Mary-Ann Wilson

Partner

T 312.753.6163
312.332.1150
mawilson@harrisonllp.com
Chicago, IL

Mary-Ann Wilson

Mary-Ann Wilson concentrates her practice in estate planning and estate and trust administration. Her practice includes:

  • Developing estate plans that meet clients’ personal and family goals and that minimize taxes, both now and for future generations.
  • Advising clients on all aspects of the administration of trusts and estates, from statements of intent to help guide future trustees, post-mortem estate planning (such as the use of disclaimers to achieve unique tax results for the next generation) to liquidity issues (such as qualification under Code Section 6166 to pay estate taxes in installments).
  • Conducting family meetings including multiple generations of a client’s family, to share everyone’s perspective on the family-wide estate planning goals, and fine-tune each client’s planning.
  • Reforming existing trusts that have obsolete or omitted provisions, both through inter-beneficiary agreements and court actions.
  • Negotiating the terms of clients’ major charitable gifts.
  • Organizing and maintaining private foundations, from obtaining recognition of their tax-exempt status and creating governance structures, to advising on operational matters.

Mary-Ann is a frequent speaker on estate planning topics. Since 2006, she has been elected as a Member of the Leading Lawyers Network (rated in the top 5% of Illinois lawyers) in the practice area of “Trust, Will & Estate Planning Law”.

“Buy-Sell Agreements and Sales Strategies for Succession Plans” and “Other Estate Planning Techniques Uniquely Applicable to Small Businesses,” Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education Business Succession Planning for the Family Business, 2010 and 2011

“Chi-Bar’s Top 40 Tax Hits”, Chicago Bar Association, 2010

“Planned Giving Techniques,” The Overture Society of the Lyric Opera, 2010

“Probate and Will Substitutes” Chicago Volunteer Legal Society, 2009

“Estate Planning under the Old New Tax Law,” Loyola University, 2000, 2002, 2004

“Impact of the New Law on Estate Planning,” Kane County Bar Association 2001

Illinois Supreme Court

Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals

United States Tax Court

University of Denver School of Law, J.D., 1975

Brown University, Political Science, 1972

American Bar Association

Chicago Bar Association

Chicago Estate Planning Council

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