Kirk A. Hoopingarner

Kirk Hoopingarner is a partner in the Business Transactions Department of Wildman Harrold. For over twenty years, Kirk has concentrated his practice on all facets of wealth planning and philanthropy for high-net worth families and individuals. Kirk has counseled his clients on a broad range of matters involving the management and transfer of wealth including charitable gifting techniques, all types of trusts used in family wealth management and transfers, business succession planning, family limited partnerships and limited liability companies, asset protection, and federal and state estate and gift tax planning. Kirk also has extensive experience in sophisticated charitable planning, both for individual donors and for substantial charitable organizations. He is also particularly skilled at leveraging wealth and estate planning devices to financial products.

Well recognized in his field, Kirk has been an adjunct professor in trusts and estates at John Marshall Law School, written commentary on gift tax and fiduciary income tax for Kleinrocks, a national tax publication, and participated in an estate planning study group whose members are considered leaders in the Chicago estate planning field.

Representative Experience:

Currently counsels a widow in the transfer of interests in two substantial real estate assets to trusts for her children, with the goals of substantially reducing estate taxes while providing the client sufficient cash flow to meet the client’s needs
Represents a major real estate developer in transferring to children’s trusts various interests in real estate deals while protecting such interests from children’s creditors and keeping the investments in a pooled fund
Through careful planning was able to shelter multi-million dollar trusts established in 1941 from estate and generation skipping taxes when the primary beneficiary died
On behalf of an individual, converted a substantial split-dollar life insurance program to fully paid life insurance to meet the original goals of the life insurance plan in the most tax efficient manner possible
Using leveraging techniques, has protected clients’ assets by removing substantial appreciation from their estates for estate and gift tax purposes, and avoiding substantial current gift taxes

Publications And Presentations:

Panel participant, Dealing with Aging Clients: Capacity vs. Incapacity, sponsored by Advocate Health Care, October 2007.
Author, “Commentary On Trust And Estate Income Taxation,” Kleinroch’s Tax Library, February 1999.
Author, “Family Limited Partnerships” chapter for IICLE Business Law Series, 2005, Updated 2007.
Panel participant, Gift Acceptance Policies for Not-For-Profit Conference of Illinois CPA Society, 2004.

Professional Associations:

American Bar Association

Chicago Bar Association

Chicago Estate Planning Council

Donors Forum

Corporate Responsibility Group of Greater Chicago

Adjunct Professor in trusts and estates at John Marshall Law School

Bar Admissions:

Illinois, 1984

Personal Information:

Kirk is married and is the father of four daughters. He is very involved in his community, including serving as the Chair of the Board of the Evanston Community Foundation, a fast-growing charitable organization engaged in building endowments, strategic grantmaking, and fostering collaboration among the city’s nonprofit organizations. He is also very active in his daughters’ activities, including acting as girls’ registrar for the Evanston Soccer Association.

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