Partner
Chair, Advanced Planning & Family Office Practice Group
Mr. Handler is an advanced planning attorney focused on the analysis and structuring of sophisticated estate plans and family offices, and handling taxation and business planning issues for business owners, executives, professional athletes, celebrities and family offices. He has extensive experience in the analysis, design and implementation of domestic and international business planning, financial and estate planning, asset protection, family office compliance and advanced tax planning strategies. Mr. Handler is a managing partner in Handler Law, LLP, where he chairs the firm’s Advanced Planning & Family Office Practice Group.
His experience includes public accounting and corporate and foundation directorships. He is involved in Chicago Bar Association activities including its Taxation and Trust Law committees and has authored numerous professional articles. He has lectured extensively both nationally and internationally at wealth industry, professional and family office educational conferences. Mr. Handler created the Asset Protection Profile™ and Stealth Prenup™ in addition to other proprietary strategies for affluent families and family offices.
Mr. Handler has been named one of the Top 15 Wealth Planners and one of the Top 100 Attorneys in the United States. He has also been named to Who’s Who in American Law, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World and Global Leading Lawyers. Illinois Leading Lawyers named Mr. Handler one of the Top Lawyers in the areas of Closely and Privately Held Business Law and Trust, Will and Estate Planning Law. He received the Family Wealth Alliance Leadership Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2017 and the Private Asset Management Lifetime Achievement Award in 2021. He was named 2017 Private Client Lawyer of the Year and in 2016 won the Excellence in Estate Planning Award. In 2015, he was named International Wealth Planner of the Year and Wealth Planning Gamechanger Lawyer of the Year in addition to receiving the Michael J. Brink Lifetime Achievement Award for Leadership and Service.
He earned a Bachelor of Sciences in Accountancy degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Juris Doctor degree, Law Review, from DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Handler is a recognized thought leader in the advanced planning and family office marketplaces who has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Worth Magazine, Financial Times, Barron’s, Christian Science Monitor, Family Office Review, Las Vegas Review- Journal, Chicago Sun-Times, Structured Products Magazine, ABA Journal, Family Office Real Estate Magazine, National Law Journal, Crain’s Chicago Business, Derivatives Weekly, Family Wealth Report, Wealth Manager Magazine and other publications. He has appeared as an expert commentator on numerous radio and television programs.
Thomas J. Handler and Judith Pearson. “Family Enterprise Risk Management,” Committee Report: Family Businesses, Trust & Estates (March 2024).
Thomas J. Handler. "21st Century Family Office Structures", Family Office Association
Thomas J. Handler. "Family Office Outlook 2021", The International Family Office Journal
Thomas J. Handler. "Handler Thayer, LLP 2021 Family Office Outlook," 2021 Quarter 1
Thomas J. Handler. "Handler Thayer, LLP 2020 Family Office Outlook," 2020 Quarter 1
Family Offices: The STEP Handbook for Advisers, Second Edition, Family Office chapter
Thomas J. Handler and Barbara R. Hauser. “Why Family Offices Choose Bermuda” 2019.
Thomas J. Handler. “Family Office Real Estate Compliance and Opportunities,” Family Office Real Estate Magazine, June (2018).
Thomas J. Handler. “Handler Thayer, LLP 2018 Family Office Outlook,” Quarter 1, 2018, www.prnewswire.com. February 27, 2018.
Thomas J. Handler, 21st Century Family Office Structures, Family Office Association White Paper, July (2017).
Thomas J. Handler. “Handler Thayer, LLP 2017 Family Office Outlook,” Quarter 1, 2017, www.prnewswire.com and www.jdsupra.com. March 22, 2017. Republished in Chinese in the China Daily Business Herald and in the Family Wealth Alliance Letter.
Thomas J. Handler, Virtual family offices – a global trend, The Int’l Family Offices J., 5 (December 2016).
Thomas J. Handler. “2015 Family Office Outlook,” www.JDSupra.com. March 12, 2015.
Thomas J. Handler. “Establishing Virtual Family Offices,” Trusts & Estates Magazine. March (2014).
Thomas J. Handler, Contributor. “Breakthroughs In Managing Tangible Assets: Completing The Picture Of Wealth.” Ace Private Risk Services and Trōv White Paper. February (2014).
Thomas J. Handler. “Do Your Research, and Be Stealthy” featured in the New York Times Forum on Prenuptial Agreements. The New York Times. March 21, 2013.