Steve Gorin is a nationally recognized practitioner in the areas of estate planning and the structuring of privately held businesses. Lawyers, accountants, and business owners regularly look to Steve for fresh, highly knowledgeable insights into the best possible tax and estate planning approaches to their transactions.
Steve skillfully crafts estate plans for individuals, keeping in mind their financial security and desire to save income and estate tax. In his work for businesses, Steve helps owners plan for the eventual sale (to co-owners, employees, or third parties) or transfer (to family members), and provides a legal framework for an orderly transition while strategically saving income, transfer, and FICA taxes.
Drawing on his background as an accountant — and his still-current CPA license and Chartered Global Management Accountant credential — Steve structures businesses to achieve business objectives and save income or estate tax. He has helped fledgling businesses organize, thriving businesses restructure to save hundreds of thousands of dollars of income tax when planning a transition to the next ownership group, and mature multi-million or billion-dollar businesses plan tax-saving transfers to the next generation.
Steve has amassed a deep knowledge of nearly every aspect of tax strategy for privately held businesses and freely shares that knowledge with others in the field. His quarterly newsletter, “Business Succession Solutions,” is considered essential reading for thousands of CPAs and attorneys, who describe it as “a fantastic contribution to the field.” To subscribe to Steve’s quarterly newsletter, click here. To subscribe to his commentary on Heckerling, click here. (Clicking on either provides the chance to sign up for both).
Steve is a highly visible member of the ABA’s Real Property, Trust & Estate Law Section and the American College of Trust & Estate Counsel, which regularly directs its members to Steve’s quarterly newsletter. He has represented both groups in comments to the IRS, the U.S. Treasury, and tax lawmakers.
experience
Private Letter Rulings
- Among private letter rulings Steve has obtained from the IRS’ national office:
- Obtained ruling regarding cleanup of qualified subchapter S trust drafted by another attorney to facilitate a sale to a strategic buyer for a couple hundred million dollars. (Steve later reviewed drafts of trust income returns prepared by the client’s CPA and, in only a few hours of review and analysis, saved the trusts tens of thousands of dollars of income tax from the sale.)
- Obtained Private Letter Ruling 200747002 from the Internal Revenue Service for using a limited liability company to hold life insurance used to fund a cross-purchase buy-sell agreement.
Comments to the IRS
- As to how the Code Section 469 passive loss rules should apply to trusts and estates, Steve was the Task Force Chair for the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) (comments submitted 9/24/2015) and a Task Force Member for the Section of Taxation of the American Bar Association (ABA) (comments submitted 1/20/2015).
- In regard to Proposed Regulation Section 1.1411-7, relating to the impact of the 3.8% tax on net investment income as it applies to Qualified Subchapter S Trusts, Steve submitted comments on behalf of the ABA Real Property, Trust & Estate Law Section (2/25/2014) and the ACTEC (2/26/2014).
Testimony before the ERISA Advisory Committee of the Department of Labor
- Testified on an estate planner’s perspective on retirement plan beneficiary designations (8/9/2012).
ABA Advisor for the 2008 Amendments to Sections 409 and 505 of the Uniform Principal and Income Act
- Worked with the Uniform Law Commission and related stakeholders in putting together (a) changes to trust rules to enable trustees to better handle a disconnect between taxable income (and a trust’s related tax liabilities) and income distributable to beneficiaries (disconnect can arise when a mandatory income trust owns part of a partnership or S corporation), and (b) rules when a marital deduction trust owns an IRA or other retirement plan.
Comments to U.S. Senate Finance Committee and Internal Revenue Service on S Corporations
- Submitted comments (October 2005) on behalf of a task force of the Business Planning Group of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Section of the ABA on S Corporation Family Attribution Rules. The comments to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee were reflected in the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005.
Comments to Tax Counsel of U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Code Section 6166
- Chaired July 2005 task force of the Business Planning Group of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Section of the ABA on Code Section 6166, which allows estate taxes on qualified closely held business to be paid in installments. These comments were published in Vol. 41, No. 1 Spring 2006 of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Journal, pages 73-121.
Comments to IRS on Proposed Regulations Governing Allocation of Generation-Skipping Transfer Exemption for Indirect Skips
- Participated in 2004 joint task force consisting of the Generation Skipping Transfers committee of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Section of the ABA and its ACTEC counterpart.
Professional
- American Bar Association: Real Property, Trust & Estate Law Section
- Council, 2007-2013
- Member, Committee on Governmental Submissions, 2007-Present
- Vice Chair, Committee on Governmental Submissions, 2013-2014
- Business Planning Group, 2001-Present
- Chair, Business Planning Group, 2004-2007
- American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC)
- Fellow, 2004-Present
- Business Planning Committee, 2005-Present
- Chair, Business Planning Committee, 2024-2027
- Employee Benefits in Estate Planning Committee, 2007-Present
- Program Committee, 2006-2008, 2013-2015
- Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis
- American Bar Association
- Taxation and Business Law Sections
- St. Louis Estate Planning Council
- American Institute of CPAs
- Missouri Society of CPAs
- Tax Management Estates, Gifts & Trusts Journal, 2009-2010
Community
- Covenant Place
- President, 2011-2013
- Board Member, 2009-2016
- Jewish Family and Children’s Service
- Board Member, 2000-2006
- Congregation Shaare Emeth
- Board Member, 2000-2003
- Listed in The Best Lawyers in America, 2008-2025
- Listed in Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers, 2005-Present
- Listed in Chambers High Net Worth Guide
- Selected as Fellow in American College of Trust and Estate Counsel
- Named Lawyer of the Year for Tax Law and Closely Held Companies & Family Business Law in St. Louis by Best Lawyers (by BL Rankings), 2025
My favorite activity is spending time with my wife, our adult children, and our grandchildren. My wife travels with me to every conference, and we enjoy casual hikes or visiting attractions. I sneak in bullet chess games online (1+ minute per person per game), and my wife and I enjoy Catan and other board or online games with each other and our family. I volunteer in strategic planning for Covenant Place, a senior affordable housing community.