Kate Willcox

Kate Willcox’s trust and estate practice focuses on foundational and complex estate and gift planning, tax planning, and post-death trust administration. Her tax practice includes preparing estate and gift tax returns and representing clients in estate and gift tax audits, as well as advising clients regarding California real property tax planning. Ms. Willcox also advises clients regarding business succession planning by designing and structuring plans to efficiently and effectively transfer family businesses to the next generation, as well as “estate freeze” transactions to ease the tax burden of doing so. In addition to estate and tax planning, she has extensive experience advising fiduciaries in all aspects of post-death trust administration, including valuation, allocation, tax reporting, and distribution of assets while also managing family dynamics and expectations.

Ms. Willcox earned her BA, summa cum laude, in Law and Society from American University in 2008, and her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center. She has practiced exclusively in trusts and estates since graduating from law school, focusing mainly on high net worth planning and administration. Ms. Willcox started her career at a large law firm in Washington, DC prior to moving to Sacramento in 2012.

Ms. Willcox is a certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Law by the California Board of Legal Specialization. She is a chapter editor for CEB’s “Drafting Irrevocable Trusts” practice guide, and presented "Practical Estate Planning: Drafting with Post-Death Administration in Mind," for CEB in the spring of 2023. Ms. Willcox is also frequent presenter for Sacramento County Bar Association, and she is on the board of the Sacramento Region Community Foundation.