Kenneth D. "Ken" Meskin

Kenneth D. Meskin has more than 40 years of experience in sophisticated trust and estate planning, the administration of trusts and estates, probate litigation, and closely-held business planning.

Ken is adept at using sophisticated and creative tax and estate planning techniques to ensure that assets pass to the intended beneficiaries at as little cost as possible to the client. To minimize state and federal tax burdens and transfer wealth, Ken has structured gift-giving programs, insurance planning, established charitable trusts and foundations, devised installment sale transactions, grantor trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, zeroed-out GRATs, and private annuity transactions, planned for the succession of family businesses to younger generations, and has drafted wills, revocable and irrevocable trust agreements, powers of attorney, and living wills.

In the area of estate and trust administration, Ken works on matters including estate and trust litigation; post-mortem tax planning; preparation of estate, gift, generation skipping, income and inheritance tax returns; federal estate tax audits; state inheritance proceedings; representation of clients before the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Tax Court; and guardianship issues and proceedings.

Ken regularly counsels closely held corporations and other companies on issues including tax strategies, tax disputes, mergers and acquisitions, structuring of joint ventures, partnerships and limited liability companies, and succession planning.

He frequently presents lectures on tax and estate planning topics to accountants, financial planners, insurance professionals, and other attorneys, and has authored numerous articles on related topics.

Ken is listed in the current issue of The Best Lawyers in America in the Trusts and Estates Law section, and was named the Best Lawyers Trusts and Estates “Lawyer of the Year” in the Woodbridge, New Jersey, Metro Area for 2019. He has also been selected for inclusion for New Jersey Super Lawyers in the Estate Planning & Probate section.

Bar Admissions

• New Jersey
• New York
• U.S. Tax Court

Areas of Practice

• Estate Planning and Administration
• Business Law
• Taxation

Professional Affiliations

• New Jersey State Bar Association
  – Real Property, Probate & Tax Law Section
• Essex County Bar Association
  – Taxation Section
• The Oscar and Ella Wilf Campus for Senior Living
  – Board Member

Education

• New York University School of Law
  – LL.M., Taxation
• Harvard Law School
  – J.D.
• University of Pennsylvania
  – B.S., Economics, cum laude