Practice Areas:

Larry Kline is a partner in the firm's Estate Planning Practice Group. Mr. Kline advises clients on estate planning, the administration of trusts and estates, business succession planning, premarital agreements and estate and trust litigation matters.  He has extensive experience in preparing trust documents to reduce or eliminate estate taxes, maximize the use of generation-skipping taxes, and avoid probate.  He also advises on a variety of tax savings techniques, such as lifetime gift arrangements, charitable split interest trusts, and family partnerships and limited liability companies.  Mr. Kline has lectured on and uses the very effective tool of transferring assets to an intentionally “defective” grantor trust, which can significantly reduce income, gift and generation-skipping taxes over multiple generations.  He has been involved in the resolution of many federal estate tax audits at the agent, appellate and tax court levels.  He also has extensive experience counseling families involved in trust and estate disputes and resolving those disputes.
 
His previous positions include working as a trust officer for five years at a major Chicago trust company, as head of the estate planning practice at a major Chicago law firm, and as a co-founder of an estate planning boutique firm.

Education:

• University of Michigan Law School (J.D.)
• Northwestern University (Bachelor of Science of Business Administration)

Admissions:

• State of Illinois Bar
• Admitted to practice before the United States Tax Court

Professional Activities:

• Chicago Estate Planning Council
• Chicago Bar Association (including membership in its Trust Law Committee)
• Past chair and member of the Executive Committee of the Trust Law Committee of the Chicago Bar Association
• Selected as an “Illinois Super Lawyer” 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011
• Highest Martindale Hubbell Peer Review Rating in Legal Ability & Ethics (AV)

Publications:

• Author, Disinheriting Uncle Sam: An Estate Planning Guide for Illinois Residents, Vireo Publishing, 1999.
• Co-author (with Karl R. Anderson), Using Total Return Trusts, Trusts & Estates Magazine, February, 2005.
• Author, Chapter 1, The Creation of the Trust, Trust Administration, Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, 1976, 1979, 1983, 1987, 1992, 1995, 1999, 2002, 2008.
• Author, Jumping on the Bandwagon of Probate Practice Automation, CBA Record, January, 1992

Presentations:

Mr Kline has made speeches on a variety of technical topics to various continuing legal education groups, including the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, the Chicago Bar Association, the DuPage County Estate Planning Council, and the Illinois Association of Certified Public Accountants.

Mr. Kline also frequently speaks before lay groups, such as library and park district patrons, retirement home residents, company retirees, Rotary and Kiwanis clubs, and Chambers of Commerce, and is available for such engagements at no charge.