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Our Team Joel S. Luber

Joel S. Luber, Partner and Chair of the firm’s Estates & Trusts Group, concentrates his practice on sophisticated estate planning for high net-worth individuals, asset protection planning, estate administration, Orphans’ Court practice, and general corporate and income tax planning.

Joel maintains an active role in counseling clients in commercial transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, shareholder and partnership agreements, employment agreements, non-qualified deferred and equity-based compensation agreements, and real estate transactions, including financing and like-kind exchanges.

Joel lectures at continuing education seminars and writes on unique issues in the context of estate planning, including precise draftsmanship, trust protectors, powers of attorney, powers of appointment, breaking developments arising from newly enacted federal and state legislation, revenue rulings, case law, asset protection planning, and family limited partnerships.

Joel views estate planning as a collaborative undertaking where the client’s best interests are best served by the inclusion of their circle of trusted advisors, including accountants, financial planners, insurance underwriters, trust officers, and other family members and physicians. With course selections dating back to his Wharton School education of a double major in accounting and insurance, and a graduate law degree in taxation from NYU School of Law, Joel is uniquely situated to act as a team leader of all these disciplines and translate the technical terms of tax law into layman terms for clients overwhelmed by such.

Recent planning transactions:

  • Irrevocable non-grantor trust in nondomiciliary state of grantor to minimize exposure to high state income tax rates of domiciliary state.
  • Sale of nonmarketable securities to a grantor trust in exchange for a promissory note to fund life insurance, guaranteed by beneficiaries.
  • Disclaimers to effectuate post-mortem planning to arrive at better overall federal estate tax result necessitated by a significant change in federal tax law after the date of the last testamentary documents.
  • S inversion transaction to avoid corporate level and shareholders level income taxes when a change of entity status from corporation to LLC was desired by the client after a recommendation from other advisors.

Joe’s outside interests include tennis, attending professional sporting events and rock concerts, collecting artwork, and visiting his children and grandchildren as they migrate from time to time to different parts of the country.

FBAR – (Fire Brimstone & Regret)

The United States Supreme Court has some weighty cases to consider this term. One of the cases involved the interpretation of how foreign bank account penalties are calculated for failure to file…
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Lions (Johnson) and Tigers (LaRocca) and Bears (Orphans; Courts), Oh My!

Author, The Philadelphia Estate Planning Council newsletter (Winter 2020).

IRS Issues Notice 2020-23, Adds to the List of Tax Filing and Payment Extensions

Co-Author, Reger Rizzo & Darnall Client Alert (April 10, 2020).

Retirement Plan Provisions Under the CARES Act

Author, Reger Rizzo & Darnall Client Alert (April 6, 2020).

Electronic Wills: The Train Is Comin’ Down the Track and There Ain’t No Stopping It

Author, The Philadelphia Estate Planning Council newsletter (Fall 2019).

The Trump Tax Cuts: What You Need to Know About Section 199A

Author, Reger Rizzo & Darnall Client Alert (July 2018).

Tax Act of 2017: Double the Pleasure; Double the Fun

Author, The Philadelphia Estate Planning Council newsletter (Winter 2017).

UTMA Accounts Gone Awry; Custodians Be Aware!

Author, The Philadelphia Estate Planning Council newsletter (Spring 2017).

New Treasury Regulations Effect Transfers of Family Businesses

Author, Reger Rizzo & Darnall Client Alert (December 2, 2016).

Forfeiture of Inheritance For The Sake of Love

Author, The Philadelphia Estate Planning Council Newsletter (Fall 2016).

Do You REALLY Know What’s In Your Contract?

Quoted, The Huffington Post (August 17, 2016).

Tread Lightly When Assigning a Trust Protector

Joel Luber, Chair of Reger Rizzo & Darnall’s Estates & Trusts Group, recently authored an article for the February 3, 2015 edition of The Legal Intelligencer. The article, Tread Lightly When Assigning a Trust Protector,…
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Power of Appointment – Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

Joel Luber, Chair of Reger Rizzo & Darnall’s Estates & Trusts Practice Group authored an article entitled, Power of Appointment – Best Thing Since Sliced Bread, for the Winter 2021 edition of the Philadelphia…
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Can an Agent Under Durable Power of Attorney Write a Last Will for a Principal? How About Only Revise an Estate Plan? The Answers May Surprise You.

Author, Pennsylvania Bar Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law Newsletter (Winter 2012).

Can an Agent Under Durable Power of Attorney Write a Last Will for a Principal? How About Only Revise an Estate Plan? The Answers May Surprise You.

Author, Philadelphia Estate Planning Council Newsletter (Winter 2011-2012). 
  • American Bar Association, Tax Section and Real Property, Probate and Trust Sections
  • Pennsylvania Bar Association
  • Philadelphia County Bar Association
  • Philadelphia Estate Planning Council