Kevin Matz, Esq., CPA, LLM (taxation), is a partner in the Private Clients, Trusts and Estates Department at the national law firm of ArentFox Schiff LLP, based in its New York City office, where he co-chairs its Family Office Group.  Kevin’s practice is principally devoted to domestic and international estate and tax planning, family office services, estate administration and related litigation. Kevin earned his BS in Accounting from Lehman College (CUNY), his JD from Fordham University School of Law (where he was a Notes & Articles Editor of the Fordham Law Review) and his LLM in Taxation from New York University School of Law. Kevin is currently President-elect of the NYCPA, and is a former chair of both its Estate Planning Committee and its Trust and Estate Administration Committee, the current chair of both the FAE Curriculum Committee and of the NYCPA Professional Liability Insurance Committee, and a past President of the FAE Board of Trustees.  In addition, Kevin is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (“ACTEC”), in which connection he is a past Chair of ACTEC’s Business Planning Committee, the current Vice-Chair of its Washington Affairs Committee and a member of ACTEC’s Board of Regents. Kevin is also currently the Treasurer of the Trusts and Estates Law Section of the New York State Bar Association, and the past Chair of the UJA-Federation of New York’s Trusts and Estates Group (for which he was its Honoree at its 2023 Annual Event). Kevin may be contacted at 914-380-2140 or kevin.matz@afslaw.com.

Deep knowledge of the tax law and estate planning techniques is critical for any private client’s attorney. Tom pairs that knowledge with a strong sense of empathy that allows him to quickly discern the sensitive family issues that a client needs to address in his or her estate plan. Tom counsels clients on the full range of wealth transfer planning, seamlessly melding the tax implications of estate planning with the unique circumstances of the client’s family and non-tax goals. He has worked extensively with high net worth individuals and families, in particular owners of family businesses, and in the professional sports industry. Tom takes a practical approach to their estate planning. He recognizes that transfer tax savings do not have to come at the undue price of complexity and burdensome administrative costs. Tom also has extensive trust and estate litigation experience, representing both fiduciaries and beneficiaries. He has worked closely with ArentFox Schiff trial lawyers in litigating issues, including the rights of adopted individuals under a trust, the modernization of trust investment powers, alleged fiduciary self-dealing, and the rights of remainder beneficiaries in a disabled settlor’s revocable trust. He also has counseled fiduciaries on trust construction issues accountings, trust decanting and trust severance and merger.

Christine advises affluent individuals and families in wealth transfer planning, tax planning, estate and trust administration, and business succession planning. Her clients include principals of private equity, hedge fund, and venture capital firms; owners of closely held businesses; and executives of public corporations. Christine’s practice focuses on the complex estate and personal planning needs of her clients. She regularly represents entrepreneurial clients who have built significant wealth from the ground up. A conscientious and responsive advisor, Christine translates clients’ priorities and family dynamics into successful long term plans. Whether planning for an initial public offering, private sale of a business, transition to a younger generation, or ongoing governance and growth, she guides her clients in meeting their social and philanthropic goals and in educating younger generations on the stewardship of wealth. She has successfully implemented family constitutions and governance structures connecting trusts, family foundations, and family enterprises in a way that mentors and maintains a cohesive social vision.

Ms. Gillespie’s law practice focuses on international tax matters and income and estate tax planning for high net worth, non-resident individuals, non-U.S. individuals working in the U.S. and U.S. citizens working abroad. She has considerable experience representing clients making voluntary disclosures to the IRS. Before establishing her legal practice, she worked for Arthur Andersen, the Goldman Sachs Family Office and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom. She is Chair of the Suffolk County Bar Association Animal Law Committee; she is past Chair of the New York State Society of CPA’s Digital Asset Committee as well as their International Taxation Committee. She is a member of the AICPA, the American Bar Association, and the New York State, New York City and Suffolk County Bar Associations. She is admitted to practice in New York and the Law Society of England and Wales. She is a CPA; she has received her Masters of Science degree in Taxation and her Juris Doctor and is also a certified public accountant. Ms. Gillespie has served on the NYSSCPA’s Tax Division Oversight Committee and its Virtual Currency Task Force. She is a TEP (Trust and Estate Practitioner) under the auspices of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. She served as an adjunct Professor at Touro Law School. Ms. Gillespie lectures frequently and has authored a number of articles on topics including but not limited to, international taxation, virtual currency and digital assets. She is the author of the “Foreign Bank Account Reporting Compliance Guide (with FATCA coverage)” published by CCH.

Gary L. Fletcher joined Frazer Ryan Goldberg & Arnold LLP as a Senior Partner in 2024 after 35 years practicing at Nystedt & Fletcher PLLC. He is both an Attorney and a CPA. Gary is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), where he serves as a member of the Asset Protection and Fiduciary Income Tax Committees. His practice focuses on estate, gift, and income taxation, with a concentration in wealth and estate planning and preservation, tax, trust formation and administration, charitable gift planning, complex business transactions and trust, probate, and select commercial litigation, including mediation, alternative dispute resolution and representation before state and federal courts and administrative agencies. Gary is a graduate of the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, where he was a published member of the Arizona Law Review and subsequently served as a Note and Comment Editor on the Editorial Board. He served as a legislative intern for the Arizona House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee between undergrad and law school (Spring, 1986). Gary has served on the Board of Directors of Casa de los Ninos for the past 18 years and as President of the Casa de los Ninos Foundation from 2008 to 2015. He was a member of the Arizona State Bar Probate and Trust Executive Council from 2013 through 2019, where he served as Treasurer and was active on the Council’s subcommittee advocating for Probate and Trust Section concerns regarding the legislation recently enacted as the Arizona Limited Liability Company Act. Gary currently serves on the State Bar of Arizona Business Section Executive Council and the State Bar of Arizona Tax Section Executive Council. He is a frequent national speaker on the Corporate Transparency Act before ACTEC and other professional organizations.

Dave helps beneficiaries vindicate their rights, advises individual fiduciaries in discharging their duties, and represents trust companies in their most significant and sensitive cases, including “rescue” situations in which he is called upon to assist or replace prior counsel. Dave is a vigorous advocate. Calm and no-nonsense, he defuses difficult situations while making the strongest case for his clients. He has applied this approach successfully in scores of trust disputes, contested estates, and related matters. In the Chambers High Net Worth Guide, a respected independent rating service, Dave is one of only five lawyers who received the highest “Band 1” ranking for Private Wealth Disputes in Illinois. According to Chambers, clients describe Dave as “wonderful to work with, incredibly responsive,” “exquisite,” and “very thoughtful, very knowledgeable about trust law and … just has a really well thought-out way of dealing with difficult clients, lowering the temperature and getting to the right resolution.” Recognized as a leader in his field, Dave is regularly invited to speak about topics relating to fiduciary litigation and managing fiduciary risk. He also serves as a mediator in complex trust and estate disputes. Dave is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), whose members are elected by their peers based on their skill, integrity, and contributions to the profession. He is an active member of ACTEC’s Fiduciary Litigation Committee and its Fiduciary Administration Task Force.

Adam helps clients resolve disputes involving: ownership and control of privately held businesses, including derivative and direct claims, breach of fiduciary duty claims, requests to inspect books and records, and breach of shareholder agreements and LLC agreements; sports, media, and entertainment law; restrictive covenants (noncompete and nonsolicitation agreements), trade secrets, and confidential information; and business torts and complex contract claims. His experience also includes drafting restrictive covenant agreements, representing professional associations, Freedom of Information Act requests, student discipline hearings, professional liability (malpractice) claims, trust and estate litigation, and animal law. Adam strives to understand each client’s business to help advance their legal and business interests. He helps his clients solve problems through advice and counseling, mediation, arbitration, and litigation in state and federal courts. He has experience representing plaintiffs and defendants at all stages of litigation, from temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions to summary judgment, arbitration hearings, bench and jury trials, and appeal. Before beginning his law career, Adam taught fourth grade as a Teach For America corps member.

Kirstie concentrates her practice on the media, entertainment, and sports industries and on avoiding and resolving disputes among owners of privately held businesses. She has successfully represented clients at all stages of litigation – in state and federal trial courts, in arbitrations, and on appeal, including in the Seventh Circuit and the Illinois Supreme Court. Kirstie puts her curiosity to work for her clients by identifying issues before they become problems and by proposing strategic solutions consistent with her clients’ ultimate objectives. Kirstie has uncovered issues with clients’ internal practices and helped clients to correct those issues to avoid significant liability. During law school, Kirstie was a student attorney with the Exoneration Project, where she gained experience with fact investigation, oral advocacy, and complex research regarding novel legal arguments.

Shaina Kamen is a private wealth services attorney. Ms. Kamen serves as general counsel to high-net-worth individuals and multigenerational families throughout New York and Florida. Ms. Kamen advises clients on all aspects of estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax planning to create plans consistent with client goals, with an emphasis on coordinating the overlay of business succession planning on estate planning for family-owned business structures. In addition to developing comprehensive wealth transfer plans for clients, Ms. Kamen often acts as a resource to family offices, including trustees and other advisors, to coordinate the implementation of estate plans across multigenerational family groups. She also works with family members and advisors to evaluate family office structures and needs, including restructuring existing family offices or creating new family offices as objectives evolve over time. Ms. Kamen's practice encompasses all aspects of estate and trust administration in New York and Florida, including post-mortem estate planning, and federal and state estate tax matters. Ms. Kamen frequently writes and speaks on estate planning topics relating to high-net-worth individuals and families. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law, Graduate Program in Taxation.

Before joining ArentFox Schiff, Tracy was a financial advisor with a registered investment advisory firm. Drawing on this experience, she understands how the estate plan fits within a client’s overall financial strategy. She was also an associate in the New York office of an elite international law firm. Tracy is a decorated combat veteran as well, serving five years in the United States Army.

Hanna’s experience in estate and trust planning, as well as estate and trust administration and litigation, includes tax planning, special needs planning, and LGBTQ estate planning. From 2013 to 2016, Hanna served as an Assistant District Attorney at the New York County District Attorney’s Office, where she handled felony and misdemeanor cases and led complex, long-term grand jury investigations. Her prosecutions included violent crimes, domestic abuse, sexual abuse, employee fraud, cyberstalking, and weapon and drug-related cases. After experiencing the challenges of handling the affairs of a family member firsthand, Hanna decided to transition her practice to estates and trusts. This experience made her passionate about assisting families in difficult times and helping them protect their loved ones by planning for the future.

As co-founder of Siller & Cohen, I take pride in my team’s ability to provide a sense of security for our high net worth families and business owners. We accomplish this by: - Serving as mathematically based stewards of wealth - Paying careful attention to risk management - Designing detailed, comprehensive, and holistic family financial plans - Being unwavering catalysts and advocates on behalf of our clients I began my career as a CPA* in Big 8 accounting and went on to obtain my Masters’ Degree in Taxation to develop a deeper expertise in tax planning. I co-founded Siller & Cohen because I saw a need to provide clients with honest, professional guidance across their entire financial situations. I went on to obtain my Certified Investment Management Analyst designation from the Wharton School of business (CIMA®). Some of my accomplishments include: - Member of Lincoln Financial Advisors/Sagemark Consulting elite "Prestige Planner Program" - Chairman of the NYSSCPA’s Estate Planning Committee - Community Healthcare Network Board Member (Finance and Audit committees) - Certified Continuing Education Instructor for Accountants and other professionals - Former member of the Security Committee for Johns Hopkins University - Successfully completed Harvard University’s Financial Leadership Program I was fortunate to have met Sir John Templeton early in my career, and he helped me to understand how critical it is to control volatility in a client’s portfolio. This is an important piece of what we do at Siller & Cohen. Our approach helped clients to weather the storm when the 2000 tech bubble burst and during the 2008 financial crisis. Our firm has a strong client service culture. We focus on hiring professionals with credentials across multiple disciplines, including, CFP® practitioners, Certified Investment Management Analysts, and MBAs – and have built a national reputation in the advisor community. We work collaboratively with our clients’ other advisors to implement comprehensive plans that best serve their interests. Our measure of success is how well we are helping our clients achieve their most important objectives. My wife and I currently live in New York City and recently celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. I have 3 lovely daughters. Stefanie, with whom I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, is currently working on her PhD. Meredith, a former attorney in L.A. who is pursuing a career as a psychotherapist was recently married. My youngest, Isabella, is attending Columbia Grammar and currently pursuing an acting career.

Ash Ahluwalia is the head of Social Security planning at OneTeam Financial. With nearly thirty years of experience, he is one of the nation’s foremost experts on Social Security and oversees the development of claiming strategies to maximize retirement income benefits. Social Security is the largest retirement asset for many Americans, often amounting to $1 million or more of lifetime pension benefits from the federal government. However, being governed by more than 2700 rules, over 90% of filers leave money on the table. Ash has helped thousands of clients to customize the best strategy for their personal situation. Ash is the former president and founder of National Social Security Partners, LLC (NSSP). He has two certifications in Social Security planning, National Social Security AdvisorSM and Certified in Social Security Claiming Strategies (CSSCS). For all of his efforts, expertise and leadership in Social Security planning, he was recognized with the “National Social Security Advisor of the Year” award in 2016 from the National Social Security Association. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, Ash obtained his Chartered Accounting degree (a Canadian CPA.) and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM designation. He then went on to obtain an MBA from Wharton Business School. Ash has been published in numerous newspapers and magazines for his expertise, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, U.S. News World Report, and Financial Planning magazine. He is also a highly-sought-after speaker at conferences, webinars and industry events for consumers as well as legal, accounting and other financial professionals. Originally from Toronto, Canada, Ash has lived in Madison, New Jersey for the past 25 years. He is married and has three grown children. He enjoys playing many sports, including ice hockey, golf and tennis, as well as traveling, health and fitness. He is also active in his wife’s charitable organization, Autism is Curable.