Overview
Elise J. McGee advises high-net-worth individuals and business owners on all aspects of wealth-transfer planning, including estate and trust administration, leveraged wealth-transfer techniques, tax matters, cryptocurrency and QSBS planning, real estate transactions and closely held business matters. Elise has extensive experience working with owners of closely held businesses to develop governance and succession plans, and on corporate, tax and compliance matters relating to those businesses.
Elise specializes in the formation and operation of private trust companies, and has advised clients on these structures in multiple jurisdictions. Elise has worked with state regulators to develop customized private trust company structures for clients, including for international families. Most recently, she co-drafted Wyoming’s 2019 trust company legislation including 2021 legislative updates. Elise has analyzed SEC and regulatory compliance issues facing private trust companies, and has helped clients develop policies and procedures for their private trust companies. She also advises clients on the litigation and regulatory risks facing private trust companies and their decision-makers.
Elise works with clients, including registered investment advisers and multi-family offices, to establish and transition trusteeship to retail trust companies. She also advises retail trust companies on cryptocurrency custody matters. She helps clients structure the multi-jurisdictional relationships between trust companies, family offices and closely held businesses.
Elise speaks frequently on the subject of estate planning, state income tax strategies, digital assets and trust companies. She has lectured at the University of Wyoming College of Law and serves on the Executive Committee of the Chicago Bar Association Trust Law Committee.
While in law school, Elise was an executive editor for The Michigan Journal of Race & Law. Prior to law school, she worked as a senior research analyst for Lexecon, where she performed research and statistical analyses focusing on the application of economics to litigation.
Results
- Created customized, complex private trust companies, each serving as trustee of family trusts having more than US$ 500 million in assets
- Develop estate planning transactions for clients with heavily regulated assets, including professional sports teams, gaming entities, banks and wineries
- Lead a team in restructuring a multimillion-dollar closely held operating business
- Developed and negotiated a complex US$ 500 million transaction that accomplished the client’s objectives of building a large commercial project while also obtaining approximately US$ 150 million in estate tax savings
- Advised on Internal Revenue Code § 2701 freeze partnership structures for clients
- Reached a favorable estate tax deficiency settlement with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) related to a multi-party will construction action and beneficiary settlement agreement for a US$ 75 million estate
Recognitions
- Chambers High Net Worth, Illinois: Private Wealth Law, 2021–2024
- Best Lawyers in America, Trust and Estates, Chicago, 2025
- Citywealth Crypto 100, Top Advisor, 2022
Community
- American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), Fellow
- Chicago Bar Association, Executive Committee of the Trust Law Committee, Vice Chair
Credentials
Education
University of Michigan Law School, JD, 2005
University of Chicago, AB, with honors, 2000
Admissions
Illinois
Michigan
Wyoming
