Marty offers strategic counsel regarding asset ownership and structure, retirement planning and charitable planning for business owners, executives, entrepreneurs, traders, charities, family offices and individuals. He has administered estates and trusts ranging in size from $500,000 to more than $100 million. Clients rely on his aptitude for minimizing their tax burdens combined with the tact and discretion he employs in managing the sensitive human concerns that often arise during the estate planning process.
He uses his multidisciplinary skill set to provide advice on essential, complex business and personal issues – succession planning, complex business transactions, litigation oversight and investment advice – while mitigating the risks his clients face to the greatest possible extent.
Marty has developed a reputation among his clients for the skill with which he negotiates premarital agreements. His clients, typically high net worth individuals, appreciate how he diplomatically defuses potentially emotional matters and arrives at reasonable solutions that appeal to and satisfy all parties.
A trusted guide who helps his clients discover and assess all of their options, Marty excels at analyzing and presenting complicated concepts in ways that are easily digestible. His capacity for helping his clients make well-informed decisions about their business and personal matters is well known. He has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America since 2011, has been repeatedly recognized in Illinois Super Lawyers, and has been rated as “AV-Preeminent” in Martindale-Hubbell for more than twenty years.
- Marty negotiated a family settlement agreement which featured a substantial cash distribution to a trust beneficiary and a series of exercises of powers of appointment and trust mergers to eliminate the interest of this beneficiary in all remaining trusts. This tax effective division also helped improve relationships among family members.
- Marty presently is administering a complicated decedent’s estate with significant assets in multiple locations, including a boutique cattle operation and unique collectables.
- Marty assisted senior members of a family who wanted to shift assets tax free to provide future generations with educational and medical assistance. Marty designed a structure which included a limited partnership, a grantor annuity trust and a perpetual Educational and Medical Trust, accomplishing the family’s intentions in a tax efficient manner.
- Marty successfully negotiates and drafts many prenuptial agreements – sometimes it seems that wedding bells are ringing all year! Marty believes that successful negotiation of a prenuptial agreement before marriage, although undoubtedly stressful at the time, actually increases the likelihood of a lengthy and successful marriage.
- The Best Lawyers in America, recommended in “Trusts and Estates” since 2011
- Illinois Super Lawyers, recommended in “Estate Planning and Probate,” 2006, 2009, 2012-present
Bar Admissions
Court Admissions
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois