ShareholderHeather Duffey Welbaum

Overview

Heather joined SS+D in 2001. She is an Ohio State Bar Association Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Law, and also serves as the Chair of the Estate, Probate, and Business Succession Planning Department. Heather has over two decades of experience in the areas of estate planning and estate administration. Her practice focuses primarily on estate planning, trusts, wills, probate administration, trust administration, gift and estate tax returns, asset protection planning, business succession planning, charitable planning, and corporate and business law. Heather represents individuals, individual fiduciaries, and corporate fiduciaries. She also devotes a significant portion of her practice on family legacy planning over multiple generations, with emphasis on flexible trust arrangements, asset protection, estate tax planning, and family business succession. In 2021, Heather became the Managing Shareholder of the firm.

Professional Experience / Focus Areas

Heather has been an Adjunct Professor at the University of Dayton School of Law since 2001, where she teaches the Estate and Tax Planning Capstone course and the Wills and Trusts course, and she has taught Legal Professions (legal research and writing), Alternative Dispute Resolution, and Appellate Practice and Procedure. Before joining the firm, Heather served as a Staff Attorney for The Honorable William H. Wolff, Jr. of the Second Appellate District of the Court of Appeals of Ohio. Heather graduated summa cum laude from the University of Dayton School of Law where she served as Editor-In-Chief of the Law Review. She is also a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Dayton, with a B.A. in history and psychology.

Awards

• Ohio Super Lawyer Rising Star