Alison P. Herman, Esq.
Alison Herman - Representing high-net worth individuals and families, Alison Powers Herman counsels clients on wealth transfer planning, including estate planning and trust and estate administration issues, charitable giving, and estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax planning. Her practice encompasses a wide range of areas, including fiduciary litigation, tax-exempt organizations, and art law. Alison diligently monitors the ever-changing tax law landscape and looks for every opportunity to help her clients protect and pass along wealth in accordance with their preferences.
Alison primarily serves New York and tri-state clients whose properties span the world. She advocates for beneficiaries and fiduciaries in federal and state estate tax proceedings and assists clients with pre- and post-nuptial agreements, post-mortem estate planning, probate filings, and marshaling and valuation of estate assets. She also handles estate and trust accountings, consignment agreements, preparation of estate, gift, and fiduciary income tax returns, trust decantings, as well as the removal, resignation, and appointment of fiduciaries.
Alison advises tax-exempt organizations on issues that arise in formation, corporate governance, compliance with state and federal law, and dissolution. She also consults with artists, art collectors, and fiduciaries on art-related matters, including consignment, valuation, transfer, and preservation of artistic legacy. Drawing on her creative background, Alison appreciates her collaborations with art-oriented private foundations and other organizations that focus on the work of a particular artist or genre. She enjoys helping safeguard and re-home beautiful and innovative works of art and other valuable objects.
As a trusts and estates lawyer, Alison gets to know her clients very well on a personal level. Therefore, they tend to feel comfortable coming to her with an array of questions and concerns outside the usual realm of wills, tax planning, philanthropy, and related areas. When they approach her with such novel questions, they know they can trust her to direct them to the best resources that will help them resolve any issue. Alison finds it gratifying to work with many kinds of people from diverse backgrounds and has a particular knack for bridging the gap between the senior members of families and their younger relatives.