM in taxation from Emory University. 

William I. Sanderson, McGuireWoods LLP

Mr. Sanderson is part of McGuireWoods LLP’s Fiduciary Advisory Services and Private Wealth Services groups. He represents both high-net worth individuals and families on a variety of sensitive and complex estate and business planning matters. His practice focuses on the areas of estate planning and estate and trust administration. 

Sarah Kerr Severson, Schiff Hardin LLP

Sarah Kerr Severson has significant experience in estate, trust, and guardianship litigation and administration, business succession planning, special needs planning, wealth transfer planning, and charitable foundation and exempt organization litigation and administration. Her clients include family groups and individuals, business entities and corporate fiduciaries.She works with clients to develop comprehensive estate plans, business succession plans and charitable planning techniques. Ms. Severson develops plans which maximize and protect wealth while minimizing transfer taxes, and which implement her clients' familial, philanthropic and other non-tax objectives.

Elisa Shevlin Rizzo, Fiduciary Trust Company International 

Elisa Shevlin Rizzo, Managing Director and Trust Counsel, is a senior trusts and estates advisor for Fiduciary Trust Company International, with broad experience in estate planning and administration.   She oversees administration of complex arrangements, including tax planning, reporting and valuation.  She also acts as Trust Counsel, providing guidance on issues confronting executors and trustees and advice concerning all aspects of estate planning.  Prior to joining Fiduciary Trust, she was Counsel at Cummings & Lockwood LLC where she focused on sophisticated estate planning and administration and represented charitable organizations with regard to their planned giving programs.  Previously, Ms. Rizzo was an associate with Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.