Tax-savvy preservation of self-created and intergenerational wealth

Patrick Bitterman concentrates in the areas of estate planning, taxation and tax-exempt organizations. Helping individuals, families, public charities and private foundations, Patrick advises on:

• Estate planning and administration, including wills, trusts and powers of attorney for property and health care
• Trust creation and administration, including revocable and irrevocable trusts, GRATs, SLATs, IDGTs, irrevocable life insurance trusts, qualified personal residence trusts and charitable trusts
• Taxation and tax planning, including advice on estate, gift, generation-skipping-transfer, income and not-for-profit taxation
• Planned giving, advising public charities, foundations and individuals on gift agreements, modification of endowed gifts through nonjudicial settlement agreements and court-ordered reformations
• Business succession planning, preparing for the tax-advantageous transition of family-owned businesses from generation to generation through family limited liability companies, installment sales and other vehicles
• Litigation, representing charities and fiduciaries in resolving trust and estate disputes

Patrick works to understand what matters most to a client and to devise plans and strategies accordingly. His approach aligns wealth preservation and charitable giving goals to maximize results for individuals, families and their businesses, as well as the tax-exempt organizations benefitting from planned giving.

Bar Admissions

• District of Columbia
• Illinois

Education

• Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law (J.D., 1990)

• Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management, Certificate, Quarles & Brady Leadership Program (2018)

• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (B.A., 1987)

• "Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts, Charitable Remainder Unitrusts and Charitable Lead Trusts"
• "Illinois estate tax has its pitfalls and opportunities"
• "Planning for Special Needs Beneficiaries"
• "Reading the Tea Leaves: How Tax Reform Could Impact Future Charitable Planning"
• Potential New Regulations May Be Reason for Prompt Action on Transfers of Limited Partnership and LLC Interests
• The Department of the Treasury and the IRS Extend the April 15 Gift Tax Deadline
• Three Ways the SECURE Act May Impact Your Retirement Plan
• “The Ins and Outs of In-Kind Gifts”

Seminar

• 2015 Annual Legal Ethics Seminar
• CCPG Virtual Annual Symposium
• Reading the Tea Leaves: How Tax Reform Could Impact Future Charitable Planning
• Video Replay - 2015 Annual Legal Ethics Seminar
• Video Replay - 2015 Annual Legal Ethics Seminar
• Video Replay - 2015 Annual Legal Ethics Seminar