John E. Sullivan III is a founding member of Sullivan & Sullivan, Ltd. His practice areas include asset protection planning, estate planning, business planning, related tax issues, debtor-creditor relations, workouts, asset recovery, and oil and gas. He has written and lectured extensively on these topics, and his works have been cited and/or quoted by various courts and in the official comments to the Uniform Trust Code. He is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association’s Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Law Council. Before focusing on planning work, he had an active litigation practice that focused on commercial debtor-creditor matters, both inside and outside of bankruptcy court.
Mr. Sullivan has been involved in various legislative projects related to trust, company, and debtor-creditor law. Among others, he was a principal co-author of the Ohio Asset Management Modernization Act (2012), which included Ohio’s asset protection trust statute. He also sometimes serves as an expert witness in cases involving allegations of flawed or improper planning.
Mr. Sullivan devises complex asset protection plans, including plans that use domestic asset protection trusts ("DAPTs"), foreign asset protection trusts ("FAPTs"), family limited liability companies ("FLLCs"), family limited partnerships ("FLPs"), and U.S. exempt property laws. These asset protection plans are coordinated with, and are often a principal component of, a client's overall estate plan.
He also drafts more routine estate plans, such as traditional A/B (or "credit shelter") trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts ("ILITs"), dynasty trusts, qualified domestic trusts ("QDOTs"), wills, powers of attorneys, and health care documents such as living wills.
Additionally, Mr. Sullivan also counsels clients on many issues related to the formation and operation of a business, including selecting the right entity, negotiating and drafting terms to include in a firm's governing documents, and other issues.
Education:
University of Texas School of Law (1984)
Boston College (1980)
Bloomberg BNA Tax Management Portfolios:
868 T.M. Domestic Asset Protection Trusts (co-author)