STUDY GROUP/Webinar- "Letters of Wishes: Helpful Guidance from the Grave" - Estate Planning Council of Long Island
2026-01-21 20:00 - 21:00 UTC | ZOOM
Live Webinar Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2026

Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm

Details:

Letters of wishes have become an essential tool for clients. If done well, they can provide significant guidance for trust fiduciaries for generations to come. But if done poorly, they can cause more confusion and conflict. This program will introduce the topic of Letters of Wishes, explain the fundamentals and some approaches for helping clients draft them, and describe the relevant case law and statutes (including the recent Delaware statute). Learning Objectives: As a result of this presentation, attendees will gain practical knowledge about how to develop Letters of Wishes with trust settlors, communicate them to trustees and other fiduciaries, and assist with their use as trusts are administered. The specific learning objectives are as follows: • To understand the difference between letters of wishes and other side-instruments • To learn some best practices for how to approach letters of wishes with clients • To learn several options for the process for creating letters of wishes, and suggested questions to elicit the content for the letters • To learn the legal framework for letters of wishes and how they have been addressed abroad and in two state statutes (New Hampshire and Delaware) Cynthia D. M. Brown is the Director of Special Situs Trusts at Mechanics Bank. Cindy has more than twenty-five years of experience in the areas of trust administration, estate planning and tax. Cindy is an active member of the Delaware State Bar Association Trust Act Committee, which drafts annual revisions to the Delaware Code.

Cindy is an ACTEC Fellow, STEP Member, and former Chair of the Asset Protection Committee of the American Bar Association. Cindy is an active member of the Delaware State Bar Association Trust Act Committee, which drafts annual revisions to the Delaware Code and participated in the drafting of Trust Act 2024, which included the letter of wishes provisions. Prior to joining Mechanics Bank Wealth Management, Cindy worked for a privately owned trust company in Delaware for more than 20 years leading its legal team and serving as President. Cindy’s experience also includes over eight years as an estate and trust paralegal with both large Philadelphia law firms and a local private practice in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. In law school, Cindy served as the Blue Book Editor of the Widener Law Review and received several achievement awards in the area of Federal Estate and Gift Taxation and Planning. Cindy is active in many professional organizations and community leadership and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Delaware CarePlan, Inc. and the Delaware Bankers Association. Kim Kamin is a partner and the Chief Wealth Strategist at Gresham Partners LLC, an independent multi-family office managing over $10 billion for about 125 ultra-high net worth families nationally. Kim leads Gresham’s development and implementation of estate, wealth transfer, philanthropic, educational and fiduciary planning activities. Previously she was a partner in the Private Clients T&E group of a large Chicago law firm. Kim is an adjunct professor at Northwestern University Law School and on faculty for the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Executive Education. Kim is an ACTEC Regent, Past President of the Chicago Estate Planning Council, and Domain Chair of the Estate Planning and Legal Domain for the UHNW Institute. Additionally, Kim serves on advisory boards for multiple local charities. Kim serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Trusts & Estates Magazine for their UHNW Families and Family Office subcommittee, on the Investments & Wealth Review Editorial Advisory Board, has published on a wide variety of topics, and is a frequent lecturer in a variety of venues across the country. She is co-executive editor and co-author for the Leimberg Library Tools & Techniques book, Estate Planning for Modern Families (4th Ed. 2024). Kim received her B.A. from Stanford University and her JD from the University of Chicago Law School. She is an AEP® (Distinguished) designee and a 21/64 Certified Advisor.

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