Lee A. Wendel’s practice focuses on succession planning for business owners, estate planning, charitable giving, and estate and trust administration. He is listed in the most recent editions of The Best Lawyers in America and Ohio Super Lawyers.

His practice includes designing personal estate plans and business succession plans for business owners; designing trusts and administering estates for non-US families with US assets or US family members; planning and implementing grantor retained annuity trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, charitable remainder trusts and other lifetime gifting arrangements; planning and implementing generation-skipping trusts; designing and implementing limited partnerships and limited liability companies; advising charitable donors and organizations; and negotiating and implementing settlements of family disputes involving estates and trusts.

Mr. Wendel is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and serves on its Business Planning Committee, its International Estate Planning Committee and its Estate and Gift Tax Committee. He is a member of the American Bar Association’s Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law, the Ohio State Bar Association’s Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Section and the Columbus Bar Association’s Estate and Gift Tax Committee. Mr. Wendel is an active member of the Hilliard United Methodist Church.

Representative Experience

• Designing domestic and international estate plans and lifetime giving programs for clients with substantial wealth, both US and international.
• Designing coordinated, tax-effective business succession plans for substantial family-owned businesses.
• Representing multimillion-dollar estates, both US and international.
• Planning and implementing multimillion-dollar family limited partnership arrangements.
• Defending multimillion-dollar federal estate tax and gift tax audits.