January 11, 2018

Location:   Law Offices of Katten Muchin Rosenman, LLP

About the Panelists:

Moderator: Kathryn von Matthiessen

Kathryn von Matthiessen is a partner at Katten Muchin Rosenman’s Trusts and Estates practice and a member of the Private Client Services group. She focuses primarily on sophisticated personal and estate planning for high net-worth individuals and the administration of complex estates and trusts, including the representation of trust companies on fiduciary matters. Kathryn handles extensive estate planning for both domestic and international families, utilizing a wide variety of techniques (both charitable and non-charitable in nature) to minimize taxes and achieve her clients’ goals.

Kathryn’s experience in international private client work is extensive. Regarding inbound matters, she regularly advises clients on pre-residency planning, creating trusts for these clients to fund prior to their US residency start date, and pinpointing opportunities to step up the basis of assets for US income tax purposes and/or provide US income tax deferral. She also specializes in cross-border planning for foreign families with US members through the use of foreign grantor trusts and domestic receptacle trusts, providing tax efficient generational wealth transfers for the US family members, while minimizing US gift and estate tax exposure for the foreign settlors… She also counsels foreign clients on tax efficient structuring for purchasing US situs assets, considering relevant treaties and preparing US situs wills with qualified domestic trusts, when necessary.

Kathryn also has an expansive background in business succession planning using trusts, private trust companies, buy-sell agreements and shareholder agreements. She has counseled clients on the existence of foreign estates for optimal US income tax planning and represented heirs of deceased foreign nationals in connection with the preparation and filing of 706-NAs with respect to US situs assets.

Panelists:

Jim Paladino, South Dakota 

Jim Paladino is the Managing Director of South Dakota Planning Company in New York City.  South Dakota Planning Company (SDPC) is an estate planning and trust advisory firm for the wealthy, and a sister company of South Dakota Trust Company LLC. SDPC is responsible for sales, marketing and technical support, as well as, speeches, publications, trust planning and consulting to support South Dakota Trust Company (SDTC). SDTC, an independent trust company headquartered in Sioux Falls, SD, is a national trust boutique specializing in providing trust administration for the wealthy.  

Prior to joining South Dakota Planning Company, Jim Paladino was a Vice President and the Trust and Estate Counselor at Citigroup working with the high net worth Private Bankers in New York.  Mr. Paladino provided technical estate and charitable planning assistance to wealthy clients and their advisors. 

Mr. Paladino graduated from the State University of New York at Albany and earned his Juris Doctorate from St. John’s University School of Law.  Mr. Paladino received his LL.M. in Taxation from New York University in 1998.  Mr. Paladino is admitted to the State Bar of New York and New Jersey and is a member of the New York State Bar Association and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). In addition, Mr. Paladino currently serves as Corporate Counsel Liaison Officer to the Individual Tax & Private Client Committee of the International Bar Association (IBA). 

Greg Crawford, Nevada 

Greg Crawford is the President of Alliance Trust Company of Nevada.  Greg is a trust and estates executive with extensive experience with sophisticated estate planning techniques, trust design strategies, trust portfolio designs, liability-driven investment portfolios and institutional portfolio management. He specializes in Nevada trust law, international estate planning, and general trust administration.

Mr. Crawford has regularly been quoted in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times of London, and has appeared as an on-air expert on CNBC, Bloomberg and ABC World News Tonight.  A native of Menlo Park, California, Greg holds a BA from the University of California, Davis, and an MHA from the University of Minnesota. 

Todd D. Mayo, New Hampshire 

Todd D. Mayo is a principal and general counsel of Perspecta Trust. Todd works with clients in designing and implementing trust and wealth strategies, and he oversees legal matters for the company.

Before joining Perspecta Trust, Todd was a partner in Cleveland, Waters and Bass. He previously was president of Cambridge Trust Company of New Hampshire and a senior vice president of Cambridge Trust Company. He had earlier practiced trust and tax law with Cleveland, Waters and Bass.

Todd actively participates in legislative and regulatory initiatives to enhance New Hampshire’s position as a leading jurisdiction for trusts and trust companies. He is the principal author of several portions of New Hampshire’s trust laws. As a member of a public-private working group that revised the state’s banking laws, he was a principal author of the New Hampshire Trust Company Act and the New Hampshire Family Trust Company Act. He is the principal author of the New Hampshire Foundation Act. With the enactment of the Foundation Act, New Hampshire became the first state to allow the formation and domestication of civil-law foundations.

Todd is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, a former president of the New Hampshire Trust Council, and a former chair of the New Hampshire Bankers Association’s Trust

Chris Reimer, Wyoming

Chris Reimer practice consists primarily of private client services, including tax planning, estate planning, and also includes transactional areas of real estate, corporate law, trust & probate administration, situs planning, and asset protection planning. Mr. Reimer is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.

Mr. Reimer received a B.S. in Accounting, magna cum laude, from the University of Wyoming in 2001, and then his J.D. with honors in 2004. He obtained a master of laws in taxation (LL.M.) from the University of Denver in 2006. Mr. Reimer has been admitted to practice before the U.S. Tax Court, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. He is licensed to practice law in Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming.  Mr. Reimer is currently Treasurer of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) – United States of America, an organization with 17 branches and chapters in the USA.  Mr. Reimer is a former and inaugural Chairman of the Wyoming Chapter STEP.  Mr. Reimer is a former Director of the Wyoming State Bar Foundation, Teton County Library Foundation, and the Wyoming Center for Legal Aid.  Mr. Reimer served as an Adjunct Professor of Law (Estate Planning) at the University of Wyoming College of Law for the spring semester of 2011.

Cynthia D. M. Brown, Delaware 

Cynthia D. M. Brown is the President of Commonwealth Trust Company and a member of its Board of Directors.  Prior to joining Commonwealth, Cindy worked for several large Philadelphia firms in the areas of tax, estate planning, asset protection planning, probate and trust administration.  A member of the Delaware State Bar Association Trust Act Committee, Cindy is also a member the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Bars; the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP); a Vice Chair of the ABA Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law and the Asset Protection Planning Committee; the Chair-Elect of the Board of Directors of the Delaware Bankers Association (DBA); Chairman of the DBA’s Trust Committee and a member of the Board of Directors for Delaware CarePlan, Inc.  Cindy also chairs the Trust Management Minor Advisory Board to the University of Delaware.  Cindy has written and spoken on many topics relating to Delaware trusts, tax, estate planning, asset protection planning, probate and trust administration which can be found at http://www.comtrst.com/trust-our-experience/cynthia-brown.