Howard M. Helsinger, Partner

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• Practice Areas: ESTATE PLANNING AND ADMINISTRATION
  
  
• HOWARD M. HELSINGER is a nationally known attorney specializing in multi-generational estate planning for high net worth individuals and families, estate administration, charitable planning, and trust and estate related litigation.
  
  He advises individuals and families in all aspects of planning for preservation and transfer of wealth: business succession planning, multi-generational trusts, family partnerships, charitable trusts and foundations, asset protection, and trusts for disabled family members. He strives to address the diverse needs of family members, and the concern that family wealth not distort the lives of children.
  
  He has handled all stages of the administration of multi-million dollar estates, from the beginning through IRS audit of the estate tax return, including the successful defense of valuation discounts. He has represented major universities and banking institutions in the reformation of charitable trust instruments to adapt to changes in tax laws; has represented families and corporations in actions alleging breaches of fiduciary duties; and has served as an expert witness in such matters.
  
  He teaches Trusts and Estates at the University of Chicago Law School, and lectures regularly on Tax and Multi-Generational Planning in the course on Private Wealth Management for High Net Worth Individuals and Families in the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Executive Education program. He has also taught at the Northwestern University School of Law and in the graduate tax program at IIT-Chicago Kent College of Law.
  
  He is a frequent speaker on tax and estate planning issues for the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education, and has also lectured for the American Bar Association, the Minnesota Bar Association, the Nebraska Bar Association, the Illinois CPA Society, the annual Federal Tax Conference of the IITKent College of Law, and the Chicago Council on Planned Giving.
  
  His publications include articles on Advising Trust and Estate Litigants, on the Illinois Uniform Transfers to Minors Act, and chapters in the IICLE handbooks on Estate Administration and on Basic Estate Planning.
  
  He has been Chair of the Chicago Bar Association Probate Practice Executive Committee; a member of the CBA Probate Rules and Forms Committee; a member of the Planned Giving Advisory Committee of the Newberry Library, an advisor on planned giving to the National Humanities Center, was a member of the Steering Committee of the Greater Chicago Philanthropy Initiative, and was a member the committee that drafted the Illinois Uniform Transfers to Minors Act. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and a member of the Chicago Estate Planning Council.
  
  Before joining Sugar & Felsenthal he was a partner with the Chicago law firm of Altheimer & Gray. After receiving his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1978, he clerked for two years in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Prior to that he received a B.A. from Haverford College, a Ph.D. in English Literature from Princeton University, and taught English Literature at Boston University. In that career he published articles on James Joyce, medieval manuscript illuminations, French fabliaux, and Victorian autobiography.
  
  He is a past president of K.A.M. Isaiah Israel Congregation, the K.A.M. Isaiah Israel Foundation; and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Illinois ACLU.
  
• Bar Admissions:
  
  Illinois (1978)
  
• Memberships:
  
  American Bar Association
  
  Illinois State Bar Association
  
  Chicago Bar Association
  
  Fellow, American College of Trust and Estate Counsel
  
  
• Additional Information:
  
  Howard Helsinger's CV