Trust Provisions: Perspectives from a drafting attorney and trust officer
Trust Provisions: Perspectives from a drafting attorney and trust officer
Hear Meg Patterson, JD from John Hancock and James Gavin, JD trust officer with Bank of America discuss the intersection of drafting trust language and implementation of those trusts in real life.
Margaret Patterson, JD Associate Counsel, Advanced Markets
Prior to joining John Hancock, Meg practiced law in the private sector on Cape Cod. Her practice focused on estate planning, estate administration, special needs trust planning and probate. Before moving back to Cape Cod, she practiced Indian law on the Navajo Nation and international water law in Washington, DC.
Meg is licensed to practice law in Massachusetts, Florida and New Mexico
Education & affiliations
Meg received her Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from The College of William & Mary in Virginia, and her Juris Doctor degree from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. She is a board member of the Estate Planning Council of Cape Cod.
Meg provides advanced marketing support to John Hancock’s home office employees, field personnel, producers and financial planners.
James Gavin, JD SVP Senior Trust Officer
James Gavin is Senior Vice President and Senior Trust Officer for Bank of America Private Bank in Boston, Massachusetts and neighboring New England states. James works with a team of professionals to develop and implement comprehensive sophisticated fiduciary strategies for ultra-high and high-net-worth clients involving trust administration, estate planning, and multi-generational wealth transfer and preservation.
Throughout his corporate career and tenure in private practice James has developed extensive experience advising clients in the use of trusts for fulfilling wealth management and preservation objectives. Joining Bank of America in January 2017, James had been with the J.P. Morgan Private Bank where he spent nine years as a partner in its fiduciary division, focusing on trust administration and sophisticated tax and estate planning matters traversing the domestic and international sphere.
In his role as a trust and fiduciary advisor for SunTrust Bank’s Private Wealth Management in Washington D.C., 1998 to 2008, James consulted with high and ultra-high-net-worth clients including closely-held business owners on wealth structuring and disposition techniques, building upon four years of trusts and estates experience with Merrill, Princeton, New Jersey. Probate proceedings and estate litigation were a centerpiece of his work at O’Dwyer and Bernstien, the New York trial law firm co-founded by the late Paul O’Dwyer, former president of the New York City Council.
A member of the Bar*—New York and New Jersey-- James was honored to serve as law clerk to United States District Court Judge Glen H Davidson of the Fifth Circuit, Oxford Mississippi.
James holds a Master of Laws degree (LL.M) in taxation bestowed by Georgetown University’s Law Center, Washington, D.C. He received a juris doctor (J.D.) from Fordham University School of Law, New York, NY, and a baccalaureate from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Before commencing legal study, James was a senatorial aide and press secretary in the U
