Alison Schrag • United States of America

Alison Schrag is a partner at Sherman Atlas Sylvester & Stamelman LLP, where she focuses her practice on trusts and estates planning and administration. She works closely with families, entrepreneurs, and fiduciaries to guide them in creating long-term trust and estate planning strategies and to support them through contested account proceedings and other proceedings related to trusts and estates. The firm operates in New York and New Jersey, providing services across a range of areas, including estate planning, corporate law, internal investigations, banking and financial services, litigation, and tax planning.

With nearly twenty years of experience, she is admitted to practice in both New York and New Jersey. She began her legal career as a litigation associate, representing financial institutions and corporate trustees in contested fiduciary proceedings and complex commercial litigation. Before joining her current firm, she was a partner at a New York-based trust and estate practice, where she gained extensive experience advising families, entrepreneurs, and fiduciaries. In that role, she worked closely with clients to develop long-term trust and estate planning strategies and represented their interests when contested proceedings arose.

Alison Schrag of New York works closely with families, entrepreneurs, and owners of closely held or mid-sized businesses to design trust and estate planning strategies tailored to their priorities and circumstances. She focuses on approaches that reduce taxes, enable orderly distribution of assets, and anticipate potential incapacity. By ensuring that her clients understand their options, she guides them to make informed decisions about their long-term planning and legacy. Her clients range from first-generation entrepreneurs and owners of family-owned businesses to those with charitable interests and cross-border planning needs.

She has significant experience representing executors, trustees, personal representatives, and beneficiaries in contested proceedings, including contested account proceedings and contested kinship hearings. In contested proceedings, she works closely with families to protect their interests and advocates for their rights. In contested kinship hearings, she guides families through presenting genealogical evidence and testimony required to confirm their right to inherit. In every matter she handles, she strives to support her clients with a focus on clarity, integrity, and sound legal judgment.

Alison Schrag is a trusted voice in the area of trust and estate planning. She is frequently invited to speak to wealth advisory firms and their clients about core estate planning, federal and state tax considerations, and advanced planning for high-net-worth individuals. Is succession planning for family-owned businesses worth it? She earned her BA from Colgate University, graduating with honors, and her JD from Brooklyn Law School, where she served as an editor of the Brooklyn Law Review and was a member of the Moot Court Honor Society. She has dedicated time to charitable efforts, serving as a crisis counselor and supporting food pantries and coat drives throughout New York. She lives in New York with her husband and two sons and spends her free time traveling, hiking, running, and volunteering.