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Phone (407) 428-5114
Fax (407) 423-1831
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Lauren Y. Detzel

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Ms. Detzel is chair of the firm’s Estate and Succession Planning Department and specializes in techniques to reduce or avoid paying estate tax such as family limited partnerships, grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), sales to intentionally defective trusts, charitable trusts, lifetime gifts and generation skipping trusts. Particular emphasis includes planning for the succession of closely held or family business. She also handles many contested tax matters in the transfer tax area, ranging from audits of returns and administrative appeals within the IRS to Tax Court and Federal District Court litigation. Ms. Detzel handles the entire gamut of administration of estates and trusts, including contested matters of will and trust interpretation and reformation.

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Professional and Civic Activities

  • Orange County Bar Association, Chair, Wills and Trusts Committee
  • The Florida Bar
    • Tax Section - Member, Executive Council, 1980 - Present
    • Tax Section – Chair, 1997 - 1998
    • Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law Section, Member, Executive Council
    • Certification Committee for Wills, Trusts, and Estates – Chair, 1994 - 1995
    • Certification Committee for Wills, Trusts, and Estates – Member, 1992 - 1995
  • America Bar Association - Member
    • Tax Section
  • American College of Trust and Estate Counsel
    • Estate and Gift Tax Committee - Fellow and Member
    • Asset Protection Committee - Chair
  • Wealth Transfer Planning, National Will and Trust Document Assembly Program
    • Editorial Board, Florida Author
  • Board of Trustees of the University of Florida Levin College of Law, 2012
  • Central Florida Estate Planning Council – President, 2000 - 2001
  • University of Florida Levin College of Law - Adjunct Professor

Education

  • Juris Doctorate: University of Florida Levin College of Law, Gainesville, Florida, with highest honors, 1977
    • Order of the Coif, University of Florida Law Review Executive Editor
  • Undergraduate Degree: University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, magna cum laude, 1973

Bar Admissions

  • Florida
  • U.S. District Court Middle District of Florida
  • U.S. Tax Court

Recognition & Awards

  • Named Orlando Best Lawyers, Trusts & Estates Litigator of the Year, 2013
  • Board Certified in Wills, Trusts and Estates, The Florida Bar
  • Honored as the Best Lawyers® 2011 Orlando Tax Lawyer of the Year
  • Named an Outstanding Trusts and Estates Lawyer in The Best Lawyers in America, 1993-2012
  • Named one of Orlando's Best Lawyers by Orlando Magazine, 2001-2012
  • Named an Outstanding Tax and Wealth Management Attorney in Chambers USA, America’s Leading Business Lawyers, 2003-2012
  • Named an Outstanding Wills, Trusts & Estates Attorney in Florida Trend Magazine’s Legal Elite, 2004-2012
  • Honored as an inductee into the Legal Elite Hall of Fame by Florida Trend Magazine, 2012
  • Named one of the Top 100 Attorneys in Florida by Florida Super Lawyers Magazine, 2009, 2011 and 2012
  • Named one of Florida's Top 50 Female Attorneys, North Florida’s Top 25 Female Attorneys, and Outstanding Estate Planning & Probate and Tax Attorneys in Florida Super Lawyers Magazine, 2006-2012
  • Recipient of the Gerald T. Hart Award as the Outstanding Tax Attorney in the State of Florida by The Florida Bar Tax Section, 2005
  • Martindale-Hubbell: AV Rating

Speaking Engagements

  • Attorney Trust Officer Liaison Conference, June 23, 2012
  • The End of the Perfect Storm of Estate Planning is Nearing (maybe!) - Planning for the Remainder of 2012, Orlando, May 23, 2012
  • Planned Giving and Proposed Changes in Tax Law, University of Florida’s Orlando Regional Council, December 2011
  • Estate Planning Seminar 2011 Florida Legislative Update, Orlando, June 2011 
  • Asset Protection: Protecting Your Client’s Assets in Today’s Litigious Environment, February 2011 and August 2010
  • Estate Tax Relief - It’s Finally Here (At least for two more years), January 2011 
  • Understanding Your Trustee Duties and How to Stay Out of Trouble, January 2010 and November 2009 
  • Strategies for Dealing with Problem Trusts, July 2009
  • Ethics in the Practice of Tax Law Seminar, University of Florida Graduate Tax Program, 1992 - 2011
  • Graduate Tax Program, Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Florida College of Law, 1989 - 2000, 2006-2011
  • Southern Federal Tax Institute
  • University of Miami Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning
  • American College of Trust and Estate Counsel
  • ALI-ABA
  • The Florida Bar
  • Practicing Law Institute

Publications

  • Carryover Basis a ‘Discredited’ Concept in Estate Planning, Estate Planning Journal, April 2010
  • Roth IRA Conversions: Benefits And Planning Opportunities, Florida Bar Journal, June 2009
  • SunTrust Will and Trust Manual
  • Estate Planning Changes in the 2001 Act - More Than You Can Count, 95 Journal of Taxation 74, August, 2001
  • Testimony Before the House Committee on Ways & Means, Hearing on President's Tax Relief Proposals That Affect Individuals, March 21, 2001
  • Also quoted in the following Dow Jones Newswires articles:
    • “New Tax Rules Make Big Gifts Appealing”, January 7, 2011
    • “Tax Strategies Address Deaths in 2010”, September 27, 2010
    • “For Heirs Of Rich, Taxes Not Business As Usual”, September 17, 2010
    • “Getting Personal: Real Estate Blues Are Boon For Some Trusts”, September 10, 2010

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