Linda A. Elfenbein, a partner in the firm of Stern Kilcullen & Rufolo, is a member of the Tax, Estate and Trust Group. She started her legal career at the former Newark law firm of Clapp & Eisenberg and first joined Stern & Kilcullen in 2002.
For over thirty years, Linda has concentrated her practice in the areas of estate planning, estate administration, and estate and trust litigation. She has extensive experience in formulating sophisticated estate plans, drafting estate planning documents, administering complex estates, post-mortem tax planning, preparation of fiduciary accountings and state and federal death tax returns, representation of both fiduciaries and beneficiaries in estate and trust litigation including will contests, will construction actions and other fiduciary litigation. She has specialized in the area of estates and trusts since 1987.
Linda has corporate fiduciary experience having joined HSBC's trust department in 2018, first as Head of Fiduciary Advisory Services and then from 2020 through 2024, she was promoted to Head of HSBC's Trust Services for the US. In the latter role, she managed that corporate institution's trust and estate administration, developed and implemented business growth strategies, advised utra-high-net-worth domestic and international clients on their estate planning needs, and oversaw external federal regulator exams. She also has board-level experience including serving as President of their Delaware Trust Company and Chair of various governance committees.
From 1996-2001, Linda was an Adjunct Professor at Rutgers Law School- Newark teaching the four credit introductory Estates, Trusts and Wealth Transfer Taxation class to second and third year law students, and she returned to teach a skills based Federal Transfer Taxation course during the Spring of 2017 and 2018.
Linda recorded two podcasts for HSBC's Women and Wealth Series: Where There's A Will, There's A Way-Parts I and 2 (August 2020) which focused on what women need to know about inheritance and passing wealth through the generations. She also authored a law review article while at Rutgers titled "Future Medical Surveillance: An Award for Toxic Tort Victims," Rutgers Law Review, Summer 1986 and "Appellate Division Clarifies Rights of the Surviving Spouse," for the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section Newsletter, May 1996.
Linda received her undergraduate degree from New York University and her law degree from Rutgers Law School-Newark in 1987 where she was a Research Editor of the Rutgers Law Review.
