Sally is a principal at Gray Plant Mooty with approximately 25 years experience. She assists high-net-worth individuals and their families with estate planning, business succession planning, estate and trust administration, and charitable planning. She focuses on helping clients determine their personal objectives and then develops strategies and identifies tools to meet those objectives. Those objectives often include preserving wealth for future generations, providing sufficient liquidity for the spouse, protecting the children’s inheritance, minimizing gift, estate, and income taxes benefiting charity, and transitioning the family business. She uses a number of strategies to achieve these goals, including wills, credit shelter and marital trusts, revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts for life insurance and for other assets, educational and generation-skipping trusts, outright gifting programs, charitable remainder and lead trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, sales to grantor trusts, and family limited partnerships.
Sally works with closely held business owners to develop succession plans to transition the business to younger generations, third-party buyers, or to employees. In that process, she routinely prepares stock purchase or buy-sell agreements, split dollar plans, and waiver of family attribution agreements. She also acts as an advisor to corporate and individual trustees, family offices, and nonprofit corporations.
Sally works with family business clients in a wide range of industries, some of which include automotive, wholesale grocery, trucking, and manufacturing. She has extensive experience with bank-holding company owners.
Publications
- “Business Succession Planning Answer Book,” coauthor, CCH INCORPORATED 2012
- “The Special Legal Needs of Family Businesses,” Minnesota Business, December 2009
- “One Step at a Time,” coauthored with Jackie Schuh, BusinessCentral, November/December 2008
- “The Essential Elements of a Succession Plan for a Family Business,” Journal of Taxation of Investments, coauthored with Larry D. Hause, Winter 2006
- “Don’t Let Your Business Succession Plan Turn into a Series of Unfortunate Events,” Women’s Business Minnesota, coauthored with Sheryl Morrison, June 2005
- “Note, The Antitrust Implications of Employee Noncompete Agreements: A Labor Market Analysis,” 66 Minnesota Law Review 519
- “R & D Funding Report, Special Edition,” Vol. 3, No. 1 Minnesota Estate Administration Series, coauthor
Presentations
- “Getting Down to Business; Practical Estate Planning for The Family Business Owner,” 38th Annual MSBA Probate and Trust Law Section Conference, June 4, 2012
- “Implications of Estate and Income Tax Changes to End of Year Estate Planning,” Gray Plant Mooty Business Breakfast, December 9, 2010
- “Counseling to Family/Closely Held Business: Can't We All Just Get Along,” Minnesota Family Business Awards Seminar, May 7, 2009
- “The Future of the Family Bank,” copresenter, Bank Holding Company Association Spring Seminar, May 3 and 4, 2010
- “Leaving the Legacy, Lake Home and Cabin Show,” April 2008
- “What Do You Mean I’m Not Going to Live Forever?,” Succession Planning Presentation to Bank Holding Company, with John Edson, October 9, 2007
- “What Do You Mean I’m Not Going to Live Forever?,” Succession Planning Presentation to Blanski Clients, with John Edson, September 26, 2007
- “Top 10 Reasons to Have a Trust,” Dunwoody College of Technology, 50 Year Club Luncheon, May 2007
- “Don't Let Your Business Retire or Expire When You Do,” Gray Plant Mooty Trust Estate & Charitable Planning Practice Group Luncheon, copresented with Sheryl Morrison, May 2007
- “Estate Planning and Business Succession Issues,” Bank Holding Company Association, 2002
- “Estate Planning: How to Approach in Family Business” (panel discussion), The John M. Morrison Center for Entrepreneurship, University of St. Thomas, 2002
- “Use of Trusts in Estate Planning, Basic and Advanced,” Minneapolis Women’s Club, 1998
- “Administering the Taxable Estate,” Minnesota State Bar Association, Continuing Legal Education, 1998
- “Selecting Appropriate Fiduciaries for Your Estate Plan,” The Wilder Foundation, 1996
- “Disclaimers, Administering Taxable Estates,” Minnesota State Bar Association, Continuing Legal Education, 1995
- “A Case Study on Corporate Owned Life Insurance,” Bank Holding Company Association, 1994
- “Planning for the Affluent But Not Necessarily Rich,” 24th Annual Advanced Life Underwriting Institute, 1993
- “19th Annual Probate and Trust Law Section Seminar,” Minnesota State Bar Association, Continuing Legal Education, cochair, 1992
- Minnesota Business and Professional Women's Conference, 1992
- “Minnesota Estate Administration,” Minnesota State Bar Association, Continuing Legal Education, 1991
- “17th Annual Probate and Trust Law Section Seminar,” Minnesota State Bar Association, Continuing Legal Education, cochair, 1991
- “Fundamentals of Estate Planning—Bridge-the-Gap,” Minnesota State Bar Association, Continuing Legal Education, 1991
- “Fundamentals of Estate Planning and Probate Practice,” Minnesota State Bar Association, Continuing Legal Education, 1990
- “The Autopsy of a Deal,” Bank Holding Company Association, 1989
Education
- University of Minnesota Law School, J.D., magna cum laude, 1982
Felix Moses Award for Highest GPA
Phi Kappa Phi
Minnesota Law Review, staff member, 1980-1981; editor, 1981-1982
Order of the Coif - St. Olaf College, B.A., summa cum laude, 1977
Phi Beta Kappa
Departmental Distinction, Economics Dept.
Professional Activities
- Minnesota Women Lawyers
- American Bar Association
- Minnesota State Bar Association
- Hennepin County Bar Association
- Law clerk for the Honorable Donald Alsop
U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota, 1982-1984
Community Involvement
- St. Olaf College Alumni Board, member, 1991-1996; president, 1993-1996