ESTATE PLANNING COUNCIL OF GREATER MIAMI

Dinner Sponsored by:

Pre-Workshop Presentation

Speaker Biography

Richard DeNapoli has over 12 years of experience in law and trust services.  He is a native of Hollywood, Florida, and a graduate of the University of Miami School of Law (2008, LL.M., Estate Planning), Fordham Law School (2002, J.D.) and New York University (1999, B.A., Politics; B.A. Italian). Richard's most recent experience was with Northern Trust where he was a Trust and Investment Officer for more than five years. Prior to joining Northern Trust, Richard practiced law successfully in his own Practice working with clients primarily on estate planning and real estate matters.

Richard is also a longtime member of the Real Property Probate and Trust Law Section of the Florida Bar.   

Workshop Presentation

Michael Dribin will discuss new state legislation of interest to the estate planning professions and review appellate decisions impacting on the estate planning and estate and trust administration worlds.  

Speaker Biography

Michael A. Dribin is a partner in the Miami law firm of Harper Meyer Perez Hagen O'Connor Albert & Dribin LLP.  Mr. Dribin obtained a B.A. degree from Northwestern University in 1972, a J.D. degree from Loyola University of Chicago in 1975 and a LL.M. degree in Taxation from the University of Miami in 1979.

Practicing since 1975, Mr. Dribin is a Board Certified Wills, Trusts and Estates Lawyer since 1986; is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estates Counsel since 1990 (member, Fiduciary Litigation Committee); and is the Immediate Past Chair of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of the Florida Bar.  Mr. Dribin is a member of the Tax Section of the Florida Bar.  Mr. Dribin is an Estate Planning Advisor in the University of Miami Masters in Estate Planning program, an active member of the Probate and Guardianship Court Committee of the Dade County Bar Association and Past President of the Estate Planning Council of Miami.

Mr. Dribin has been designated a "Florida Super Lawyer" by Law & Politicsmagazine for six consecutive years and as a Top 100 Attorney in Miami, Florida. Mr. Dribin has been recognized since 1993 in Best Lawyers in America, published by Woodward and White and designated since 2009 "Florida Legal Elite" in Florida Trend magazine by his peers.  Mr. Dribin is a frequent lecturer on areas of probate, trust and guardianship laws and related areas of litigation, and in the area of estate planning.

Dinner Presentation

No one does you a favor by asking you to serve as a trustee.  Trustees have strict duties and potential liabilities which cannot be waived, and they are judged in hindsight by beneficiaries, lawyers, and judges.  Knowing all of that, if you still want to be a trustee, which rules are mandatory, which rules can be relaxed, and how can the trust be structured to make it safer to serve as a trustee?

Speaker Biography

Bruce Stone is a shareholder of the firm. His practice consists primarily of estate planning for both domestic and foreign clients. A significant portion of his practice involves disputed or complex problem situations in which he is retained to find creative planning solutions or to serve as expert witness, mediator or arbitrator. Bruce is admitted to practice in Florida. He is a lifelong resident of Florida. He graduated from the University of Florida with high honors in 1971 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated from the Florida State University College of Law with highest honors in 1973, where he was first in his class and editor in chief of the law review.

Bruce is a Fellow and President of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and serves on its Executive Committee and Board of Regents. He is a past chair of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of The Florida Bar. Bruce is a member of the Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Trust and Estate Acts, which monitors and recommends updates to the Uniform Probate Code, the Uniform Trust Code, and all other trust and estate related uniform laws on a nationwide basis. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning. He is an Academician in the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law. He has been named as one of the top 10 or top 100 Florida attorneys in all issues of Florida Superlawyers since its publication, as one of the 45 best trusts and estates attorneys in the United States in the August 1998 issue of Town and Country magazine, and as one of the most influential people in Miami in the December 2012 issue of Poder Hispanic magazine. He is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale, has been listed in every edition of Best Lawyers of America since 1987, and is rated by Chambers USA in Band 1 for Tax: Estate Planning. In 2001 he received the first ever Friend of the Trust Industry award from the Florida Bankers Association. He was the principal drafter of Florida's legislation in 2000 authorizing dynasty trusts and allowing modification and reformation of irrevocable trusts, and a 2010 statute governing planning for homestead property through the use of irrevocable inter vivos trusts. He has been extensively involved in the drafting of Florida legislation concerning elective share rights of surviving spouses and the administration of trusts.

In addition to his practice, Bruce is an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law, where he teaches in the graduate masters program in estate planning. He is a frequent lecturer for organizations such as the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, the American Bar Association, ALI-CLE, the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, and the Florida Bar.