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Eric Nelson works with high-net-worth families, entrepreneurs, hedge fund managers, and trustees of large trusts in order to preserve wealth, manage business and wealth succession, and create and preserve large charitable foundations.

Capabilities

Experience

  • Designed and implemented leveraged wealth transfer strategies using multigenerational family trusts deploying family investment funds and operating businesses, including those in food manufacturing, air cargo, hospitality, construction manufacturing, and health care industries, among others.°
  • Restructured trusts using complex decanting and other trust modifications in order to save significant estate, generation-skipping transfer, and federal and state income taxes, and modernize family wealth ownership and access.°
  • Structured and established family offices.°
  • Structured and established regulated and unregulated private trust companies.°
  • Restructured multibillion-dollar real estate enterprise in order to maximize wealth tax-free ownership and succession of business within perpetual trusts.°
  • Conducted estate and income tax planning with significant artwork, including implementation of like-kind exchanges of various pieces.°
  • Restructured family’s controlling interest in publicly traded manufacturer in order to consolidate ownership of multiple family vehicles within a single ownership structure with clear governance guidelines.°
  • Restructured multimillion-dollar real estate investment firm and converted related entity to “S corporation” for income tax purposes.°
  • Obtained IRS ruling regarding family-owned holding company’s status as an “S corporation” for income tax purposes.°
  • Developed planned giving strategies with major charitable institutions in order to facilitate creation of multimillion-dollar charitable endowments.°
  • Resolved multimillion-dollar estate tax audit.°
  • Advised in connection with nine-figure federal gift and estate tax audit.°

°The above representations were handled by Mr. Nelson prior to his joining Greenberg Traurig, LLP.

Recognition & Leadership

  • Listed, Leading Lawyers Network, 2023
  • President’s Council, Museum of Science and Industry, 2019-Present
  • Member, Chicago Estate Planning Council, 2009-Present
  • Member, Legacy Partners, 2012-Present

Credentials

Education
  • LL.M., Taxation, with honors, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, 2007
  • J.D., Boston College Law School, 2006
  • B.A., University of Michigan, 2002
Admissions
  • Illinois
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
  • U.S. Tax Court