Estate, Gift and Trust Conference

Brian Whitlock, Of Counsel

Brian Whitlock is a failure at retirement. Although he retired from Plante Moran nine years, today he finds himself trying to be useful in many roles. Having worked over the last 47 years as both an attorney and a CPA, Brian currently serves in an Of Counsel capacity at both Golan Christie Taglia, LLC (a Chicago Law Firm where he mentors young estate planning attorneys) and at Sorren, LLC (a private equity national roll-up of CPA firms where he mentors young CPAs dealing with income and estate tax issues related to estates and trusts). 

Over the past 20 years, Brian has written a column in CCH's Taxes Magazine and taught in the MST Programs at DePaul and University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He recently completed a three year stint at Northwestern Unversity's Pritzker School of Law where he taught Fiduciary Income Taxation in the LLM Tax Program. 

Brian and his wife Nancy live full-time in downtown Chicago within 5 miles of our three adult children, their spouses, and four grandchildren. Despite counseling estate planning clients to "Get their Ass and their Assets out of Illinois," Brian knows that Nancy will never leave the grandkids.

Brock Exline, Associate

Brock Exline, JD is an Associate, Estate Planning, Coroprate & Business Law with Gassman, Denicolo & Ketron P.A.

Christopher Denicolo, Partner

Christopher Denicolo, JD, is a partner, Estate Planning, Health Law, Corporate and Business Law with Gassman, Denicolo & Ketron P.A.

David Handler, Partner

David A Handler is a partner in the Trusts and Estates Practice of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), a member of the NAEPC Estate Planning Hall of Fame, and on the professional advisory committees of the Chicago Community Trust, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Goodman Theatre, WTTW11/98.7WFMT and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. He is one of only 20 U.S. lawyers ranked in “Band 1” by Chambers USA in the Wealth Management category, is listed in The Best Lawyers in America©, (Trusts and Estates) and its 2015 and 2019 Trusts and Estates “Chicago Lawyer of the Year”. He received the Austin Fleming Distinguished Service Award from the Chicago Estate Planning Council in 2015, was the 2016 Bloomberg BNA Estates, Gifts and Trusts Contributor of the Year, received the Trusts & Estates Magazine 2017 Distinguished Author award.

He is an Editorial Advisory Board Member of Trusts & Estates Magazine for which he has written the monthly “tax update” column for more than 20 years. Mr. Handler is a co-author of The Complete Estate Planning Sourcebook (published by Wolters Kluwer) and has authored numerous articles for Trusts & Estates Magazine, Estate Planning Magazine, Journal of Taxation, and Tax Management Estates, Gifts and Trusts Journal. Mr. Handler is a frequent lecturer at professional education seminars. He concentrates his practice on trust and estate planning and administration, representing owners of closely-held businesses, principals of private equity/venture capital funds, executives and families of significant wealth, and establishing and administering private foundations, public charities and other tax-exempt entities.

Mr. Handler is a graduate of Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and received a B.S. Degree in Finance with highest honors from the University of Illinois Gies College of Business.

Geoffrey Brown, President & CEO, Illinois CPA Society

Geoffrey 'Geof' Brown, CAE, is president and CEO of the Illinois CPA Society (ICPAS), one of the largest state CPA societies in the nation. Brown also serves as president and CEO of CPAs for the Public Interest and ex-officio board member of the CPA Endowment Fund of Illinois.
 
A seasoned certified association executive (CAE), Brown has more than 20 years of experience as an association professional. Before joining ICPAS in 2022, he served as CEO of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), the nation's leading professional association of fee-only financial advisors, for nine years. Prior to NAPFA, Brown was an account executive with Sentergroup, an association manager at SmithBucklin Corporation, and held multiple positions with North-American Interfraternity Conference.
 
Brown served as the board chair for Association Forum and is an active member. He is also an active member in the American Society of Association Executives and is a board member for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and the Association of Fraternal Leadership & Values. Brown earned his bachelor's degree in government and politics from the University of Maryland.

Ryan Boyle, Chief U.S. Economist

Ryan James Boyle is a Senior Vice President and Chief U.S. Economist within the Global Risk Management division of Northern Trust. In this role, Ryan is responsible for briefing clients and partners on the economy and business conditions, supporting internal stress testing and capital allocation processes, and publishing economic commentaries. Prior to joining Northern Trust, Ryan held multiple management roles at TransUnion. He researched and reported on trends and key topics in the consumer credit industry, and he led initiatives to improve the breadth, depth, and quality of data reported on consumer files.

Before TransUnion, Ryan worked as an economic consultant at Navigant Consulting, supporting expert testimony in competition and securities litigation. He started his career as a business analyst at ABN AMRO/LaSalle Bank. Ryan holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in computer science, with highest honors, from DePaul University. In addition, Ryan completed the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Stacy Singer, Senior Vice President

Stacy E. Singer is a Senior Vice President, National Practice Leader for Trust Services at The Northern Trust Company, where she works closely with trust professionals on all aspects of the delivery of fiduciary services to clients nationally. She previously served as the National Director of Estate Settlement Services at Northern. Ms. Singer joined Northern Trust in 2003. 

Ms. Singer was previously a Vice President in the Estate Administration Division at Harris Trust & Savings Bank in Chicago, where she handled the administration of decedent, minors and disabled estates. Prior to Harris, she was a member of the estate and succession planning department at Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella, P.C., where she specialized in estate and succession planning strategies, estate and trust administration and guardianship for minors and disabled adults. 

Ms. Singer is the past President of the Board of Directors of the Chicago Estate Planning Council. She is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, where she serves as Illinois State Chair. She is a professor in the University of Miami School of Law's Heckerling Graduate Program in Estate Planning. Ms. Singer is a regular speaker for the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education (IICLE) and the American Law Institute (formerly ALI-ABA), and has previously spoken at the Notre Dame Tax & Estate Planning Institute, Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, the Chicago Estate Planning Council and a broad spectrum of other civic and professional groups, including the Internal Revenue Service. She has written extensively for numerous publications, including Trusts & Estates, Advancing Philanthropy, Estate Planning and numerous IICLE publications. She holds a B.A., with distinction, from the University of Michigan and received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1992. 

Stuart Kohn, Partner

Stuart Kohn is a partner in the Trusts & Estates Group. He concentrates his practice in estate, gift and income tax planning and business succession planning, and has significant experience with complex estate and trust administration matters. Stuart also works with clients to design and implement asset protection strategies. 

Stuart is a member of the esteemed estate planning organization, the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC). ACTEC membership is based on professional reputation, expertise in the fields of trusts and estates and on the basis of having made substantial contributions to these fields through lecturing, writing, teaching and bar activities. 

Stuart is active in a number of legal organizations and has served as the Chair of the Executive Committee of the Chicago Bar Association's Trust Law Committee and President of the Board of Directors of the Greater North Shore Estate & Financial Planning Council. He has lectured on advanced estate planning topics for the ACTEC annual meeting, the American Bar Association Tax Section, Jerry A. Kasner Estate Planning Symposium, Notre Dame Tax and Estate Planning Institute, Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, the Chicago Bar Association, and Iowa Academy of Trust and Estate Counsel. 

Stuart frequently writes on a variety of asset planning topics. He has written articles which have been published in the notable Bloomberg BNA's Tax Management Estates, Gifts and Trusts Journal and the RIA periodical, Business Entities. 

Stuart has been recognized individually in Chambers High Net Worth Guide since 2018, with references noting that he is a "top-tier professional."