Overview
Brenda Crandell is Partner and the Chair of the Taxation & Estates Group at Meister Seelig & Fein. She has 30+ years of experience advising clients on Taxation, Private Client Planning and Trusts & Estates. Clients include individuals, corporate owners and executives, family offices, professional business practices, public figures, artists and charitable organizations.
Ms. Crandell is responsible for identifying opportunities and implementing sophisticated corporate, income and transfer tax (estate, gift and GST) planning techniques, including the integration of the corporate and personal needs of clients on a multi-generational basis. The best estate and tax planning often includes identifying future liquidation events and adapting and preparing for such events with advanced gift planning.
Ms. Crandell advises clients on ways to meet the personal, family and business objectives of each client in a tax efficient manner. Her estate planning practice includes transactional strategies, gift planning, supplemental needs planning, asset protection planning, charitable giving, contested and uncontested probate proceedings, estate and trust administration and wealth preservation. She advises clients on Will contests, fiduciary disputes and family concerns. The planning also often involves change of residency for individuals, change of situs for trusts, navigating though very technical tax provisions and decanting trusts to address desired changes in the terms thereof.
Ms. Crandell structures and implements various business combinations, buy-sells, compensation arrangements and agreements for medical, legal and accounting professionals and closely-held corporate clients in order to ensure that such arrangements are compatible with the estate planning of the client and achieves overall best tax planning practices.
Education & Admissions
EDUCATION
LL.M., Taxation, New York University School of Law
J.D., Albany Law School of Union University
B.A., State University of New York at Buffalo
ADMISSIONS
New York
United States Tax Court
Honors & Involvement
HONORS
New York State Bar Association (Trusts & Estates Law Section)
American Bar Association (Real Property, Probate & Trust Section and Taxation Section)