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October 3, 2025Harris Beach Murtha Adds Attorney in Albany with Comprehensive Estate Planning Experience
New Harris Beach Murtha attorney Christopher J. Hartman combines legal, tax and accounting experience to provide the firm’s growing list of Trusts and Estates clients a comprehensive suite of private wealth, estate planning and tax services.
Christopher employs a client-focused approach and sophisticated planning strategies to help clients preserve, manage and transfer wealth. Christopher, who joins the firm’s Albany office, is admitted to practice law in New York and Florida and works with clients who spend time in both states.
His deep experience with lifetime planning with respect to asset accumulation, estate and gift tax planning and the administration of estates and trusts for high net-worth clients adds to the firm’s deep bench of Trusts and Estates attorneys who are well-versed in estate planning, tax, probate and trust administration, and well-equipped to provide creative, smart and proficient planning strategies.
“Christopher’s skill set matches well with the sophistication of our practice and the ever-increasing complexities facing our clients and their businesses in the Capital District and across the firm’s platform,” said Myles B. Fischer, co-leader of the firm’s Trusts and Estates Practice Group. “His tax experience allows him to be creative and optimize income and wealth transfer tax planning opportunities.”
Christopher drafts wills, establishes and advises about the administration of trusts, facilitates gifting, develops tax strategies, forms tax-exempt entities and for-profit businesses, transfers family wealth and plans business succession. He also represents estates in fiduciary capacity and advises clients with respect to related litigation matters. Christopher also assists clients with their estate plans and creates plans for children with disabilities.
His clients rely on him to assist with grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs), intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGTs), spousal lifetime access trusts (SLATs) and qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) elections. He prepares fiduciary income tax, estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax returns. Christopher, a Certified Public Accountant, calculates allocation between credit shelter trusts and marital trusts, prepares private settlement agreements for irrevocable trusts and dissolves tax-exempt organizations at the state and federal level.
He has a strong command of Spanish, allowing him to assist a wide variety of clients.
