Related Professionals
READING, PA, November 6, 2017 – Jay R. Wagner, Co-Chair of Stevens & Lee’s Estates and Trusts Department, presented at a continuing legal education program, “Administering an Estate in Pennsylvania,” hosted by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and held in Mechanicsburg on September 28, 2017.
Mr. Wagner led two sections of the program. In the first, he addressed identification, marshalling, valuation, administration and disposition of estate assets. Mr. Wagner then led the portion of the program focused on fiduciary litigation, with particular emphasis on standards of fiduciary liability and surcharge actions.
A Shareholder at Stevens & Lee, Mr. Wagner concentrates his practice in estate and trust planning and administration, wealth preservation, trust and estate litigation, charitable and nonprofit organizations, and guardianship administration.
Mr. Wagner is experienced in advising high net worth clients in all aspects of estate planning, including business succession planning, charitable trusts and other charitable giving techniques, use of insurance to facilitate business transition and other planning objectives, GRATS, QPRTS, defective grantor trusts and other leveraged strategies. As part of his practice, Mr. Wagner routinely advises clients about creditor and other threats to their wealth preservation goals, how various common forms of asset ownership and estate planning strategies might reduce or enhance such threats and how use of asset protection trusts and other tools can help clients preserve the wealth they have worked hard to accumulate.
In addition to planning and administration, Mr. Wagner has substantial experience in fiduciary litigation, including will and trust contests, abuse of power of attorney matters, and representation of corporate and other fiduciaries in surcharge actions. He regularly consults corporate and other fiduciaries regarding complex administration decisions with a view toward avoiding litigation, negotiates and documents non-judicial agreements to address such issues, secures court approval of such arrangements where necessary or advisable and represents clients in contested litigation regarding such matters. He is a regular author for and member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Litigating in Orphans’ Court panel.
He is also highly experienced in the application of Pennsylvania’s cy pres doctrine as it applies to disposition of assets in transactions involving nonprofit health care and other charitable institutions in Pennsylvania. He has applied this expertise in the context acquisition of nonprofit entities by for-profit entities, as well as sales of assets and other transactions by nonprofit entities.
Mr. Wagner holds a J.D., magna cum laude, from Villanova University School of Law and a B.B.A., magna cum laude, from Temple University.
