LISA F. METZ is a principal of Brody Wilkinson and a member of the firm’s Trusts & Estates Group. She practices in the areas of estate planning and trust and estate administration in Connecticut and New York. Lisa represents a range of clients, including high net worth individuals who are providing for multiple generations, recently divorced women, and couples with young children. For all clients, she takes the time to ensure that their questions are answered and they fully understand their options.
Lisa has significant experience drafting sophisticated and flexible estate planning documents to accomplish goals such as protecting assets from potential creditors, avoiding probate, and minimizing estate and income tax. She also advises clients with existing family trusts regarding how the trusts may be administered to address changing needs. She closely follows federal and state laws to keep her clients informed about changes and best practices.
Lisa is a Martindale-Hubbell AV-rated attorney. Lisa has published several articles including co-authoring a chapter entitled “Lifetime Asset Transfers” in A Practical Guide to Estate Planning in Connecticut published by MCLE New England. Prior to joining Brody Wilkinson, she practiced at other law firms in Connecticut and Illinois, including eight years in the Greenwich office of Cummings & Lockwood. Lisa is a member of the American, Connecticut, New York, and Fairfield County Bar Associations. She is also a member of the Estate Planning Council of Lower Fairfield County.
Lisa received her B.S. from Cornell University with honors in 1984 and her J.D. from the George Washington University Law School in 1988, where she was an associate editor of the Journal of International Law and Economics. She interned for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee during Judge Robert Bork’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing.
She has been involved with numerous school and community organizations. Lisa is a member of the Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador Network and interviews applicants. She volunteers her time to support Food Rescue US.
Feb 13, 25
The IRS has released annual inflation adjustments for 2025. These include increased gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer tax (“GST”) exemptions and annual gift tax exclusions. The changes are as follows: The federal gift and estate tax exemption and GST exemption increased to $13,990,000 for an individual (from $13,610,000 in 2024). […]
Jul 3, 24
On January 1, 2024, the federal Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) took effect, mandating that “reporting companies” register with, and provide certain information to, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). We discussed the CTA in detail in our electronic update in December 2023 (which can be found on […]
Dec 15, 23
The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) defines a “beneficial owner” of a “reporting company” as any individual who, directly or indirectly, either exercises substantial control over a reporting company or owns or controls at least 25% of the ownership interests of a reporting company. How does the CTA affect estate planning […]
Dec 15, 23
The IRS has released annual inflation adjustments for 2024. These include increased gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer tax (“GST”) exemptions and annual gift tax exclusions. The changes are as follows: The federal gift and estate tax exemption and GST exemption increased to $13,610,000 for an individual (from $12,920,000 in 2023). […]
May 22, 23
Many married couples have estate plans which take advantage of the federal and state estate tax exemption of the first spouse to die by holding that exemption amount in what is commonly known as a “credit shelter trust” (also sometimes referred to as a bypass trust). When the surviving spouse […]
Aug 29, 22
Many people set up an irrevocable trust decades ago and made gifts or sold assets to the trust in order to get life insurance and other appreciating assets out of their estates. An irrevocable trust is a trust that prohibits the settlor (i.e., the person who created the trust) from […]
Apr 27, 22
The IRS has released annual inflation adjustments for 2022. These include increased gift, estate and generation-skipping transfer tax (“GST”) exemptions and annual gift tax exclusions. The changes are as follows: The gift and estate tax exemption and GST exemption increased to $12,060,000 for an individual (from $11,700,000 in 2021). This […]
Nov 8, 21
In September 2021, the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives proposed new tax legislation (the “September Bill”) that would have greatly affected estate planning. On October 28, 2021, the legislation was revised to remove those provisions. However, given that the legislation is in flux and the provisions […]
Apr 27, 21
A power of attorney form is one of the most commonly used legal documents. It allows an individual (known as the “Principal”) to appoint an agent to act on his or her behalf with regard to financial transactions and alleviates the need for a court-appointed conservator. For New York residents, the […]
Apr 27, 21
Now that President Joe Biden has taken office and the Democrats have narrowly taken control of both Houses of Congress, it is likely that there will be changes to our tax laws. We will focus on gift and estate taxes. Given that the priority right now is on the Coronavirus […]
Apr 2, 20
Under the new “Connecticut Qualified Dispositions in Trust Act” that went into effect on January 1, 2020, an individual may now set up a trust (referred to as an Asset Protection Trust or APT) for his or her own benefit which protects against claims of most future creditors. Previously, Connecticut […]
Oct 2, 19
Until recently, a non-resident of Connecticut who died owning real property or tangible personal property located in Connecticut could avoid Connecticut estate tax by holding that interest in an entity such as an LLC. The property interest was considered intangible personal property. Under recently passed Connecticut legislation (effective June 25, 2019), that […]
May 21, 19
New York has a current estate tax exemption of $5,740,000 (adjusted annually for inflation). However, if the New York taxable estate slightly exceeds the exemption, the exemption is completely wasted and the entire estate will be taxed at rates up to 16%. While New York does not impose a gift tax […]
Mar 13, 18
There have been major changes in the Connecticut and federal gift and estate tax exemptions due to recent legislation. The Connecticut estate and gift tax exemption, which had been $2,000,000 for many years, will increase to $2,600,000 in 2018, to $3,600,000 in 2019, and starting in 2020 will match the federal […]
Mar 15, 17
Digital Age Calls For Fiduciary Access To Digital Assets Today, many of us do not receive monthly bank statements or bills in the mail anymore. Rather, we receive notifications via email and access that information online. If something were to happen to us, who would know of those accounts? Even if someone knew […]
Mar 15, 17
It has become increasingly common for brokerage accounts and mutual funds to be set up as “Transfer on Death” (“TOD”) accounts. These are similar to Payable on Death accounts for bank accounts. Basically, with a TOD account, you name a beneficiary who will receive the account assets at your death. Brokers have encouraged […]
Nov 1, 11
Several estate planning techniques have become extremely attractive due to historically low U.S. Treasury rates. The rates change monthly, therefore the benefits of a technique depend on the rates in effect for the month in which the transfer occurs. October 2011 rates reached a new low. In most cases, these […]
