Patti S. Spencer Esq.
(866) 639-5451 (Toll Free)
Trusts and estates attorney Patti S. Spencer, Esq. is a nationally recognized author and educator. As a peer-nominated fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), Ms. Spencer has been recognized by the legal profession for her educational commitment and her work with families, individuals, businesses, attorneys and accountants she serves.
Ms. Spencer assists clients with federal estate, gift and generation-skipping tax planning; estate and trust administration; business succession planning; tax planning for qualified plan distributions; fiduciary income tax; and corporate tax planning. She serves as a Private Trustee and/or Executor, as well as an expert witness in estate tax, estate planning, and fiduciary matters.
Before she founded Spencer Law Firm LLC, Ms. Spencer managed a regional bank's Personal Trust Department made up of 1,500 accounts and $400 million in assets. In this capacity, she supervised a department of nine Trust Officers and six Assistant Administrators in three line functions: Trust Administration, Trust Tax and Estate Settlement. She was accountable for trust department budgets, profitability, regulatory compliance, trust real estate, personnel issues, and estate-related legal matters.
Ms. Spencer taught Estate and Gift Taxation, Trusts and Estates, and Estate Planning at Boston University School of Law for eight years. She recently taught Federal Income Taxation at Franklin and Marshall College. She is the author of two books on estate matters, a weekly newspaper column, "Taxing Matters," numerous articles on estate planning topics, and is a frequent lecturer at continuing education programs for CPAs and lawyers.
This career experience, along with her tenure at several of Boston's leading law firms, helps her to address the needs of attorneys, accountants and individuals alike, and to serve as an expert witness in fiduciary litigation. For further information please view Ms. Spencer's C.V.
Along with her staff of paralegals, trusts and estates attorney Patti S. Spencer, Esq. is pleased to serve clients both locally in the Central Pennsylvania area and nationally, addressing attorneys' and accountants' need for collaborative and consultative support.
Areas of Practice
- Expert Witness
- Estate Planning
- Estate Administration and Probate
- Trust Administration
- Federal Estate and Gift Taxation
- Fiduciary Income Tax
Bar Admissions
- Massachusetts, 1978
- Pennsylvania, 1979
Education
- Boston University School of Law, Boston, Massachusetts
- LL.M. - 1983
- Major: Taxation
- Boston University School of Law, Boston, Massachusetts
- J.D. - 1978
- Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania
- B.A. (Summa Cum Laude) - 1975
- Honors: Phi Beta Kappa
Published Works
- Pennsylvania Estate Planning, Wills and Trusts Library: Forms and Practice Manual, Data Trace, 2007
- Your Estate Matters, AuthorHouse, 2005
- Taxing Matters, Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, October, 1999
- Estate Planning for Lawyers, GPSOLO, American Bar Association, Vol. 28, No. 1., January/February, 2011
- Moving a Private Foundation to a Donor-Advised Fund, Estate Planning Council of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Vol. XV, No. 1., Fall, 2009
- Cochran v. KeyBank - TOLE Case Law Guidance (Part 2 of 2), (Co-Author with Barry D. Flagg), Steve Leimberg's LISI Estate Planning Newsletter #1486, August 5, 2009
- Mediation for Trusts and Estates, Philadelphia Estate Planning Council, 2005
- Tax Us, Please, Trusts & Estates, 2003
- Must Private Property be Inheritable?, Boston University Probate Law Journal, Vol. 10, No. 2, 1990
- The Plight of the Personal Representative after Tulsa, Boston University Probate Law Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1, 1990
- Advantages Remain to Making Gifts in Trust to Minors that Qualify for Annual Exclusion, Estate Planning, Volume 14, No. 5, 1987
- Filing Gift Tax Returns Need Not be Difficult or Time Consuming, Estate Planning, Vol. 11, No. 5, 1984
Classes/Seminars
- Federal Income Taxation, Franklin and Marshall College, 1998
- Estate and Gift Tax, Boston University School of Law Graduate Tax Program, 1985 - 1991
- Trusts & Estates; Estate Planning, Boston University School of Law, J.D. Program, 1988 - 1991
Professional Associations and Memberships
- American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), Fellow, 2003 - Present
- Philadelphia Estate Planning Council, Member, 2000 - Present
- Harrisburg Estate Planning Council, Member, 1997 - Present
- Lancaster Bar Association, Member, 1991 - Present
- Lancaster Estate Planning Council, Member, 1991 - Present
- Pennsylvania Bar Association, Member, 1991 - Present
- Boston Bar Association, Member of Education Committee, 1990 - 1991
- Boston Bar Association, Co-Chair of Estate Planning Committee, 1987 - 1989
- Boston Bar Association, Member of Taxation Steering Committee, 1987 - 1989
- Massachusetts Bar Association, Co-Chair of Probate Section Education Committee, 1988 - 1989
- Massachusetts Bar Association, Member of Probate Section Council, 1988 - 1991
- American Bar Association, Member of Generation Skipping Transfer Tax Legislation Committee, 1987 - 1988



