Mr. Deener received his Master of Laws Degree in Taxation from New York University Law School in 1971. He received his J. D. Degree from Brooklyn Law School in 1968 and his B. S. Degree in Accounting from Pennsylvania State University in 1965. Mr. Deener has been awarded an AV Peer Review Rating by Martindale-Hubbell, denoting “very high” professional ethics and “very high to preeminent” quality of legal work.

Mr. Deener has achieved national prominence as an estate planning attorney and as a successful tax litigation attorney involving complex and timely estate and gift tax issues before the United States Tax Court. Among Mr. Deener’s United States Tax Court successes are the Karmazin case dealing with a family limited partnership and sale to a grantor trust, the Hackl Stewart case involving a family limited partnership and sale for a private annuity, and the Kohlsaat case involving an exercise of “Crummey” withdrawal rights in a trust which permitted use of the gift tax and annual exclusion for life insurance premium payments.

Mr. Deener also requested and received notable Private Letter Rulings from the National Office of Internal Revenue Service involving partnership interests and Charitable Lead Trusts, and the formation of a partnership to hold life insurance, real estate and marketable securities in a manner that significantly reduced estate tax consequences to the client.

After beginning his career in 1968 in New York as a Senior Tax Accountant with a “Big 8” accounting firm, Mr. Deener began practicing tax law in New Jersey. During his early legal career, Mr. Deener was also an adjunct professor of taxation at Fairleigh Dickinson University in the Graduate School of Business. He has lectured extensively on the subjects of taxation and estate planning before the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education and other professional groups, including: the New Jersey State Bar Association, the Minnesota State Bar Annual Convention, the Bergen, Union, and Passaic County Chapters of the New Jersey State C.P.A. society, various chartered life underwriting groups, and has served as Chairman of the Fairleigh Dickinson Tax Seminar for the benefit of tax professionals in the Northern New Jersey Region.

He is the recipient of the 2005 Distinguished Service Award for his many years of dedication and contributions to the field of continuing legal education as a lecturer and author for the Institute for Continuing Legal Education. Mr. Deener has lectured extensively before other prestigious national institutions, including the NYU Institute of Taxation, as well as other professional groups in the State of New Jersey and throughout the United States.

Mr. Deener has authored the first, second and third editions of the Estate Planning Strategist (2007), a treatise published by the Institute for Continuing Legal Education for attorneys and accountants on the subject of sophisticated tax and estate planning topics, including recommended forms. This treatise incorporates and updates the following articles, originally published in the Estate Planning Newsletter (also published by ICLE): “Planning with Qualified Subchapter S Trusts and Electing Small Business Trusts,” November 1997; “Is the Sale to Grantor Trust Superior to the Use of a GRAT?,” July 1997; “Estate Planning for Divorce and Remarriage,” February 1997; “Recent Developments Create Planning Opportunities for Spousal Joint Property,” December 1996; “Charitable Remainder Trusts,” April, 1996; “Planning With Charitable Lead Trusts,” Jan., 1996; “Family Limited Partnerships,” Sept., 1995; “Planning With Life Insurance Trusts,” May/June, 1995; “Self Canceling Installment Note (SCIN): The Bet to Die,” Feb., 1995; “Transferring Future Appreciation Without Transfer Tax Consequences (use of short term GRAT),” Nov./Dec., 1994; “Use of GRATs to Transfer Control of Family Owned Businesses and Real Estate,” Aug., 1994; “Qualified Personal Residence Trust . . . A Rare Opportunity!,” May, 1994.

Mr. Deener has also authored numerous articles on estate planning and tax topics. “After Karmazin” was published by Trusts & Estates Magazine, October 2006; “IRS Now Taking a Bite of Gifts of Family Businesses” appeared in the New Jersey Law Journal (5/13/02); “Kohlsaat Confirms Viability of Crummey/Cristofani Trusts --- and More,” was published in volume 23 of ACTEC Notes (1997) and “How to Deal Effectively with Expanded IRS Attacks on Crummey/Cristofani Trusts,” appeared in volume 22 of ACTEC Notes (1996). Other articles include: “Hitting a ‘Home” Run with a Residential Trust,” Real Property Probate and Trust Law Section Newsletter, NJSBA, Spring/Summer, 1993; “GRATs Great for Giving Closely Held Business Interests to Family,” Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section Newsletter, NJSBA, Spring 1992; “Combining Partnership Freezes with GRATS Can Produce No Lose Estate Plan,” New Jersey Law Journal, Sept. 7, 1992; “Transferring Control of Family Owned Businesses,” New Jersey Lawyer, Sept./Oct. 1991; “An Essential for Estate Planning: True GRIT,” New Jersey Law Journal, Dec. 1989; “Demise of Interest Free Loans,” New Jersey Law Journal, March, 1984; “Estate Planning After the 1976 Tax Reform Act,” New Jersey Bar Journal, May, 1977.

Mr. Deener has been quoted extensively in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine, Business Week, and other publications. He has been named among the top tax lawyers in the State of New Jersey by New Jersey Monthly Magazine, among the top lawyers in the New York/New Jersey area by the New York Magazine, and is listed in Who’s Who In American Law.

Mr. Deener is admitted to the bar in New Jersey and New York and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Tax Court and Federal District Courts. He is also a member of the Bergen County, New Jersey State, New York State and American Bar Associations. He is a member of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and chair of subcommittee of the Business Planning Committee of Actec for the drafting of limited liability company operating agreement, a past Chairman of the Probate Committee of the Bergen County Bar Association, and a past president of the Estate Planning Council of Bergen County.

Contact Jerome A. Deener: jdeener@deenerlaw.com