Debra G. Kosakoff

For more than 25 years, she has provided strategic guidance to clients tailored to achieve their unique testamentary and donative goals while minimizing estate, gift, income, and generation-skipping transfer taxes.  She develops sophisticated estate plans through the use of wills, revocable trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, spousal lifetime access trusts, insurance trusts, charitable lead and remainder trusts, limited liability companies, and generation-skipping techniques.  For clients with non-citizen spouses, she drafts complex qualified domestic trusts.

Debra administers estates and trusts, focusing on both the tax aspects and the fiduciaries’ non-tax responsibilities, enabling executors and trustees to fulfill their fiduciary duties with confidence and clarity.  As part of estate administration, she counsels clients with regard to post-mortem estate planning, including tax elections, and disclaimers.  She handles estate, gift and fiduciary income tax audits, and controversies with the IRS on related issues.  Debra also handles Surrogate’s Court proceedings, including probate, administration, construction, accounting, and guardianship proceedings.

Debra is deeply committed to providing personalized solutions, ensuring that each plan aligns with the client’s values, priorities, and long-term objectives.  She takes great pride in simplifying intricate legal matters, offering clear guidance, and fostering trust-based relationships with every client.

• Brooklyn Law School, J.D., cum laude
• Cornell University, B.S.

• New York