Lester B. Law focuses on estate and trust planning, business succession planning, estate and trust administration, beneficiary and fiduciary administration and income tax matters. Lester spent the early part of his career practicing law as a trusts and estates attorney. He then switched to an advisory role working predominately with ultra-high net worth clients in two national trust companies. He has worked with many entrepreneurs and their families advising them on business succession planning, including dealing not only with the transactional and tax matters, but also with family dynamics and other related issues. With that experience, combined with his background as a certified public accountant, he brings his unique experience in understanding both the income tax, transfer tax and the family dynamic side of planning.
Lester is a Fellow of the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel (ACTEC), and serves on the Fiduciary Income Tax and Transfer Tax Study committees. He is also an active member of the American Bar Association’s Real Property Trusts and Estate (ABA RPTE) Section, serving as co-chair of the ABA RPTE’s Income and Transfer Tax Planning Group, as well as being a member of other committees. An active member of and board certified in Wills Trusts and Estates law by the Florida Bar, Lester has held many leadership roles at the Florida Bar’s Real Property Probate and Trust Law Section, including chairing committees, being an editor of the Tax Notes for the Florida Bar Journal and currently co-chairing a subcommittee exploring the utility of Community Property Trusts in Florida.
Lester is a nationally recognized speaker and author. Recent presentations and venues include, University of Miami Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, the Notre Dame Tax & Estate Planning Institute, ABA-RPTE meetings, Washington School of Law – Annual Estate Planning Council, Portland Estate Planning Council, Ave Maria School of Law Estate Planning Symposia, and Florida Attorney / Trust Officer Liaison Conference. He has lectured for the past decade at the Florida Banker’s Trust School, was an adjunct professor at the Ave Maria School of Law, and will also serve as an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law, Graduate Estate Planning Program.
Lester’s writings have been published in many national journals and publications, including Trusts & Estates, The Florida Bar Journal, Probate and Property, Bloomberg/BNA Estates, Gifts & Trusts Journal, Estate Planning, and Steve Leimberg’s – LISI’s Newsletters. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg/BNA, and other national media. Lester is also a co-author of a book on estate planning titled, Tools and Techniques of Trust Planning. Lester is rated AV® Preeminent™ by Martindale Hubbell. Prior to joining Franklin Karibjanian & Law, Lester was a managing director at US Trust and Abbot Downing (Wells Fargo’s ultra-high net worth boutique) focusing on planning for the ultra-high net worth clients for a dozen years. He also practiced law for more than a dozen years in Florida. Prior to law school, Lester was a CPA in Florida with PriceWaterhouseCoopers (formerly Price Waterhouse) for several years.
Lester earned his undergraduate degree in accounting (honors) from Florida International University; his masters of science in taxation from the University of Miami; his juris doctor from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and his LLM (Tax) from the University of Florida (graduating at the top of his class). He is admitted to the Florida bar and is pending admission in the District of Columbia.
