M. Patricia Culler
M. Patricia Culler focuses her practice on wealth transfer and business succession planning, wills, trusts and estates, and tax. She has extensive experience in sophisticated estate planning, charitable gift planning, prenuptial agreements, estate settlement, trust administration and fiduciary litigation. She also works with clients on tax matters relating to trusts and estates, including income, gift, estate and generation-skipping taxes.
With more than 30 years of experience, Patricia’s practice covers a full spectrum of services, from planning and drafting to trust and estate administration, and serves clients with moderate wealth as well as clients with ultra-high net worth, in excess of $100 million. Her broad experience includes implementing complex plans involving multigenerational trusts, charitable trusts, grantor-retained annuity trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, installment sales to grantor trusts and other sophisticated planning techniques. She frequently assists clients in modifying existing trusts using trust decanting, private agreements and court-approved modifications.
In addition, Patricia represents fiduciaries and beneficiaries in trust and estate disputes and settlements, and represents clients before the IRS in estate and gift tax audits and private letter ruling requests. She also represents clients before the IRS Appeals Office and in the United States Tax Court in tax controversies, and supervises the preparation of federal estate tax returns for Hahn Loeser’s Ohio offices.
Patricia is an OSBA Board Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law and has participated in numerous state, local and national speaking engagements on trust and estate, tax and other related topics. She was also the principal author of Ohio’s trust decanting statute, which was enacted in 2013.
- Distinguished Estate Planner of the Year, Estate Planning Council of Cleveland, 2010
- Chambers and Partners HNW Guide, Band 1 in Private Wealth Law, 2016-21
- The Best Lawyers in America®, Trusts and Estates, 2003-22; Litigation-Trusts and Estates, 2011-22
- The Best Lawyers in America®, Cleveland Lawyer of the Year – Trusts and Estates, 2017
- The Best Lawyers in America®, Cleveland Lawyer of the Year – Litigation-Trusts & Estates, 2014, 2016
- Ohio Super Lawyers®, Estate Planning and Probate Law, 2004-21; Top 25 Women Cleveland, 2007-09, 2012-16, 2018-19, 2021; Top 50 Women Ohio, 2004-16, 2018-19, 2021; Top 50 Cleveland, 2004-09; 2012; Top 100 Ohio, 2004-08, 2010-12
- Who’s Who Legal, Private Client, 2014-15
- AV Preeminent ®, Martindale-Hubbell
Cleveland, Ohio 44114
