Spotlight on Susan Dromsky-Reed

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My election to Brach Eichler’s Executive Committee last year as the first female member ever has been a significant career highlight for me—it’s an honor to have been selected. It is personally satisfying to be part of this governing body, collaborating and making decisions with the four other members on issues critical to the firm’s management such as strategic planning, policy, compensation, and budgets. It’s important to have a diverse committee because our different perspectives enhance the conversation.

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I work with families, individuals, business owners, and charities to create plans for them to efficiently and easily transfer assets to their heirs, while taking into consideration income, estate, and inheritance tax planning. My goal is to provide peace of mind and to promote family harmony during the planning process and during estate administration. I help individuals create wills, irrevocable trusts, and living revocable trusts and help clients draft and understand financial powers of attorney, living wills, and healthcare agent designations. I also counsel business owners on the best way to transition a business to the next generation. I find it personally satisfying to be able to help people through these life-changing issues and potentially difficult situations.

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I think it takes someone who is willing to listen and who is thoughtful. Trusts and estates is a balance between planning for the here and now and planning for the future. Every individual, every family, and every situation is different, so you have to really think carefully about how to design a plan so that it fits that particular group of people. As a trusted advisor, I try to listen and understand what people’s goals are and to understand the needs of a particular family. Also, transferring wealth to the next generation is not always easy. At times, you have to play the role of a mediator as well. When I create a custom, tax-efficient estate plan for a family and they are happy with it—it’s a great feeling.

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The best advice I ever received was, ”stay on top of your craft and never stop learning.” I believe it’s so important to know your particular area of the law, study, and keep up to date. Being knowledgeable about developments in your field helps make you a valuable asset to your clients. I try to pay this forward by writing and speaking to groups that advance the knowledge of trusts and estates professionals in New Jersey.

Two years ago, I was elected to the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Real Property Trust & Estate Law Section Board of Consultors. The Board of Consultors is responsible for reviewing potential legislation and making recommendations for legislation and regulations to the New Jersey Supreme Court and the Bar Association. I am also a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and a Trustee of the Essex County Estate Planning Council, a peer network designed for estate planning education and networking. I also author a chapter on the New Jersey inheritance and estate tax every year for the New Jersey Tax Handbook, published by American Lawyer Media.

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The purpose of BEWISE, the firm’s professional women’s initiative, is to provide a forum for the firm’s women to get to know one other on a personal and professional level, share experiences, and mentor one another. We achieve this primarily through internal lunch and learns, external meet and greets with other firms’ like-minded women’s groups, and our annual cocktail and dinner function. This event features approximately 75 professional women from various professions and industries who meet and mingle and attend a presentation with a guest speaker that, in most cases, has a theme geared toward improving the quality of women’s personal and professional lives, including career advancement.

My goal for BEWISE it that it helps enrich the quality of work life for our female attorneys through mentoring, networking, and continuous learning. As women leaders, we have a responsibility to help the next generation of women succeed.

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I believe in the mission of the Executive Women of New Jersey (EWNJ), which is to increase the presence of women serving on corporate boards and in the top leadership of New Jersey companies. I am currently serving as Secretary, having moved from the role of Chair of EWNJ’s scholarship committee. As chair of the Scholarship Committee, I worked with other members of EWNJ to identify and select candidates for the organization’s Graduate Merit Award Program and I love what we are able to do through this program. Each and every candidate is hardworking and creative in their fields. What’s great about being on the EWNJ scholarship committee is knowing that we are extending a helping hand to younger, talented women so they can move up the ladder to become leaders in their chosen professions.

In recent years, Brach Eichler has hosted the EWNJ holiday party and brings together mentors, students, and executive-level women to network, make friendships, and celebrate the achievements of our scholarship winners. It’s such a nice event and what I like most about it is that it’s all about women helping women.

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I play the piano and organ and I enjoy making music. I enjoy traveling with my family, which seems like a lifetime ago, considering the current situation. I’ve been to the Arctic Circle, and Gates of the Arctic National Park via an Alaska cruise, a drive to Fairbanks, and a quick plane trip which was fun. We also enjoy taking road trips together. One memorable trip was a loop through Italy, Austria, Germany, France, Switzerland, and back to Italy.