Disclaimer

Sharon M. Buccino, Partner

Sharon Buccino counsels clients on estate planning, trust and estate administration and litigation, business succession planning, and premarital agreements.

A Certified Public Accountant, Sharon has extensive experience in creating estate plans that maximize family wealth. She advises on a variety of tax-savings practices, including lifetime gifts, generation-skipping techniques, qualified personal residence trusts, health and education trusts, family limited liability companies, sales to defective grantor trusts, and charitable giving.

Sharon guides clients with complex or special circumstances, such as blended families, those with family business succession needs, and those seeking to protect a disabled child or other relative. She also counsels many clients through the difficult and emotional task of negotiating a premarital agreement. With the aim of efficiently resolving conflicts with little rancor, Sharon helps families work through disputes using techniques such as family settlement agreements and trust decanting, in which the assets of one trust are put into a new trust with more favorable terms. Additionally, she handles many federal estate and gift tax audits at the agent, appellate, and tax court levels.

Sharon began practicing at Hoogendoorn and Talbot in 2003, the same year she joined the tax faculty at Loyola University of Chicago’s School of Law, where she teaches a class in estate planning. She enjoys passing on her passion for estate planning to a new group of students every year.

  • Marquette University, Honors Bachelor of Science, Accounting, cum laude, 1984
  • Loyola University of Chicago School of Law, J.D., cum laude, 1987
  • Certified Public Accountant, 1987
  • Chicago Bar Association: “Top Ten Things a Divorce Attorney Needs to Know About Estate Planning,” 2015
  • Northfield Senior Center: “Protecting your Legacy,” 2014
  • Roundtable of Local Business Leaders: Discussion of current estate tax environment and planning opportunities, 2015
  • Speeches on a variety of technical topics to various continuing legal education groups, including the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, the Chicago Bar Association, and the Illinois Association of Certified public Accountants
  • Professor, Loyola University of Chicago School of Law, tax faculty, 2003-present