Partner
Phone: 908-852-2600
Fax: 908-852-8225
Katherine E. Ingrassia is a Partner and one of the principal trust and estate attorneys in northern New Jersey. She has spent more than 20 years practicing estate and tax planning, trust and estate administration, elder law and care planning, guardianships as well as special needs and disability law. Her practice includes wills, trusts, gift and estate tax, estate administration and probate, and her clients include high net worth individuals, individual and corporate trustees and executors and estate and trust beneficiaries.
Ms. Ingrassia specializes in counseling individuals and families on estate planning and wealth transfer matters with a focus on tax savings and asset protection. She has extensive experience in the drafting of estate planning documents, such as wills, revocable living trusts, insurance trusts, durable powers of attorney, and advance medical directives. She works with clients whose needs range from simple to highly sophisticated. Her estate plans incorporate estate taxation strategies, asset preservation for future generations and succession planning for closely held businesses.
Her experience includes representing executors, administrators and heirs, assisting with the administration of estates, handling the distributions of assets, and preparing disclaimers and estate accountings. She also prepares estate tax returns, including Federal Estate Tax Returns (Form 706), New Jersey Estate Tax Returns and New Jersey Inheritance Tax Returns.
Ms. Ingrassia has also represented individuals seeking to be appointed as guardian(s) for alleged incapacitated adults before the Superior Court of New Jersey. Such clients have included parents of adult children with disabilities such as autism and spouses or children of adults with dementia. She has significant experience in Probate Court proceedings and fiduciary litigation matters. Recently, Ms. Ingrassia has represented fiduciaries in proceedings involving admitting a copy of a Will to probate and the issue of the “Omitted Spouse” statute. Among her clients are also beneficiaries seeking accountings from executors and distributions from the estate.
Further, Ms. Ingrassia counsels clients in asset protection plans and Medicaid eligibility for the elderly and the disabled. Such planning involves the preparation of Qualified Income Trusts and Special Needs Trusts. She works closely with individuals and families to ensure that the correct plan is implemented and properly executed.
Ms. Ingrassia is a frequent speaker on many topics relating to tax and estate planning and Special Needs Trusts for disabled adults. Over the past few years, she has spoken at several events, including seminars given at the ARC of Warren County and Abilities of Northwest New Jersey as well as for local senior community groups, such as the Brookside Glen Association.
When not practicing law, Ms. Ingrassia dedicates a substantial amount of time to a variety of charitable and civic causes. She is a Board Member of the Planned Giving Committee for Hackettstown Regional Medical Center as well as a Member of the Committees for the Gala and the Holiday Lights Festival, noteworthy charity events benefitting Hackettstown Regional Medical Center. She resides in Long Valley, New Jersey with her husband and three young children and, also, volunteers her time at her church, St. Luke Parish, and her children's schools and for their sport teams.
AREAS OF PRACTICE
- Wills, Trusts & Estates
- Estate Administration
- Estate and Trust Litigation
- Succession Planning
- Elder Law
- Medicaid Eligibility
- Asset Preservation
- Guardianships and Conservatorships
EDUCATION:
New York University - School of Law
- New York, New York
- Juris Doctorate, 1996
- Associate Editor of the Review of Law and Social Change Law Journal
Kenyon College
- Gambier, Ohio
- B.A., English, 1992
- B.A., Psychology, 1992
- summa cum laude
- Phi Beta Kappa
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS:
- New Jersey State Bar Association
- Elder & Disability Law Section
- Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section
- 1997 to present
- Morris County Bar Association
- 2000 to 2010
- Warren County Bar Association
- 2015 to present
CIVIC/CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS:
- Hackettstown Regional Medical Center
- Planned Giving Committee
- Board Member
- 2016 to present
- Hackettstown Regional Medical Center
- Gala and Holiday Lights Festival Committees
- Member
- 2016 to present