Susan A. Mercure

Susan Mercure specializes in sophisticated estate planning and estate administration matters. She has represented high net worth clients both in estate planning and estate and trust administration.

On the estate planning side, she addresses techniques to reduce the size of an estate for estate tax purposes and distribution techniques to accomplish the distribution goals of her clients.  She is an effective communicator of technical concepts and is able to convey complex concepts in a manner that is understandable by her clients.

Susan assists her clients with their charitable planning goals, including the formation and implementation of family foundations. She also has an expertise in planning for retirement benefits.

On the administration side, Susan regularly prepares estate tax returns for her high net worth clients and represents them in the audit of those returns when necessary. She has assisted clients with secondary offerings to generate cash to pay significant estate taxes and effectively manages beneficiary disputes when they occur.

She also is able to devise solutions to complicated distribution issues to meet goals of beneficiaries. She assists fiduciaries and beneficiaries through the administration process with empathy and compassion.

Susan’s undergraduate degree is from Stanford University and she holds both a law degree and a Master of Law degree in tax. She has been a certified specialist in estate planning, trust and probate law for over twenty years and has been named to the 2017 “Best Lawyers” list published by U.S. News and World Report annually.

Susan is active in the YMCA and is a past chair of Mission Valley YMCA’s board of management, the immediate past chair of the YMCA of San Diego County Board of Governors, and is chair elect of the YMCA of San Diego County Board of Directors.