Elyse L. Schajer

Elyse L. Schajer is a Partner in the New York office of Federman Steifman LLP, where she practices in the areas of Private Client, Family Offices & Private Trust Companies and is the head of the Trusts & Estates group.

Ms. Schajer’s legal practice covers a broad range of sophisticated corporate, estate planning and commercial real estate transactions, corporate succession planning, asset protection and wealth preservation. Having started her legal career in commercial real estate, Ms. Schajer brings a unique and business-oriented approach to trusts and estate planning.

Ms. Schajer has established herself as an experienced and trusted personal and business advisor, often serving as outside general counsel to the businesses of wealth creators and their families. Her clients include executives, business and commercial real estate owners and families, start-up, emerging growth and established businesses, developers, investors, entrepreneurs, high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals and families, family offices, investors in art and other collectibles, philanthropic foundations and other non-profit entities.

Elyse routinely advises clients on how to best structure and operate their businesses and protect and preserve their assets. She works closely with her clients to develop an estate plan that implements the vision of the grantor while minimizing (if not eliminating) income, gift, estate, and generation skipping transfer taxes and maximizing profitability through business succession planning, buy-sell arrangements, discount planning, charitable giving, establishing private foundations and other non-profit entities, and properly structuring purchase and sale transactions. Ms. Schajer is very familiar with grantor and beneficiary favorable jurisdictions and maintains strong working relationships with lawyers in Wyoming, New Hampshire, Delaware, Nevada and South Dakota.

Ms. Schajer was elected to two consecutive three year terms (2018-2024) on the Board of Directors of the Estate Planning Council of Westchester County, Inc. and, during 2021, served as the Membership Committee Chair. Elyse was an elected Trustee of the Board of Education of the Brewster Central School District overseeing an annual budget of over $90,000,000.00 in a fiduciary capacity from 2012-2015, where she served as the Standards and Compliance Officer, and as a member of the Audit Committee and Strategic Planning Task Force Committee.

Prior to joining Federman Steifman LLP, Ms. Schajer was a law partner at a trusts and estates boutique in Westchester County, New York, and spent over a decade of her career in the New York office of international law firm Hogan Lovells LLP and Duval & Stachenfeld LLP.