2023 Nevada Trust Conference April 24-26

McDonald Carano law firm

Robert Armstrong is a third-generation Nevadan with unmatched expertise advising high net worth clients and family trust companies on Nevada’s trust, estate and tax planning legal and regulatory landscape. Bob has over forty years of experience serving clients as an attorney and a non-practicing CPA. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants among other affiliations. Bob has received six “Lawyer of the Year” awards from The Best Lawyers in America and is currently ranked for the 5th consecutive year in the highest Band 1 category for Private Wealth Law in Chambers USA High Net Worth Guide. He received his juris doctorate from Georgetown Law Center and a LL.M. in taxation from New York University.

Pioneer Wealth Management

Listed in The Best Lawyers in America, Jonathan G. Blattmachris a Principal in Pioneer Wealth Partners, in the estate planning advisory group. He gives lectures and has written extensively on estate and trust taxation and charitable giving. Mr. Blattmachris was a Harlan Fiske Scholar at the Columbia University School of Law, where he received his law degree and graduated cum laude. He has an A.B. from Bucknell University in mathematics. Mr. Blattmachris has written nine books and over 500 articles on estate planning and other tax issues. He has been an Advisor on The American Law Institute, Restatement of the Law, and Trusts 3rd; he is a member of the American Bar Foundation. He is a retired member of Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP and of the Alaska, California and New York State bar associations.

Fortress Trust

Albert Forkner is the CEO of Fortress Trust, a Nevada trust company focused on supporting NFT creator and innovator strategies including secure custody solutions.  Prior to Fortress Trust, Mr. Forkner served nearly 25 years as a banking regulator with the Wyoming Division of Banking. As the Banking Commissioner, Mr. Forknerwas responsible for the supervision of all state-chartered banks, trust companies, non-depository financial entities in Wyoming, as well as the novel Special Purpose Depository Institution (SPDI) digital asset focused bank charter.   Mr. Forkner served as the Chairman of the Board for the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and Chairman of the Board of the State Regulatory Registry, operator of the NMLS. Mr. Forkner received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Economics from the University of Wyoming. He is also a graduate of the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado and the Cannon Financial Institute. 

Solomon Dwiggins and Freer Steadman

Alan D. Freer is a member of the Las Vegas law firm of Solomon Dwiggins Freer & Steadman, LTD., where he focuses his practice primarily on trust and estate litigation. Mr. Freer also handles all aspects of trust and estate administration, and routinely represents beneficiaries and fiduciaries in contested matters. He has substantial experience in challenging and defending the validity of estate planning documents, including wills, codicils, trusts and amendments. Mr. Freer also routinely prosecutes and defends claims for breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, undue influence, breach of trust, accounting, fiduciary removal, competency, lack of capacity, unjust enrichment, closely held business disputes and elder abuse. Mr. Freer has received the highest "AV Preeminent Rating" by Martindale-Hubbell and has twice been recognized as the Lawyer of the Year for Southern Nevada in the area of "Trust and Estates" (2020) and "Trust and Estate Litigation" (2017) by Best Lawyers of America. Mr. Freer has also been recognized as one of the top 100 lawyers in the mountain states region by Super Lawyers.

Mr. Freer is a member of the State Bar of Nevada and serves on the Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, previously completing a two-year term as committee chair. 

Loeb & Loeb, LLP

Paul Frimmer focuses on estate planning, wills and trusts, probate and trust administration, postmortem tax planning, probate litigation, art law, charitable giving, and tax issues relating to these matters. Widely regarded as one of the top estate planning attorneys in the country, Paul has received numerous accolades for his work. He’s known for taking a collaborative approach with his clients and guiding them toward the best decisions tailored to meet their individual needs. Paul has authored and co-authored more than 50 publications on estate planning and related matters. He is also a frequent speaker at national and local estate planning seminars and institutes, including the NYU Tax Institute, the USC Tax Institute, the University of Miami Estate Planning Institute, ALI-ABA seminars, the USC Probate and Trust Institute, and the UCLA Estate Planning Institute.

Partner, Keebler & Associates, LLP

Robert S. Keebler is a 2007 recipient of the prestigious Accredited Estate Planners (Distinguished) award from the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils. He has been named by CPA Magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Practitioners in the United States and one of the Top 40 Tax Advisors to Know During a Recession. His practice includes family wealth transfer and preservation planning, charitable giving, retirement distribution planning, and estate administration. Mr. Keebler frequently represents clients before the National Office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the private letter ruling process and in estate, gift and income tax examinations and appeals, and he has received more than 250 favorable private letter rulings including several key rulings of “first impression.” He is the author of over 100 articles and columns and is the editor, author or co-author of many books and treatises on wealth transfer and taxation. Mr. Keebler has been a speaker at national estate planning and tax seminars for over 25 years including the AICPA’s: Estate Planning, High Income, Advanced Financial Planning Conferences, ABA Conferences, NAPEC Conferences, The Notre Dame Estate Planning Conference and the Heckerling Estate Planning Institute and is the immediate past the chair of the AICPA’s Advanced Estate Planning Conference, serving in that capacity from 2014-2020. 

Michaelle D. Rafferty, Shareholder Maupin, Cox & Legoy Michaelle DiGrazia Rafferty (“Michaelle”) is a shareholder attorney in the law firm of Maupin, Cox & LeGoy, primarily practicing in the areas of estate planning, taxation, administration of  trusts and estates, and family trust company planning and operations. Michaelle also practices in trust and estate related litigation, fiduciary litigation, and tax and audit related actions.  Michaelle has been admitted as a Fellow of the American College of Trust & Estate Counsel (ACTEC) where she serves as the Nevada State Chair, and is a member of the Practice and Fiduciary Litigation Committees. Michaelle recently completed her position as Chair of the Nevada State Bar - Probate & Trust Section where she served as an executive officer for the previous 8 years.  

Saltzman Mugan Dushoff

Matthew D. Saltzman is an attorney and Managing Shareholder of the Saltzman Mugan Dushoff law firm in Las Vegas, Nevada. Over the course of his twenty-five years as a business attorney in Las Vegas, Saltzman has developed a corporate law practice focused on financial institutions and administrative law which assists financial institutions and other highly regulated businesses with corporate and regulatory compliance matters. Saltzman and his team have worked to obtain licenses for a large number of Nevada retail and family trust companies. He has testified before the Nevada legislature as an expert on trust company legislation and drafted portions of Nevada law relating to the chartering and operation of Nevada trust companies.  In recent years his practice has focused on counseling trust companies that providing services related to digital assets including cryptocurrency. Matthew Saltzman received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1987. In 1993, he received his Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He was also Executive Editor of the University of Pittsburgh Law Review and served as a teaching assistant for the school’s Legal Research and Writing course.