60Alison Schrag is a partner at Sherman Atlas Sylvester & Stamelman LLP, where she focuses on trusts and estates planning and administration. She advises clients on a wide range of trust and estate issues, including contested account proceedings and other related proceedings. The firm operates in New York and New Jersey, providing services that include estate planning and administration, corporate law, internal investigations, banking and financial services, litigation, and tax matters.
With nearly twenty years of experience, she is admitted to practice in both New York and New Jersey. She started her legal career as a litigation associate, representing financial institutions and corporate trustees in complex commercial and fiduciary proceedings. Before joining her current firm, she was a partner at a New York-based boutique trust and estate practice, where she gained extensive experience advising families, entrepreneurs, and fiduciaries on planning, contested proceedings, and other sensitive estate-related matters. This background allows her to guide her clients effectively as they navigate both long‑term planning and challenging situations.
Alison Schrag of New York works closely with families, individuals, and entrepreneurs to create and implement estate and trust planning strategies tailored to their specific needs. She focuses on designing estate plans that reduce tax burdens, enable orderly distribution of assets, and consider the possibility of incapacity. By ensuring that her clients understand their options, she guides them to make decisions that reflect their priorities and long-term goals. Her clients range from first-generation entrepreneurs and owners of closely held or mid-sized businesses to those with charitable interests or cross-border planning needs.
She has extensive experience in Surrogate Court proceedings and frequently appears in contested account proceedings and kinship hearings. In these cases, she works closely with executors, trustees, personal representatives, and beneficiaries, presenting evidence and making sure their interests are protected. In contested kinship proceedings, she guides families through the process of presenting genealogical evidence and testimony, making sure that their right to inherit is adequately established.
Alison Schrag is a trusted voice in estate planning. She frequently consults with wealth advisory firms and their clients on core estate planning tools, federal and state tax considerations, advanced planning for high-net-worth families, and succession planning for family-owned businesses. She earned her BA from Colgate University, graduating with honors, and her JD from Brooklyn Law School, where she served as an editor of the Brooklyn Law Review and was a member of the Moot Court Honor Society. She has also dedicated time to charitable efforts, serving as a crisis counselor and supporting local food pantries and coat drives throughout New York. She lives in New York with her husband and two sons and spends her free time traveling, hiking, running, and volunteering.