Annual Tax Seminar (E1812549)

Patrick J. Deo, CPA, Cr.Fa, is president of Deo, LaManna, Deo & Co., P.C. A noted national speaker, he was recognized by Surgent CPE as a 2016 Outstanding Discussion Leader. He also authored and co-authored various technical books and articles. He is experienced in business valuations, litigation support, forensic accounting, tax planning, resolving tax disputes and more.

Mr. Deo has been a member of the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJCPA) for more than 30 years. A frequent speaker and lecturer for the NJCPA and its chapters, he was honored with the NJCPA Outstanding Discussion Leader Award. Additionally, he has served the NJCPA and its chapters in many leadership roles and has been involved in various NJCPA initiatives, including establishing the Morris/Sussex Chapter County College Scholarship Program, spearheading the New Jersey Taxpayer Bill of Rights, developing the cornerstone for the Internal Revenue Service and State of New Jersey “Practitioner Hotline”, instituting the NJCPA lesion meetings with the State of New Jersey Department of Labor, heading up the task force on “piggy-back” of the New Jersey Gross Income Tax on the Internal Revenue Service Tax System, and serving as a “key person” to legislators.

Mr. Deo is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the AICPA Tax Division, AICPA Forensic Valuation Division, and the Institute of Business Appraisers. He is also a certified forensic accountant and diplomat of the American College of Forensic Examiners.

Prior to becoming a certified public accountant, Mr. Deo worked for the Internal Revenue Service for almost 20 years in various high level positions and received numerous recognitions for outstanding service.

Philip Drudy is a Member of Smolin in Fairfiled, NJ. He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in New York and has been practicing public accounting for over 30 years. Phil services clients in the Transportation, Real Estate, & Professional Services industries.

He provides these companies and their owners with substantial tax service.

Phil is a member of both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the New Jersey and New York State Society of CPAs. He is a past Chairman of the Partnership Committee of the New York State Society of CPA’s.

Phil is actively involved in the community. He is a frequent speaker at seminars and conferences across the country on tax, estate planning, and business life-cycle issues. He is often called upon by the national and local media for contribution on current topics in these areas, including The Tax Adviser and NJ Monthly. He has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and several Bloomberg financial publications. He also is the author of several published manuals and newsletters.

Phil is on the advisory board for the Executive’s Tax & Management Report newsletter, published by CCH Publications, a Wolters Kluwer company. He serves on Smolin Lupin’s BDO Alliance, CPE-Training, Information Technology, and Marketing Committees. Phil is the partner in charge of Smolin Lupin’s Tax Services, which creates the policies for the Tax Department as well as manages all tax related business and development.

Phil has an extensive professional background working for national big four firms, as well as regional firms in the New York Metropolitan area. Phil is a graduate of Brooklyn College with a B.S. in Accounting and a graduate of Brooklyn Law School with a Juris Doctor degree. He practices out of Smolin's Fairfield, New Jersey office and also resides in Fairfield, New Jersey.

Daniel Kessler is a trusted advisor in the estate and gift tax planning practice of Connell Foley. With advanced degrees in Taxation and Clinical Psychology, he combines a sophisticated understanding of the tax code with a personal touch that puts clients at ease. His clients range from young couples in need of guardianship provisions to high net worth individuals and families with assets in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Advising clients on multi-generational planning for closely held businesses and real estate interests is a cornerstone of Dan’s practice. He has a strong understanding of tax planning and the tools available to minimize transfer taxes and maximize asset protection for future generations, such as irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), family limited liability companies (LLCs), generation-skipping dynasty trusts, grantor-retained annuity trusts (GRATs), intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs) and qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs).

Dan also has considerable experience preparing and negotiating prenuptial agreements for clients with substantial premarital assets, ensuring that they enter into marriage protecting their wealth and understanding their property rights and obligations in the event of divorce.

In addition, Dan advises clients on the reporting of offshore assets to the United States Department of the Treasury (the Internal Revenue Service and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network bureaus) through the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) and Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures (SFCP).

Dan writes and lectures on estate planning topics and routinely provides guidance to financial advisors on fixing problems such as “broken” trusts through trust modification and trust decanting.

Alan J. Preis, CPA, principal in Alan J. Preis, CPA, PC, conducts a practice limited to state and federal tax matters in Florham Park, New Jersey. Previously, he spent more than twenty years in the Parsippany, New Jersey, office of Deloitte & Touche, where he was a tax partner concentrating in New Jersey and multistate tax matters. Mr. Preis is a professional resource to CPAs, attorneys and businesses in matters of New Jersey and multistate taxation. He lectures on state tax matters and is recognized as an outstanding instructor by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and as a Distinguished Discussion Leader by the New York State Society of CPAs (NYSSCPA) Foundation for Accounting Education. Mr. Preis is the co-author and instructor of a full-day course on New Jersey taxes presented annually for the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants (NJSCPA). He has chaired the NJSCPA State Taxation and Multistate Taxation committees, as well as the NYSSCPA Interstate Taxation Committee. He is a member of the AICPA Tax Division and has served on its State and Local Taxation Committee. Mr. Preis served on the Taxation Committee of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association and Governor Codey appointed him to the New Jersey Sales and Use Tax Review Commission. He received a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton Graduate Division of the University of Pennsylvania.