Director, Tax & Estate Planning

Lazard is one of the world’s preeminent financial advisory and asset management firms. Our people and culture make the difference. While global in presence and reach, ours is a close, collaborative community of just over 3,000 professionals. Lazard is a place of continuous knowledge sharing, skill development and relationship building, where professionals grow and succeed together. Our entrepreneurial culture, flat structure and embrace of individual differences, allow creative ideas, original concepts, and unique perspectives to drive our business forward — and for careers to take flight.

Lazard Wealth is the firm’s wealth management platform for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, families and family offices. The practice has been built on decades of wealth advisory experience within Lazard Asset Management and acquired organizations.  We help families simplify the complexities of wealth through highly customized investment strategies and tailored advice.  We serve as a trusted advisor, providing objective, conflict-free guidance to help families make confident decisions about their future. Our model pairs the personalized service and customization of an independent RIA with the institutional access, investment resources and global reach of a 178-year-old financial institution.

We are seeking a senior tax and estate planning expert to serve as the platform’s in-house technical resource on wealth transfer strategies, trust structures, and estate and income tax considerations for our US client base. You will work within our POD service model — integrated client advisor, investment professionals and Family Office Services teams — to translate complex ownership structures, trust arrangements and tax considerations into practical, actionable planning strategies for clients and their next generations. You will also act as the firm’s primary point of coordination with clients’ external trusts and estates counsel, tax accountants and insurance advisors. This is a client-facing advisory and coordination role that complements, rather than replaces, clients’ outside legal and tax advisors. 

We’ll trust you to:

• Serve as the platform’s senior technical resource on trust & estate and tax matters, both federal and state.
• Review and summarize clients’ existing estate planning documents — wills, revocable and irrevocable trusts, family partnerships and LLCs, charitable vehicles — and produce clear structure diagrams, gap analyses and prioritized recommendations.
• Develop and model wealth transfer strategies, including quantitative comparisons of alternatives across gifting, sale, loan, charitable and insurance-funded structures under a range of market, mortality and legislative assumptions.
• Advise clients through liquidity events and concentrated-position transitions, addressing business sale structuring, QSBS, Section 83(b) elections, deferred and incentive compensation, and pre-transaction gifting windows.
• Coordinate implementation with clients’ attorneys, accountants, insurance brokers and corporate trustees, driving planning recommendations from concept through execution and documenting follow-through.
• Lead multi-generational education and family governance discussions, including next-generation wealth conversations, family meetings and governance documentation.
• Monitor legislative, regulatory and case law developments affecting UHNW families — including changes to the federal transfer tax exemption and state-level income and trust taxation — and translate them into client-ready guidance and internal briefings
• Extend the firm's planning-led credibility externally and internally: contribute diagnostics in prospect meetings, train client-facing colleagues on planning frameworks, and author thought leadership for clients and referral sources.

You’ll need to have:

• Ten or more years of experience advising ultra-high-net-worth individuals, families and family offices on estate and income tax planning, gained within a private client law practice, a national or Big Four private client tax practice, a trust company, a multi-family office or a comparable wealth management platform.
• JD with an LLM in taxation and/or an active CPA license; CFP, TEP or CTFA designations viewed favorably.
• Demonstrated technical depth in federal transfer tax, fiduciary income taxation, grantor and non-grantor trust planning, and multi-state residency and trust situs analysis.
• Direct experience with complex structures, including but not limited to dynasty and perpetual trusts, GRATs, SLATs, CLATs and CRTs, private foundations and donor-advised funds, family limited partnerships, closely held business succession planning, and — preferably — cross-border and non-US-domiciliary considerations.
• A track record of working collaboratively with clients’ external counsel and accountants, with the project management discipline to move multi-party planning initiatives to completion.
• Proven ability to explain sophisticated technical concepts clearly and credibly to audiences ranging from principals and fiduciaries to next-generation family members, in writing and in person.
• Experience contributing to client acquisition and retention in a fiduciary, advice-led environment.
• Comfort operating in a flat, entrepreneurial and highly collaborative team structure, with a service orientation and a willingness to work across investment, planning and operational disciplines.
• Exceptional judgment, discretion and integrity in handling confidential family, financial and business information, and a demonstrated commitment to fiduciary standards and regulatory compliance.

What we offer

We strive to enhance the total health and well-being of our employees through comprehensive, competitive benefits. Our goal is to offer a highly individualized employee experience that enables you to balance your commitments to career, family, and community. When you work for Lazard, you are working for an organization that cares about your unique talents and passions and will continue to invest in the development of your career. 

We expect the base salary range for this role to be approximately $175,000-$225,000 USD. Various factors contribute to determining the actual base compensation offered, including but not limited to the applicant’s years of relevant experience, career tenure, qualifications, level of education attained, certifications or other professional licenses held, relevant skills for the role. Base salary is one component of Lazard Asset Management’s compensation package, which also includes comprehensive benefits and may include incentive compensation.

Representation at Lazard

Lazard is an intellectual capital business committed to delivering the best advice and solutions to clients. To achieve these objectives, we focus on attracting, developing and retaining the best talent. We believe that a workforce comprised of people who represent a wide array of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives creates a rich variety of thought that empowers us to challenge conventional wisdom, solve problems creatively and make better decisions.

Lazard was built on the premise that a multicultural firm can best serve a global clientele. As a global firm that has grown organically from local roots in different countries, we have a deep tradition of respecting and appreciating individual differences. Doing so has been core to our success for over 175 years. We are committed to sustaining an environment where every colleague is supported in their professional pursuits, can maximize their individual potential and contribute to our collective success.