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Theodore R. Wagner

Theodore R. Wagner

Partner
Chair, Trusts and Estates Department

Wall Street Office
2 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005
wagner@clm.com
phone: 212-238-8705
fax: 212-732-3232 download v-card

Practice Areas

Trusts & Estates, Personal Tax Planning for Individuals

Practice Description

Trusts and Estates- focusing on representing families and individuals since 1969. Handles all facets of estate planning, including the drafting of wills, living trusts, providing advice in connection with gifts, both charitable and non-charitable, drafting charitable lead and charitable remainder trusts, trusts for minors and for incapacitated persons, insurance trusts, generation skipping trusts, GRITs, GRATs and QPRTs, and advice in connection with the use of S corporations, limited liability companies and limited partnerships in family planning. Advises families in connection with assets such as controlling interests in publicly held corporations, real property, tangible personal property, including works of art, and copyrightable materials. He supervises the administration of estates from probate through final distribution, including all dealings with the federal and state tax authorities, and advises on all aspects of trust administration. Mr. Wagner is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America, SuperLawyers, and The Chambers Directory of America's Leading Lawyers.

Education

  • B.A., 1964 Yale College
  • LL.B., 1967 Yale Law School

Admissions

  • 1968 New York
  • 1969 U.S. Court of Military Appeals
  • 1975 U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit
  • 1975 U.S. District Courts,  Southern and Eastern District of New York
  • 1978 Florida
  • 1981 U.S. Tax Court

Affiliations

  • Member: The  Association of the Bar of the City of New York; New York State Bar Association; Florida Bar Association
  • Fellow: American College of Trust and Estates Counsel
  • Director and member of the Executive Committee, The New 42nd Street, Inc., New York, New York
  • Member, Planned Giving Advisory Council of The New York Prebyterian Hospital 

Publications Available on this website...

"Important Estate Tax Bulletin," Client Advisory, December 29, 2009; "Annual Gift Tax Exclusion Amount to Increase to $13,000 as of January 1, 2009," Client Advisory, October 29, 2008

Illustrative Matters
  • Successfully represented fiduciaries in contested court proceedings, including will contests, a suit relating to usage of an island held in a trust, a proceeding to determine the validity of a right of election, cy pres proceedings, and contested accountings. 
  • Advised a family on the recapitalization of public corporation, then prepared shareholders’ agreement and family trust to hold and control company through “super-majority” voting stock held in the trust.
  • Advised executors in connection with the successful liquidation of large block of extremely thinly traded public securities. 
  • Represented family members in connection with the appointment of a conservator for an elderly relative, and the subsequent gifts to grantor retained income trusts for collateral relatives by the conservator under the “substituted judgment” doctrine. 
  • Represented fiduciaries in various will and trust construction proceedings. 
  • Advised family directors of private trust company on their power to use the adjustment provisions of the Uniform Principal and Income Act. 
  • Advised executors in connection with initial public offerings of stock, sales of individual artworks as well as art collections, sales of other assets including investment advisory businesses, horses, tracts of developed and undeveloped real property and motion picture and other literary rights.