Summary

Alison co-chairs the firm’s Private Client and Estate Planning practice groups. She focuses her practice in the areas of:

  • Estate planning
  • Estate and trust administration
  • Guardianships and conservatorships
  • Nonprofits

Alison advises clients on estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes, charitable planning, asset-protection planning, and disability planning. She is a trusted adviser to clients in estate and trust court proceedings as well, including will contest litigation and tax controversies.

Alison also works with a variety of tax-exempt corporations and charitable trusts, helping organizations obtain and keep tax-exempt status, and advising on governance, structure, and compliance with federal and state tax law.

Awards

  • Honoree, Chambers High Net Worth Guide, Private Wealth Law (2022 – present)

  • Honoree, Lawyer of the Year, Best Lawyers, Nonprofit / Charities Law, Minneapolis (2023)

  • Honoree, Top Lawyers, Trusts and Estates, Minnesota Monthly (2022 – present)

  • Honoree, Minnesota Super Lawyers, Estate Planning & Probate (2018 – present)

  • Honoree, Best Lawyers in America, Nonprofit / Charities Law, Trusts and Estates (2018 – present)

All Service Areas

Education

  • William Mitchell College of Law (2000)

    magna cum laude

  • University of Wisconsin

    B.A., Dean’s List

Admissions

  • State - Minnesota
  • State - Wisconsin
  • Federal - District of Minnesota

Notable Matters

  • Represents clients in formulating estate plans by drafting Wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, and antenuptial agreements.
  • Represents Wisconsin residents in creating Marital Property Agreements to best take advantage of Wisconsin’s Marital Property law.
  • Assists families with wealth-transfer strategies, including sales to grantor trusts, creating grantor-retained annuity trusts, generation-skipping transfer tax trusts, charitable trusts, and other estate-planning techniques.
  • Aids families in estate and trust administration, representing clients in probate court and fiduciary litigation.
  • Represents corporate and individual trustees of variety of irrevocable trusts, assisting trustees in Minnesota and federal tax strategy and compliance.
  • Forms new private family foundations and public charities and counsels tax-exempt organizations on governance and administration.
  • Courtroom experience includes representing:
    • personal representatives fending off Will challenges;
    • corporate trustees asking for court instruction and construction of trust terms;
    • trustees of court-supervised charitable trusts and non-charitable trusts; and
    • guardians and conservators.

Speeches and Publications

Speeches

  • 2022 Probate and Trust Law Section Conference, “10 Facts You Should Know About the Minnesota and Federal Estate Tax,” June 14, 2022

Publications

  • “Attention! Action Might Be Needed if You Have GRATs, Life Insurance Trusts, SLATs, QPRTs, or Other Grantor Trusts!”, Taft Law Bulletin, Sept. 30, 2021
  • “A Word of Reassurance from Taft’s Estate Planners and Information on Health Care Advance Directives,” Taft Law Bulletin, March 23, 2020
  • “Taking of Access: Minnesota Supreme Court Declines to Allow Admission of Evidence of Access Due to Installation of a Median in a Takings Case−County of Anoka v. Blaine Building Corporation, 556 N.W.2d 331 (Minn. 1997),” Author, William Mitchell Law Review, April 2014. 
  • “Closing and Administration,” Chapter 7, Minnesota CLE’s Minnesota Estate Administration Deskbook, Author, Several Years.