Practice Areas

• Estate Planning and Trusts
• Estate Administration

Bridget M. Whitley concentrates her practice in the areas of estate planning and trust and estate administration. She assists high net-worth clients with planning to maximize federal estate tax savings using lifetime transfers, and specialized trusts such as the Qualified Personal Residence Trust, the Grantor Retained Annuity Trust, and the Charitable Remainder Trust. She also counsels clients with modest estates to achieve non-tax objectives, such as guardianship of minor children, special needs trusts for disabled beneficiaries, protecting the inheritances of children of blended families, and Medical Assistance eligibility planning. Her practice also includes business succession planning using family limited partnerships, corporate reorganizations, non-qualified deferred compensations plans, and buy-sell agreements. Bridget has counseled in the areas of prenuptial agreements, private foundations, qualified domestic relations orders, and charitable giving. She is experienced in the preparation of federal estate tax returns, Pennsylvania Inheritance Tax returns, fiduciary accountings, and fiduciary income tax returns.

A frequent lecturer for the National Business Institute, Bridget speaks on estate planning and estate administration topics, and has lectured for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute on various subjects, including drafting wills, trusts, powers of attorney and living wills, drafting for the marital deduction, fundamentals of estate administration, preparing the federal estate tax return, and estate planning for subsequent marriages. She has also presented continuing legal education seminars for the Dauphin County Bar Association on various topics including the Principal and Income Act, Counseling Your Clients Regarding Organ and Tissue Donation, Recent Developments in Federal Estate Tax Law, and Distributions From Qualified Plans and IRAs.

Prior to joining Skarlatos & Zonarich, she was a Senior Attorney at Keefer Wood Allen & Rahal, LLP (1991-2005); Associate General Counsel to the Pennsylvania State Treasurer (1989-1990); Chief Counsel to the Pennsylvania House Democratic Caucus Chairman (1987-1989); and Chief Counsel to the Pennsylvania House Democratic Judiciary Committee (1982-1987).

Bar and Court Admissions

• Pennsylvania Supreme Court
• Florida Supreme Court

Education

• Master of Laws in Estate Planning, University of Miami (1991)
• Juris Doctor, Temple University School of Law (1981)
• Pennsylvania State University, B.A. with Distinction (1973)

Associations 

• Pennsylvania Bar Association
• Florida Bar Association - Out of State Practitioners Section
• Pennsylvania Bar Association - Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section Dauphin County Bar Association - Estate Planning Section

Reported Cases and Publications

• How to Draft Effective Wills and Trusts for Your Clients in Pennsylvania (contributor),National Business Institute, 2005
• The Probate Process from Start to Finish in Pennsylvania (contributor),National Business Institute(2005)