Edward P. Schlesier Esq.

Edward P. Schlesier (Ed) is a board-certified specialist in estate planning, trust, and probate law. Other areas of practice include tax, business, and real estate matters. As a partner at Blanchard, Krasner & French, Ed’s responsibilities include counseling clients on complex estate and trust planning matters. These include revocable living trusts, disclaimer trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, charitable trusts, asset protection trusts, spousal lifetime access trusts, total return trusts, generation-skipping trusts, dynasty trusts, private foundations, family limited partnerships, “freeze” partnerships, wills, health care and legal incapacity planning, and integrating retirement benefits into estate plans. Ed also advises and represents clients with federal and state income, gift, estate and employment tax matters. These include domestic and international tax plans, gift programs, estate settlements, tax audits, tax disputes, collection representation, offers in compromise, and installment agreements. Additional responsibilities include advising and representing clients with corporate, limited liability company and partnership matters. Examples include formation, maintenance, business succession, mergers & acquisitions, dissolution, shareholder agreements, reorganizations, and disputes between owners. Ed also advises and represents clients in complex real estate transactions, such as commercial lease negotiations, property transfers, IRC 1031 tax-deferred exchanges, and property tax assessment disputes. Before joining Blanchard, Krasner & French, Ed served as a Senior Project Manager and Accounting Manager with an internationally ranked top-20 engineering firm for eight years. He was also in the real estate and aerospace manufacturing industries with Fortune 100 companies. Ed is a native San Diegan and has been a repeat guest on Real Talk San Diego. He is married with a son and daughter, and outside of work he enjoys traveling, Padres baseball, USD basketball, and playing video games.

• Partner/CEO

• “Tax Planning for Business Exit,” Vistage
• “Estate Planning Concepts,” Scripps Health Foundation / Bernstein
• “Business Transitions – Trust and Estate Considerations,” U.S. Bank
• “Duties and Responsibilities of Fiduciaries,” Estate Planning Council of San Diego
• “Estate Planning: Fundamentals & Advanced Strategies,” Executive Roundtable
• “Protecting Your Assets”
• “Using Nevada Trusts,” Whittier Trust
• “Advanced Estate Planning Challenges for Second Marriages,” Strafford
• “Planning for Access to Digital Property,” UBS
• “Ask the Experts: Disability Planning,” Monarch Cottage – La Jolla
• “Disclaimer Trusts,” National Law Foundation
• “Optimizing Basis Step-Up and Leveraging A-B and QTIP Trusts,” Strafford
• “Estate Planning,” USMC-JAG Professional Military Education Seminar
• “Tax Planning for Business Owners,” Merrill Lynch Conference
• Guest Speaker, “Real Talk San Diego”

• Board Member, Scripps Health Foundation Planned Giving Board
• St. Thérèse of Carmel Parishioner
• Teen Volunteers in Action

• California
• U.S. Bankruptcy Court Southern District of California
• Specialties and Certifications
• California Board of Legal Specialization – Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Law
• Licensed California Real Estate Broker (License No. 01032592)
• Passed the Certified Public Accountant Exam

• La Jolla Bar Association (Past President)
• American Bar Association
• San Diego County Bar Association
• Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (TEP) – Full Member
• University of San Diego School of Law, Board of Visitors
• USD Real Estate Alumni Association
• IR Global
• ProVisors