Susan J. Link
Partner
f612.642.8349
susan.link@maslon.com
3300 Wells Fargo Center
90 South Seventh Street
Minneapolis, MN 55402
Susan Link is the head of Maslon's Estate Planning Group and practices in the areas of estate planning, probate, and trust administration. She works closely with families to plan the disposition of their assets, both during lifetime and at death, and to accomplish the optimal estate and gift tax planning for clients through wills, trusts, and other instruments. Susan routinely drafts estate plans that include disclaimer planning and credit shelter plans, in addition to drafting and implementing charitable lead trusts, charitable remainder trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, irrevocable insurance trusts, minors' trusts, antenuptial agreements, and postnuptial agreements. She is regularly involved in the analysis and issues of lifetime gifting programs, estate tax planning, and generation-skipping issues.
Susan also works with families after the death of a family member to ensure that the client's wishes are achieved and that the plan they created is carried out. If appropriate, Susan also advises estate and trust beneficiaries during administration in order to maximize their own planning options relative to their share of a decedent's estate through the use of disclaimers and powers of appointment.
Susan is a member of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and has taught as an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law.
- Estate Planning
- Estate Planning, Wills and Trusts
- Charitable Giving and Foundations
- Prenuptial and Postnuptial Agreements
- Business Succession Planning
- Estate and Gift Tax Controversies
- Probate and Trust Litigation
- Retirement Benefit Planning
- Probate and Trust Administration
- Tax Saving Strategies
- Notre Dame Law School, Notre Dame, Indiana,
1986
J.D. - Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois,
1983
B.A.
Honors: magna cum laude
Major: Political Science
Minor: Philosophy and Theology
- Minnesota, 1994
- Illinois, 1986
- U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois, 1986
- Basilica Landmark - Member, Board of Directors; Planned Giving Committee, Chair
- American Bar Association - Member
- Minnesota State Bar Association - Member; Probate and Trust Law Section, Member; Chair, 2010; Governing Council Member, 2001 - 2007; Minnesota Wills for Heroes Committee, Chair, 2006 - Present; Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, 2002 - 2007
- Hennepin County Bar Association - Member
- Minnesota Women Lawyers - Member
- Minnesota State Bar Association, Wills for Heroes Minnesota, Program Director
- “Cryptic Tales – a Probate Practitioner’s Panel”, 37th Annual Probate & Trust Law Section Conference, Minnesota CLE, 2011
- “Probate for Paralegals: How to Efficiently Administer Decedents’ Estates”, Minnesota CLE, 2011
- “Large Estates Panel - Planning, Administration and Drafting Issues, Estate Planning 2011 & Beyond”, Minnesota CLE
- “Minnesota Probate Practice A-Z Seminar” (course chair and presenter), Minnesota CLE, 2010
- “Dead Head’s 101 – A Private Practitioner’s Panel”, 36th Annual Probate and Trust Law Section Conference, Minnesota CLE, 2010
- “Probate and Estate: Minnesota Estate Administration Deskbook Update”, Webcast, Minnesota CLE, 2010
- “Minnesota Probate Practice A-Z", Minnesota CLE, 2009
- “Probate Law – Didn’t They Teach You That in Law School”, 35th Annual Probate and Trust Law Section Conference, Minnesota CLE, 2009
- “Probate Practitioner’s Panel”, 34th Annual Probate and Trust Law Section Conference, Minnesota CLE, 2008
- “Wills for Heroes”, 34th Annual Probate and Trust Law Section Conference, Minnesota CLE, 2008
- “Wills for Heroes”, 2008 Pro Bono Conference, National Federation of Paralegal Associations, Inc. (NFPA) and NFPA’s Pro Bono Committee, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2008
- “The New Lawyer Experience”, Minnesota CLE, 2008
- “Opening an Estate, Inventory and Disclaimers”, Minnesota Estate Administration, 3d Edition, Minnesota CLE, 2007
- “Creditor’s Claims”, Minnesota Estate Administration, 3d Edition, Minnesota CLE, 2007
- “Alzheimer’s: Issues & Solutions for Minnesota Attorneys and Caregivers”, Minnesota Estate Administration, 3d Edition, Minnesota CLE, 2006
- “Productivity, Profitability, and Paralegals in your Probate Practice”, 31st Annual Probate and Trust Law Section Conference, Minnesota CLE, 2006
- “Estate Planning and Taxation of Gifts”, Adjunct Professor, University of St. Thomas School of Law, 2006
- “Wills, Estates and Trusts”, Adjunct Professor, University of St. Thomas School of Law, 2005
- “Ethics and Professional Responsibility”, 30th Annual Probate and Trust Law Section Conference, Minnesota CLE, 2004
- “Formal Probate”, Fundamentals of Probate, Minnesota CLE, 2000, 2003 - 2008
- “Opening an Estate”, 28th Annual Probate and Trust Law Section Conference, Minnesota CLE, 2002
- “Opening an Estate”, Minnesota Estate Administration, Minnesota CLE, 2002
- “Opening Forms”, Fundamentals of Probate, Minnesota CLE, 1996, 1997, 1999
- “Drafting QPRTs" , 23rd Annual Probate and Trust Law Section Conference, 1997
- “Estate Planning: Oh to be Rich and Famous”, Minnesota Law and Politics, 1997
- “Internal Revenue Code Sections 303, 2207A, 6166 and 2032A”, Administering the Taxable Estate Seminar, Minnesota CLE, 1995
- Minnesota Estate Administration, 4th, Editor-in Chief, Minnesota CLE, 2012
- Opening an Estate, Inventory and Disclaimers, (chapter author), Minnesota Estate Administration, 4th, Minnesota CLE, 2012
- Minnesota Estate Administration, 3d, Editor-in Chief, Minnesota CLE, 2007 and updates in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011
- Opening an Estate, Inventory and Disclaimers, (chapter author), Minnesota Estate Administration, 3d, Minnesota CLE, 2007 and updates in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
- Transferring Assets to the Next Generation: Strategies for Effective Estate Planning, (chapter author), Elder Law Trusts and Estates, Aspatore Books, 2008
- Managing Trusts, (chapter author), Creating a Trust: What You Need to Know, Aspatore Books, 2008
- Minnesota Probate Deskbook, (co-author with John W. Provo), Vol. 24, Minnesota Practice Series, West, 2004 - 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 - 2009, 2009 - 2010, 2010 - 2011, 2011 - 2012
- Minnesota Estate Administration 3d, Editor-in-Chief, Minnesota CLE, 2007
- Minnesota Estate Administration 2d, , Editor-in-Chief, Minnesota CLE, 2006 Update
- Minnesota Estate Administration 2d, Editor-in-Chief, Minnesota CLE, 2002
- Opening an Estate, (chapter author), Minnesota Estate Administration 2d, Minnesota CLE, 2002
- Historic Shipwreck Legislation: Rescuing the Titanic from the Law of the Sea, 13 J. Legis. 1982
- Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America®, 2011 - 2012
- Fellow, American College of Trusts and Estate Counsel, since 2004
- Recognized on Minnesota Super Lawyers® list, 2003 - 2011 (Minnesota Super Lawyers® is a designation given to only 5 percent of Minnesota attorneys each year.)
- Top 100 Women Minnesota Super Lawyers® list, 2005 - 2009 (The “Top 100 Women Lawyers” list features attorneys who received the highest point totals in the yearly Minnesota Super Lawyers® balloting, research and blue ribbon review process.)
- Top 100 Minnesota Super Lawyers® list, 2007 (The “Top 100” list represents attorneys who received the highest point totals overall in the yearly Minnesota Super Lawyers® balloting, research, and blue ribbon review process.)
- Named a "Cities 2009 FIVE STAR Wealth Manager," Twin Cities Business, January 2009
- Listed as a Top 100 Attorney, Worth magazine, November 2007
- President's Award (as Co-Chair of Wills for Heroes Minnesota), Minnesota State Bar Association, 2007
- AV Rating, Martindale-Hubbell (AV, BV, and CV are registered certification marks of Reed Elsevier Properties, Inc., used in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards and policies)
