Susan T. Bart helps clients transfer their wealth in meaningful, tax efficient ways. Her practice focuses on estate and gift tax planning, trust and estate administration, charitable planning, and fiduciary counsel. Her clients include wealthy individuals and families, family business owners, corporate executives, banks and trust companies, trustees and executors and private foundations.
Susan is a fellow, regent, and former Illinois state chair of the American College of Trust & Estate Counsel (ACTEC), the leading national association for trust and estate lawyers. She was the Reporter of the Uniform Trust Decanting Act, which is now being enacted in several states. She has also been active in Illinois trust law legislation.
A recognized industry thought leader, Susan has written extensively on trust and estate law topics with more than 30 published articles and two books. She has lectured to professional groups around the country, such as the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, ACTEC, the Notre Dame Trust & Estate Planning Institute, ALI-ABA, the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, American Institute of CPAs, and the American Bankers Association.
Susan has garnered many accolades for her work, including recognition as a 2017 National Law Journal Divorce, Trusts & Estates Trailblazer, a leading lawyer in Private Wealth by Chambers, and “best in wealth management” by Euromoney Legal Media Group in 2013.
She also received the 2013 Austin Fleming Award from the Chicago Estate Planning Council for achievement in estate planning practices, among other awards.
She started her private law career after clerking for the Hon. Richard D. Cudahy, United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.
EXPERIENCE:
- Served as the Reporter for the Uniform Trust Decanting Act, which was drafted to create rules for nonjudicial modification of irrevocable trusts that carefully balance the interests of various parties and permit the parties to reasonably rely on prior modifications.
- Co-chairs a committee of the Chicago Bar Association to introduce a new Trust Code in Illinois, which involves several years of work to draft the approximately 200-page bill. This legislation will be a major advance in Illinois trust law.
EDUCATION:
- University of Michigan Law School, J.D., 1985
- Grinnell College, B.A., 1982
BAR ADMISSIONS:
- Illinois
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:
- American College of Trust & Estate Counsel (ACTEC), Regent, Fellow, and Former Illinois State Chair
- Illinois State Bar Association, Trusts & Estates Section Council, Member
- Chicago Bar Association, Trust Law Committee, Member and Past Chair; Probate Practice Committee, Member
- Chicago Estate Planning Council, Member
- American Bar Association, Member
Cost
Rate : $$$