Estate Planning Explored in 2010: The New Model

Carlyn McCaffrey is a partner and chair of Weil, Gotshal & Manges' Estate Planning practice group and an adjunct professor of law at New York University School of Law and the Miami Law School. Ms. McCaffrey is a fellow and a past president of the American College of Trust & Estate Counsel, a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, a member of the International Academy of Trust & Estate Counsel, and a member of the Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Trust and Estate Act, of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform Laws. In addition, she is a past member of the Council of the Real Property Probate and Trust Section of the American Bar Association, the former chair of the Section’s Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax Committee, a member of the Tax Section of the New York State Bar Association and the former co-chair of the Section's Estates and Trusts Committees, a member of the Advisory Committee of the University of Miami’s Philip E. Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, a member and the secretary of the Board of Directors of the Catholic Communal Fund, a member of the Board of Directors of the Breast Cancer Research Fund, the chair of the Central Park Professional Advisory Committee, a member of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Professional Advisory Council, a member of The Museum of Modern Art’s Planned Giving Advisory Committee, and a member of the Professional Advisors Council Committee of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. 

Ms. McCaffrey frequently lectures on subjects relating to tax law, trusts and estates, foreign trusts and matrimonial law. She also writes extensively on these topics, and is the co-author of Structuring the Tax Consequences of Marriage and Divorce.

Blanche Lark Christerson is a managing director at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management, where she works with clients and their advisors to help develop appropriate planning strategies. She is also the author of Tax Topics, a regular commentary on current legislation and other tax issues. Prior to joining Bankers Trust Company (now Deutsche Bank) in 1997, she was in the estate planning department at U.S. Trust for 10 years, and had primary editorial responsibility for Practical Drafting, the estate planning publication. Ms. Christerson lectures to various planning and professional organizations nationwide, and is a frequent source for the media. She received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, her J.D. from New York Law School and her LL.M. in taxation from New York University School of Law. Ms. Christerson is a member of the New York State Bar Association, the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Bar of the City of New York and the American Bar Association; she is also the president of the Bagby Foundation for the Musical Arts.

Sanford ("Sandy") J. Schlesinger is a founding partner of the law firm of Schlesinger Gannon & Lazetera LLP. Mr. Schlesinger is a nationally recognized expert in the areas of estate and tax planning, estate administration, family-owned business planning, charitable planning and all related areas. He also handles all aspects of contested and litigated estate and trust matters. 

Mr. Schlesinger is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and its former Downstate New York Chair and a former member of its Charitable Planning and Exempt Organizations Committee. His other memberships include the Editorial Board of the New York State Bar Journal (Emeritus in 2006), Board of Directors of the New York State Bar Foundation, the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, the Estate Planning Advisory Committee of the Practicing Law Institute, and the Financial and Estate Planning Advisory Board of the Commerce Clearing House (CCH). He is a former chair of the New York State Bar Association's Trusts and Estates Law Section, a former chair of the Advisory Board of the New York University Institute on Federal Taxation, and a former member of the American Bar Association’s Probate and Trust Committee – Estate Planning and Drafting: Charitable Giving. He is also a former Adjunct Professor of Law at New York Law School, where he taught estate and gift taxation, an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Miami Law School and a former adjunct faculty member at Columbia University School of Law. 

Mr. Schlesinger received a B.S. (with honors) in 1963 from Columbia University and a J.D. in 1966 from Fordham University School of Law. In addition to being a frequent lecturer, Mr. Schlesinger has authored three books and numerous publications on trusts, estates, taxation, closely held business and family succession planning, charitable giving and related matters. In 2009, he was elected to The National Association of Estate Planners and Councils Estate Planning Hall of Fame. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America, Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World, "The New York Area's Best Lawyers," New York Magazine and New York Times (through 2009) "New York Super Lawyers," New York Times, for over 20 years as one of "The Best Lawyers in America".

Robert S. Keebler, CPA, MST, AEP (Distinguished) is a partner with Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP and a 2007 recipient of the prestigious Accredited Estate Planners (Distinguished) award from the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils. Mr. Keebler has been named by CPA Magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Practitioners in the United States as well as one of the Top 40 Tax Advisors to Know During a Recession. Mr. Keebler frequently represents clients before the IRS National Office in the private letter ruling process and in estate, gift and income tax examinations and appeals, and he has received more than 150 favorable private letter rulings including several key rulings of “first impression.”