Christiana Lazo
Christiana Lazo
Partner | Kirkland & Ellis
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Trusts: Planning
Tax Advisory
Office Location
New York, United States
Short Biography
I represent ultra-high net worth individuals, their family offices and closely held businesses in developing and implementing sophisticated domestic and international tax and estate plans. I regularly work with principals of private equity and venture capital funds on their estate planning and counsel global clients on inbound and outbound planning, particularly advising families with members in multiple jurisdictions on wealth transfers and on tax-efficient investment and business ownership structures.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Caroline Sayan
Caroline Sayan
President and CEO, Americas | Cadell + Co Ltd
JURISDICTION
England and Wales, Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, United States
TOP SPECIALISMS
Alternative Investments
Art and Cultural Property
Estates: Planning
Office Location
United States
Short Biography
Caroline Sayan is the President and CEO Americas of Cadell Inc art advisory which is an international group with offices in New York and London. Caroline has 30 years’ experience as a global art market executive at a major auction house. Caroline’s was responsible for global commercial and financial negotiations for estates and property for sale across 70 collecting categories and in over 7 country sale sites. Caroline has extensive knowledge of the Asian art market while living and working in China and oversaw the opening of the China market to western art auctions. Cadell provides professional advisors with executive level independent advice related to estate, sales, purchases and collection management.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Cara Koss
Cara Koss
Attorney | Arnold & Porter
JURISDICTION
United States
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Family Office
Trusts: Planning
Office Location
United States
Short Biography
Cara Koss focuses her practice on advising high net worth individuals, both domestically and internationally, on a wide range of sophisticated matters including estate planning, trust and estate administration, lifetime gifting, family office formation and counseling, asset protection, business succession planning, and tax compliance. Ms. Koss specializes in structuring tax-efficient wealth transfer strategies for clients designed to preserve family legacies through the generations, protect assets from potential creditors, and incorporate clients' philanthropic and other non-tax objectives. Ms. Koss also has expertise in the settlement of complex estate matters, including disputes between family members and audits with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Bryan Andersen
Bryan Andersen
Director, Investment Services & Relationship Management | The Bryn Mawr Trust Company of Delaware
JURISDICTION
United States
TOP SPECIALISMS
Asset Management
Family Office
Trusts & Trusteeship
Office Location
United States
Short Biography
With nearly 3 decades working within the wealth management space, Bryan has extensive experience in all facets surrounding the needs of UHNW individuals and their families located around the world. As Director of Investment Services and Relationship Management for The Bryn Mawr Trust Company of Delaware, he leads a team of trust professionals operating within the construct of the ‘Delaware Advantage’, where he aligns a family’s strategy and values to support their needs generations down the road. Bryan began his career at Merrill Lynch, before transitioning to focus solely on Delaware trust law in 2017. Concurrently, he recently retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps, where his awards included the Combat Action Ribbon and Bronze Star medal for service in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
When in San Francisco, the restaurant Gary Danko
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Just get the job done'
What was your first job?
Newspaper boy
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
The Book of Charlie
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
AI transformation
Bonnie Chmil
Bonnie Chmil
Partner | Katten
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
United States
Short Biography
As a Partner in Katten's Private Wealth Practice, Bonnie represents high-net-worth individuals, families and fiduciaries in contentious disputes, balancing her extensive experience in commercial litigation with a sensitivity to the needs and expectations of private clients and fiduciaries. Her work has been recognized by Chambers High Net Worth and Citywealth.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
The Rainbow Room Dining Club
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
To aim higher!
What was your first job?
babysitting as a teenager to but Michael Jackson concert tickets
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
A continuing increase in high stakes private wealth litigation
Betty Andrikopoulos
Betty Andrikopoulos
Executive Managing Director, Board of Managers | Crestbridge Fiduciary
JURISDICTION
United States
TOP SPECIALISMS
Family Governance and Business
Fiduciary
Trusts & Trusteeship
Office Location
United States
Short Biography
Betty is a member of the Crestbridge Fiduciary Board of Managers and an executive managing director of Client Strategy at Willow Street. She specializes in aligning strategy and values to fiduciary structures that will support a family's current and evolving needs and brings insights on leading practices in PTC governance, operations, and administration. Betty brings over 30 years of experience in finance and marketing strategy in the banking, med-tech, and real estate industries, and in organizations ranging from start-ups to multinational corporations. Her breadth of experience brings a unique and integrated perspective to clients. Betty holds the TEP designation from STEP and the CTFA designation from the American Bankers Association. She serves as Chair of STEP Wyoming and President of the Wyoming Trust Association. Betty earned her MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and her BS in Finance from the University of Florida. She is fluent in Spanish.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
If I'm home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, I like to take people to Snake River Grill for incredible local, organic food. If I'm traveling, Greek or Cuban food!
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
"Don't be afraid to make mistakes."
What was your first job?
I was a camp counselor in Miami, where I was born and raised.
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Currently, I am recommending "The Overstory" by Richard Powers. It will forever change the way you think about trees.
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
A continued focus on succession planning due to (1) the "great wealth transfer” and (2) movement towards professional trustees and PTCs to improve the durability and flexibility of structures.
Basil Zirinis
Basil Zirinis
Partner | Sullivan & Cromwell
JURISDICTION
United States, United Kingdom, Latin America, Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, China, Middle East
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Family Governance and Business
Trusts: Contentious
Office Location
United States
Short Biography
Basil Zirinis has been a partner in S&C’s Estates and Personal Group since 1994 and leads its international private client practice from London and New York. He represents individuals, fiduciaries and family-controlled businesses throughout the world in a broad range of matters, including domestic and international estate and trust planning, family business governance and transition, estate and trust administration and litigation. He speaks regularly at international conferences regarding U.S. and international tax and estate planning.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Oswald's in London
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
The safest place is at your desk
What was your first job?
Painting docks in a marina
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
An increased focus by clients on strengthening their structures to anticipate crises that had become almost unthinkable, such as a major war in Europe.
Annie Hughes
Annie Hughes
Director | Blick Rothenberg
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Relocation and Cross-Border Advisory
Office Location
London, United Kingdom
Short Biography
I help individuals navigate both the US and UK tax systems. Working predominantly with internationally mobile Americans living outside of the US or individuals moving to the States. I have experience with wealthy families, serial investors, entrepreneurs, executives, partners, VC, hedge and private equity funds and a multitude of the cross border tax issues that HNWI face.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
What was your first job?
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Amy Szostak
Amy Szostak
Director of Family Education and Governance | Northern Trust
JURISDICTION
United States
TOP SPECIALISMS
Family Governance and Business
Family Office
Fiduciary
Office Location
United States
Short Biography
Amy has over 30 years of experience helping global multigenerational families navigate successful wealth transfers. By helping them articulate a collective vision of success, she empowers them to engage across generations, open communication channels, sharpen joint decision-making skills, and develop a common purpose to serve their families long into the future. Previously, she served as the Chief Fiduciary Officer for Northern Trust’s Global Family Office Group collaborating with the firm’s largest clients and overseeing their fiduciary practices in the U.S., Guernsey, and Cayman. Amy was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1997 and is a frequent writer and speaker. Her articles have appeared in Trusts & Estates, STEP Journal and Investment Wealth Monitor, and she has been quoted in publications such as Bloomberg, WSJ, and Kiplinger. In 2023 she received the Investments & Wealth Institute Governance Insight Award and is delighted to be speaking at Heckerling Institute in January 2024.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Momotaro Chicago
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Don't tell me what you can't do, tell me what you can do.
What was your first job?
I was a runner on the grain floor at the Chicago Board of Trade.
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
I am seeing a major shift in how multigenerational wealth clients are making decisions. Top-down decision making based on solely financial criteria is shifting to consensus decisions infused with shared values, purpose and meaning. Advisors will need to hone their “soft skills” to continue to excel in their practices.
Amy Heller
Amy Heller
Partner | Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
JURISDICTION
TOP SPECIALISMS
Estates: Planning
Trusts: Planning
Tax Advisory
Office Location
United States
Short Biography
Amy Heller is co-head of Skadden’s Private Clients/Trusts and Estates Group and also is a partner in the firm’s Tax Group. She is resident in Skadden's New York City office. Her practice encompasses a wide range of domestic and international estate planning and tax matters. Ms. Heller advises clients on income, gift and estate tax planning, trust administration and charitable giving. She counsels clients on issues that arise in connection with M&A and corporate finance transactions. She has extensive experience advising family offices and working with international families making inbound U.S. investments and U.S. families with holdings abroad. Ms. Heller serves on Skadden’s Financial Oversight and Audit Committee. She also is an adjunct professor at the New York University School of Law, where she currently teaches International Estate Planning and previously taught Income Taxation of Trusts and Estates for more than a decade.
What is your favorite restaurant to take a client or colleague to?
Ci Siamo, New York City
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
Work hard and be kind
What was your first job?
Child actress
What is the book you recommend to everyone?
What changes do you expect to see in your practice over the next year?
Depends on the outcome of the US 2024 elections!