Jerry’s practice encompasses all aspects of Estate, Gift and Generation-Skipping Transfer Taxation.

Jerry was a partner at Wilson & McIlvaine (a Chicago icon founded in 1867), where he learned estate planning, trust administration, and investment oversight from highly experienced lawyers, many of whom served as Independent Trustees and Executors for some of Chicago’s most prestigious families.  Assets in a long-term trust with an Independent Trustee in charge of distributions will be isolated from claims of creditors and divorcing spouses.  These trust assets also will be exempt from estate tax at the death of each beneficiary and the beneficiary’s descendants.

The firm’s Client Services operation came into existence due to the fact that wealth can be a blessing or a curse.  Too much too soon can destroy a young person’s initiative and development.  When the older generation is no longer able to guide a descendant’s development that duty falls to a Trustee.

An institutional Trustee has a dual role of developing the beneficiary and turning a profit for the institution’s shareholders.  Occasionally these roles may be in conflict and doing the right thing may not occur.

A lawyer-Trustee also has a dual role of beneficiary development and the attorney’s ethical requirement of doing what makes the most sense for the family even if it means distribution of trust assets due to other factors, such as basis step-up and changing tax laws.  Jerry has had significant experience as lawyer-Trustee for many years and has passed those skills on to his son Brian and to many younger partners over the years.

In 2012, Jerry and Brian joined Harrison LLP as partners and brought with them the Client Services operation.