Description
Trusts & Estates Counsel – Private Wealth Practice
Location: Philadelphia (Hybrid)
Sterlington’s Private Wealth group is led by Daniel Cooper, a seasoned private wealth practitioner who built this practice around a straightforward conviction: the most consequential moments in a family’s financial life deserve the most capable counsel.
Your work will span the full arc of complex private wealth practice:
- Design and implement advanced estate plans for clients with taxable estates exceeding $75M , including GRATs, SLATs, IDGTs, BDITs/BDOTs, QPRTs, non-grantor trusts, CLTs, CRTs, and private foundations
- Advise on estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax strategy, including multi-generational wealth transfer and dynasty trust structures
- Oversee trust and estate administration , probate, fiduciary compliance, post-mortem tax planning, and decanting
- Counsel on business succession planning: transfer of closely held entities, buy-sell agreements, recapitalizations, and GRAT/installment sale strategies
- Coordinate with family offices, investment advisors, accountants, and fiduciaries to deliver integrated, seamless counsel
- Manage sensitive, multi-party family dynamics with the discretion and emotional intelligence these relationships require
Experience:
- J.D. from a top-tier law school; LL.M. in Taxation or Estate Planning strongly preferred
- Active membership in a U.S. state bar (PA, FL, NY, CA, TX, IL, or DC preferred)
- Minimum eight years of experience in trusts and estates law, with a focus on UHNW clients
- Mastery of federal estate, gift, and GST tax laws; familiarity with state-level nuances and fiduciary income taxation
- Proven track record of handling planning and administration matters for clients with net worths exceeding $75M
- Experience advising family offices, business owners and multigenerational wealth structures
Compensation at Sterlington is competitive and structured around the quality of the person and the context they bring. Full-time employees are eligible for Medical, Dental, Vision, and 401(k).