Joseph C. Mahon

Joseph C. Mahon is Of Counsel in the Estate Planning and Administration Group. Joe provides legal services covering Estate Planning & Probate, Estate & Trust Litigation and Tax: Consumer and Tax: Business.

For more than 25 years, he has advised clients on Estate Planning, Estate, Gift and Income Tax Planning, Generation Skipping Transfer Tax Planning, State Death Taxes, Family Office Services, Family Governance, Liquidity Events, Business Succession, Insurance, Lifetime Gifts, including Valuation Discounts, Grantor Trusts, Dynasty Trusts, Family Limited Partnerships, Intra-Family Loans, Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts, Private Annuities, Qualified Personal Residence Trusts, Crummey Trusts, Trust Terminations, Trustee Succession, Trust Protectors, Pre-Nuptial Agreements, Powers of Attorney, and Health Care Proxies.

He also guides clients through trust and estate litigation and dispute resolution, including contested guardianships and other issues unique to non-U.S. persons and assets.

Credentials

Joe served as a member of the New York City Bar’s Committee on Trusts & Estates, the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Legislation - Trusts & Estates Section.

He has served on the Committee on Taxation, from 2018 through the present. He has also served on several charitable boards, including the Board of Trustees of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, in Cold Spring, New York.

Awards and Recognitions

AV Preeminent: Joseph has been given the highest peer rating standard. Martindale-Hubbell conducts a thorough review of attorneys through a secure online peer review survey where a lawyer’s ethical standards and legal ability in a specific area of practice is assessed by their peers.

He is included in the 2023 New Jersey Super Lawyers list, as he has been each year since 2012. Super Lawyers, part of Thomson Reuters, selects attorneys using “a patented multiphase selection process.”

Articles

Joe has authored numerous articles on trust and estate matters and his articles have appeared in:

•Trusts & Estates magazine
•Estate Planning magazine
•New Jersey Lawyer
•Unique Homes

Joe has lectured frequently on estate planning for leading organizations including:

•New York City Bar Association
•New York State Bar
•New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education
•New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants
•Princeton Bar Association

“The Beneficiaries’ Dilemma: controlling the spiraling cost of wealth management,” Wealth Management.com, https://wealthmanagement.com/high-net-worth/beneficiaries-dilemma?page=1

“Planning Trust Administration to Avoid Conflict,” with Patricia Angus, co-author, Trusts and Estates

“95 Theses for Managing Your Wealth,” with Elizabeth P. Anderson, co-author, published as White Paper by Beekman Wealth Advisory, LLC, http://beekmanwealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/95-Theses-for-Managing-Wealth1.pdf

“New York State Significantly Changes its Estate and Gift Tax Regime: It may be necessary to re-evaluate current plans,” with Adam Osterweil, co-author, http://wealthmanagement.com/estate-planning/new-york-state-significantly-changes-its-estate-and-gift-tax-regimes

“Reasonable Compensation: Florida court considers whether the “lodestar” method applies to determine trustee fees,” Trusts and Estates

“Estate Planning Shades of Grey: Giving discretion to a trustee may be more complicated than you think,” http://wealthmanagement.com/estate-planning/estate-planning-shades-grey

“Income Conundrum: An elusive concept, subject to changing interpretations,” http://wealthmanagement.com/estate-planning/income-conundrum

“Defining the Estate: Why Do You Ask?” http://wealthmanagement.com/app-exclusive/defining-estate-why-do-you-ask

“Sonnabend Case Settles: Rauschenberg eagle lands tax free,” http://wealthmanagement.com/taxes/sonnabend-case-settles

“IRS Issues Draft Form 706,” http://wealthmanagement.com/estate-planning/irs-issues-draft-form-706

“Spousal Access Trust Makes Use of Enlarged Gift Tax Exemption,” Estate Planning

“The Value of Unsalable Art: In Estate of Sonnabend, a golden eagle creates some major complications.” http://wealthmanagement.com/estate-planning/value-unsalable-art

“Playing Ball with Survivor Benefits: Jose Lima’s descendants must now step up and take their cuts.” http://wealthmanagement.com/wealth-planning/playing-ball-survivor-benefits

“The ‘TEA’ Factor: How Much Appreciation Must Occur for a Gift to Provide Estate Tax Savings Greater Than Income Tax Costs?” Trusts and Estates.

“Tax on Phantom Tax - Practitioners in Decoupled States Beware,” Trust & Estates.

“Intent, Process and Liability in Estate Planning,” New Jersey Lawyer, The Magazine, No. 210.

“Inter-Vivos Transfers of Closely Held Business Interests,” Advanced Estate Planning seminar materials, with Hume Steyer, Esq., as co-author, New York State Bar Association.

“Interests in Closely-Held Businesses,” Estate Planning and Will Drafting seminar materials, with Hume Steyer, Esq., as co-author, New York State Bar Association.

“Blitzkrieg on Family Businesses: Planners Should Review Transactions Involving Closely-Held Businesses in Light of Section 2036(c),” Trusts & Estates Magazine.

“Estate Planning for Residential Property,” with Ira Lustgarten, Esq., as co-author, Unique Homes.

“Poorly Conceived Statute Bad for Business: Section 2036(c) Creates Disincentives for Younger Generations,” Trusts & Estates Magazine.

Report on Proposed Technical Corrections to the Generations Skipping Transfer Tax, primary author, Committee on Trusts, Estates & Surrogates’ Courts, Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

“Grantor Lead Trusts: New Tax Savings Under the 10 Percent Tables, ” Trusts & Estates Magazine.

Seminars

New York City Bar Association, Bridge the Gap, New Jersey Estate Planning and Administration.

Fordham Law School, Bridge the Gap, New Jersey Estate Planning and Administration.

New York City Bar Association, Crossing State Borders in Trust & Estate Law: What the New York Practitioner Needs to Know About Florida, New Jersey, Delaware & Connecticut.

New York State Bar Association, Basic Estate Planning, Life Insurance and Retirement Benefits, New York, New York.

ICLE Seminar, Moderator and Speaker, Estate Planning for Special Situations, Voorhees, New Jersey.

ICLE Skills and Methods Program, Instructor, Will Drafting and Estate Administration.

New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants, Atlantic/Cape May chapter, CPE Seminar, Current Developments in Estate Planning and Administration.

New Jersey State Bar Association Foundation, Estate Planning Lecture for General Public, New Brunswick.

Panel Member: “Lessons from the Sandbox: Professionals Solving Problems Together,” Society of Financial Service Professionals, South Jersey Chapter.

New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants, Atlantic/Cape May chapter, CPE Seminar, Split Dollar Life Insurance.

New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants, Atlantic/Cape May chapter, CPE Seminar on Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001.

New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants, Atlantic/Cape May chapter, CPE Seminar on Planning for Retirement Assets.

New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants, Atlantic/Cape May chapter, CPE Seminar on Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001.

Princeton Bar Association, Panel Discussion on Conflicts of Interests, with Israel Dubin, Esq., and Kevin Michaels, Esq., Nassau Club, Princeton, New Jersey.

Mercer County Chapter, New Jersey State Society of Certified Public Accountants, Annual Tax Seminar, Lecturer on Estate Planning.

New York State Bar Association, Lecturer, Estate Planning and Will Drafting Seminar, Lecturer on Closely Held Business Interests, Uniondale, New York.

Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Forum on I.R.C. 2036(c).

Published Case Law

•Maressa v. New Jersey Monthly, 89 N.J. 176.
•Resorts International, Inc. v. NJM Associates, 89 N.J. 212.
•Hill v. Estate of Richards, 142 N.J. 639.
•Matter of Trust Created by Johnson, 299 N.J. Super. 415.
•In re Trust Created By Agreement Dated Dec. 20, 1961, 166 N.J. 340
•In re Trust Created By Agreement Dated Dec. 20, 1961, 194 N.J. 276