Susan Wheatley

Individual information

Practice Areas

Estate Planning; Wealth Transfer Litigation; Family Office Practice; Probate and Trust Administration

Career

Susan co-chairs the firm’s Private Client practice, working with our clients on their estate and business succession planning. The goal is to create a plan that meets our clients’ intentions, safeguards assets, and passes property to family, friends, and charities in a tax efficient way. The tools of estate planning include not only wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives, but thoughtful analysis of our clients’ concerns. Susan’s extensive knowledge of estate planning issues and her successful track record are among the reasons why she has received consecutive honors from Chambers HNW, Ohio Super Lawyers, Leading Lawyers, and Best Lawyers in America.

Susan enjoys working with family businesses across the generations. Most business owners are woefully out of date on their succession plans. The great majority of family businesses need updates of their buy-sell arrangements and coordination of those arrangements with their family estate plans and life and disability insurance. Planning can include family limited liability companies, generation-skipping trusts, GRATs and other techniques, all of which Susan explains and diagrams so the options are clear.