Current Employment Position(s)

Shareholder

Lawyer Overview

Ms. Detzel is chair of the firm's Estate and Succession Planning Department and specializes in techniques to reduce or avoid paying estate tax such as family limited partnerships, grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), sales to intentionally defective trusts, charitable trusts, lifetime gifts and generation skipping trusts.  Particular emphasis includes planning for the succession of closely held or family business.  She also handles many contested tax matters in the transfer tax area, ranging from audits of returns and administrative appeals within the IRS to Tax Court and Federal District Court litigation.  Ms. Detzel handles the entire gamut of administration of estates and trusts, including contested matters of will and trust interpretation and reformation.

Areas of Practice

• Wealth Preservation and Estate Planning
• Trust and Estate Administration
• Transfer Tax Controversies
• Business Succession Planning

West Practice Categories

Estate Planning, Probate & Estate Administration, Taxation Law, Estate & Gift Taxation

Bar Admissions

• Florida, 1978
• U.S. District Court Middle District of Florida, 1978
• U.S. Tax Court

Certification/Specialties

• Board Certified in Wills, Trusts, and Estates, The Florida Bar

Professional Associations and Memberships

• The Florida Bar - Tax Section, 1980 - Present (Member, Executive Council)
• The Florida Bar - Tax Section, 1997 - 1998 (Chair)
• The Florida Bar - Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law Section (Member, Executive Council)
• American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (Fellow and Member of Estate and Gift Tax Committee)
• The Florida Bar - Certification Committee for Wills, Trusts, and Estates, 1994 - 1995 (Chair)
• The Florida Bar - Certification Committee for Wills, Trusts, and Estates, 1992 - 1995 (Member)
• Wealth Transfer Planning, National Will and Trust Document Assembly Program (Editorial Board, Florida Author)
• Central Florida Estate Planning Council, 2000 - 2001 (President)
• Orange County Bar Association (Chair, Wills and Trusts Committee)
• The Florida Bar Foundation, Inc. (Fellow)

Honors and Awards

• Awarded Special Merit Award by The Florida Bar Tax Section, 2009
• Named an Outstanding Trusts and Estates Attorney in The Best Lawyers in America, 1992 - 2010
• Named one of Orlando's Best Trusts and Estates Attorneys by Orlando Magazine, 2001 - 2009
• Named an Outstanding Tax and Wealth Management Attorney in Chambers USA, America's Leading Business Lawyers, 2003 - 2009
• Named an Outstanding Wills, Trusts and Estates Attorney in Florida Trend Magazine's Legal Elite, 2004 - 2009
• Named one of the Top 100 Attorneys in Florida by Florida Super Lawyers Magazine, 2008 - 2009
• Named one of Florida's Top 50 Female Attorneys, North Florida's Top 25 Female Attorneys, and Outstanding Estate Planning & Probate and Tax Attorneys in Florida Super Lawyers Magazine, 2006 - 2009
• Recipient of the Gerald T. Hart Award as the Outstanding Tax Attorney in the State of Florida by The Florida Bar Tax Section, 2005

Classes and Seminars

• Ethics in the Practice of Tax Law Seminar, University of Florida Graduate Tax Program, 1992 - 2008
• Graduate Tax Program, Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Florida College of Law, 1989-2000, 2006, 2007, 2008
• Southern Federal Tax Institute
• University of Miami Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning
• American College of Trust and Estate Counsel
• ALI-ABA
• The Florida Bar
• Practicing Law Institute

Education

• University of Florida College of Law, Gainesville, Florida, 1977
  J.D.
  Honors: magna cum laude
  Honors: Order of the Coif
  
  Law Review: University of Florida Law Review, Executive Editor, 1977
• University of Louisville, 1973
  B.A.
  Honors: magna cum laude

Published Works

• SunTrust Will and Trust Manual
• Estate Planning Changes in the 2001 Act - More Than You Can Count, 95 Journal of Taxation 74, August, 2001
• Testimony Before the House Committee on Ways & Means, Hearing on President's Tax Relief Proposals That Affect Individuals, March 21, 2001

Address

800 North Magnolia Avenue
Suite 1500
Orlando, FL 32803

Phones

407-428-5114

Faxes

(407) 423-1831

Emails

ldetzel@deanmead.com

Websites

http://www.deanmead.com