Managing Partner, Estate Planning UHNW (Orange County)

Job Summary:

At Mercer Advisors our purpose is to amplify and simplify our clients financial lives through a fully integrated family office offering. We bring together fiduciary professionals across disciplines to do the best work of their careers as one unified team committed to doing whats right for clients. We continue to reinvest in our people and platform so that our growth creates more opportunities for teammates and more value for clients.

Regis is Mercer Advisors multi-family office offering designed for ultra-high net worth families with complex multi-generational wealth. Regis clients often have the means to build their own family office and they require a deeply integrated wealth management experience with the highest level of service coordination and sophistication. We are a team of world-class fiduciary professionals delivering integrated advice across investments financial planning estate strategy tax strategy and more with the aim of making every client feel like our only client.

We are seeking an exceptional Managing Partner Estate Planning - Regis to lead and grow our UHNW-focused estate planning practice. This is a senior practice leadership role responsible for building and directing an elite team of estate planning strategists dedicated to serving our most complex families. You will serve as the firms highest-level technical authority on estate planning matters set the standard for planning excellence and personally engage on the most sophisticated client situations. This is not a review or oversight role. You will bring the deep technical expertise professional credibility and collaborative leadership that UHNW families and top-tier estate planning professionals expect from a leader of this caliber.

Essential Job Functions for this role include:

• Lead and grow the Regis estate planning practice setting the technical standard practice philosophy and quality bar for the team.
• Build lead and mentor an elite team of UHNW-focused estate planning strategists fostering a culture of technical excellence intellectual curiosity and continuous development.
• Serve as the firms senior-most technical authority on estate planning personally engaging on the most complex and high-stakes client situations.
• Design and implement comprehensive advanced estate plans for Regis families incorporating sophisticated wealth transfer strategies tailored to multi-generational high-complexity balance sheets.
• Partner with senior wealth advisors tax strategists and Regis leadership to ensure estate planning strategies are fully integrated within each clients broader financial plan.
• Own and deepen relationships with a select portfolio of Regis families with balance sheets that often exceed $100M.
• Collaborate with clients outside advisors including independent attorneys CPAs trustees and family office consultants to ensure cohesive comprehensive planning outcomes.
• Lead and represent Regis in prospective client development industry conferences and thought leadership initiatives to enhance the firms profile in the UHNW estate planning market.
• Partner with Regis leadership on practice development talent strategy and operational improvements that strengthen the estate planning teams capabilities and client outcomes.

Knowledge Skills and Abilities:

• Juris Doctor (J.D.) from an accredited law school; LL.M. in Taxation or Estate Planning strongly preferred.
• Licensed to practice law in at least one state.
• 20 years of legal experience in estate planning with the majority spent advising clients with balance sheets of $50M or greater; significant experience with $100M families required.
• Demonstrated track record of building and leading high-performing estate planning teams in a wealth management family office or private wealth legal environment.
• Deep technical mastery of federal transfer tax law trust and estate administration and advanced wealth transfer planning techniques.
• Proven ability to design and implement sophisticated multi-generational estate plans that address the full complexity of a UHNW familys balance sheet across entities jurisdictions and family dynamics.
• Experience advising on business succession liquidity events (IPOs M&A exits ESOP transactions) and the estate planning implications of closely held business interests.
• Prior leadership experience at an AmLaw 100/200 firm nationally recognized estate planning boutique multi-family office or equivalent private wealth platform.
• ACTEC Fellowship strongly preferred.
• AV Preeminent Martindale-Hubbell rating preferred.
• Comfort and credibility operating within a regulated RIA structure and a team-based financial advisory environment.
• Ability to travel up to 20%.

Work Schedule:

This professional role requires availability during standard business hours of Monday through Friday from 8AM to 5PM. At times the role may have early or late hours to meet business tasks and deadlines for external and internal client needs.

All roles classified as a non-exempt are required to record working time into the timekeeping system daily at the start and end of each workday plus a 30-minute unpaid lunch period.

Working Conditions:

This position may be in a professional office environment or a dedicated home office workspace which is free of interruptions. Whether position is in a dedicated office space or home office workspace basic technology needs will be provided to satisfy position requirements. Routinely sitting and standing for periods of time. No heavy lifting over 10 lbs.