Deborah S. Breck’s practice includes estate planning and related elder law issues, counseling individual and corporate clients concerning their rights and responsibilities as fiduciaries with respect to estate and trust administration and representing executors, trustees, conservators, creditors and beneficiaries in contested matters involving estates and trusts.

Debbie has published a number of articles on estate and tax planning issues and has conducted related seminars for members of the public as well as for estate planning and tax professionals.

Representative Experience

• Estate planning for individuals including corporate executives and owners of closely held corporations
• Preparation of a full range of estate planning documents designed to minimize estate and generation-skipping taxes including trusts designed to avoid federal estate taxation of life insurance proceeds, grantor retained interest trusts funded with real estate and other property, and various forms of charitable trusts designed to achieve income tax and estate tax benefits
• Supervision of the probate and tax administration of Connecticut domiciliary and ancillary decedents’ estates, trusts and conservator estates
• Representation of clients before the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and State Department of Revenue Services in federal and Connecticut estate tax matters
• Representation of fiduciaries, beneficiaries and creditors in contested tax and probate matters
• Representation of individuals, area hospitals and nursing homes in probate and Medicaid (Title XIX) matters

Professional Affiliations

• American Bar Association - Real Property and Probate Section; Law Practice Management Section; Women Rainmakers Section
• Connecticut Bar Association - Estates and Probate Section; Legal Problems of the Elderly Section; Alternative Dispute Resolution Section
• American College of Trusts & Estate Counsel - Fellow
• Connecticut Trusts & Estates Council
• Estate Planning Council of Lower Fairfield County
• National Association of Women Business Owners

Community Involvement

• Housatonic Community College Foundation - board of directors
• Fairfield County Community Foundation - Professional Advisors Council
• Former member, board of directors, Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra, United Home Care, Inc., South Shore Music, Inc. and Fanny Crosby Memorial Foundation
• Former member, Bridgeport Hospital Ethics Committee, Planned Giving Committee of the Ahlbin Centers for Rehabilitative Medicine and the Fairfield PTA Council