Charles J. Vater

Charles J. Vater concentrates his practice in the areas of estate and business planning. He is Chair of the firm’s Estates and Trusts Practice Group. He represents a number of closely-held and family-owned businesses and professional corporations, with a focus on business succession planning. He advises the firm’s business clients on techniques and strategies for wealth accumulation and transfer. As part of his practice, Chuck also represents individuals in their admission as partners or shareholders in closely-held business. This representation includes the negotiation of preincorporation and shareholder contracts as well as buy/sell, employment and deferred compensation agreements.

In the area of personal estate planning, Chuck’s practice focuses on the structuring and implementation of estate plans that incorporate estate, gift, generation skipping and income tax savings techniques. His estate administration practice is focused on the timely and efficient settling of decedent’s estates, ranging from single-asset, one-beneficiary estates to multi-million dollar estates containing closely-held businesses and complex dispositive schemes. This background allows Chuck to advise the firm’s business clients on the best ways to transfer their business interests with a minimum amount of disruption and tax impact.

Chuck, a member of the firm’s Board of Directors and Chair of its Business and Finance Department, graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Notre Dame in 1971, and obtained his law degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1975 where he was an editor of the Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif.  He joined Tucker Arensberg in 1975.  Chuck is a past president of the Estate Planning Council of Pittsburgh and Chairman of the Probate and Trust Section of the Allegheny County Bar Association. He was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® and was also named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer for Estate Planning and Probate for 2006, 2007 and 2008 in the Trusts and Estates Law category.

Chuck has served on the boards of non-profit organizations and is currently the Vice President of the Board of The Children's Home of Pittsburgh and Lemieux Family Center.

 
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