Succession Planning and Selling of Closely-Held Businesses
Tonight we welcome, James S. Aussem, who comes to us from Cleveland, OH. He is a shareholder of Cavitch Familo & Durkin, Co., LPA, a member of its board of directors and chair of the Business Practice Group. Mr. Aussem’s practice is focused on mergers and acquisitions as well as succession planning, and estates and trusts.
Mr. Aussem is a frequent speaker, facilitator, and instructor for many professional organizations on topics such as business succession, estate planning, insurance, trusts and estates. He has spoken at the Society of Financial Service Professionals Advanced Planning Clinic, Cleveland Estate Planning Institute, the AICPA Advanced Planning Institute, the Cleveland Tax Institute, the Ohio Accounting Show, the Ohio Society of CPA’s Annual Tax Seminar, the Ohio State Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association, Cleveland Marshall College of Law and the Northern Ohio Planned Giving Day among other organizations.
Active in many civic and professional organizations, Mr. Aussem was elected to a 3 term as a National Director of the Society of Financial Service Professionals in 2012. He has been active in the Cleveland Chapter, serving as President in 2010-2011 the year Cleveland was awarded Chapter of the Year. He serves on the Planned Giving Committees of the Cleveland Museum of Art, University Hospitals and Baldwin-Wallace University. He is also a member of the American, Ohio, and Cleveland Metropolitan bar associations and the Estate Planning Council of Cleveland. He has been chosen as One of America's Best Lawyers every year since 2010 and for the past 3 years he has been chosen in two categories, Corporate Law and Trusts and Estates.
Mr. Aussem has been designated an Accredited Estate Planner (AEP) by the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils. Baldwin Wallace University in 2004 presented him with its Distinguished Alumni Award and The Cleveland Chapter of the Society of Financial Service Professionals named him its Financial Service Professional of the Year in 2013.
He earned his Juris Doctor degree from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Mr. Aussem began his legal career as a tax attorney with Ernst & Ernst (now Ernst & Young). He worked his way through undergraduate school employed in the securities industry, as well as in the trust department of the former National City Bank. He graduated from Baldwin-Wallace University with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
