Profile & Practice Areas
Jeffrey S. Sternberg is the Practice Group Co-Leader of the firm’s Estate Planning/Taxation Practice Group and uses a team approach with a client’s other advisors which allows each client to receive services which go beyond the norm. Jeff’s hands-on approach has had clients returning to update their estate plans for more than three decades.
With an understanding of estate planning, income taxes and family dynamics, he provides a comprehensive, holistic approach that reaches far beyond providing estate planning documents to his clients. Spending time with each client to understand their family dynamics allows Jeff to get to the heart of each matter without getting the client bogged down in the legalese so often associated with legal documents.
Clients present their own level of complexity and challenges which are addressed efficiently and effectively. As an instructor to the life insurance and financial planning industry, Jeff is able to clearly communicate the complicated aspects of tax, business and estate planning matters to his clients.
The other half of his practice is spent working with small to medium-size business owners focusing on:
- Business succession planning, mergers and acquisitions
- Business structures
- Real estate transactions involving residential property, commercial and multi-family housing
This has given Jeff the ability to reach across the various levels of the business owner’s planning for not just the current situations, but looking to the long term to retain the family business. With a Masters of Law in Taxation (LL.M), he is able to provide a balance between tax planning and practical planning for each client.
Practice Areas
- 1031 Like-Kind Exchanges
- Asset Protection Planning
- Business Executive and Incentive Compensation
- Business Tax Planning and Compliance
- Charitable Planning
- Commercial Property Leasing
- Condominium Formation and Conversions
- Estate Planning
- Executive and Incentive Compensation
- Family Estate Planning
- Family Succession Planning for Business Owners
- Family Wealth Transfer Planning
- Fraud and Abuse/Physician Self-Referral (Stark Law) and Anti-Kickback
- Nonprofit and Charitable Organizations
- Physician/Ancillary Healthcare Provider/Supplier Entity Formation and Physician Group Structuring
- Probate and Trust Administration
- Real Estate Financing
- Real Estate Project Development
- Real Property Sales and Acquisitions
- Real Property Taxation, Reassessments, Incentives and Abatements
- Real Property, Development, Construction and Financing
- Regulation and Compliance
- Restructuring, Workouts and Short Sales
- Succession Planning for Business Owners
- Tax and Economic Incentives
- Wealth Transfer Planning
Honors & Awards
- Martindale-Hubbell, Rated AV-Preeminent
- Best Lawyers, Trusts and Estates, 2024
- Super Lawyers, Estate & Probate, 2006-2007, 2024
- Leading Lawyers, Closely & Privately Held Business Law; Tax Law: Business; Tax Law: Individual; Trust, Will & Estate Planning Law; 2014-2023
- DBusiness Top Lawyers, Trusts & Estates, 2018-2024
- Five Star Investment Professional Award, 2019-2022
Professional Associations
- State Bar of Michigan
- Financial and Estate Planning Council of Metropolitan Detroit
Community Involvement
- Tamarack Camps, Board of Directors