Kenneth Adam Piercey

Kenneth Adam Piercey, Partner

kenneth@pierceyassociates.com*
224-848-4645

Ken’s goal is to treat each client the way he would want to be treated: with humility, attentiveness, and advocacy. He takes time to listen carefully so he can zealously represent his clients’ interests. While he enjoys working on record-setting and highly complex cases, he also values serving those with limited resources.

Ken focuses his practice on estate and trust law and related areas, including estate planning, trust administration, probate and estate administration, special needs and disability law, guardianship, long-term care planning (both pre-crisis and crisis), tax reduction strategies, business succession, and asset protection. He is licensed to practice law in both Illinois and Wisconsin.

Highlights of Practice

  • Successfully collected the largest return of unclaimed money in United States history (see estate of Stancak).
  • Served as an expert witness on trust interpretation, including a murder trial by jury.
  • Assisted multiple lottery winner clients and their family members with estate planning, estate tax elimination planning and court representation.
  • Quoted by People Magazine, Fox Business, CBS NEWS, Daily Herald, Daily Wire, Chicago Magazine, Block Club Chicago, Chicago Sun Times, The Times Weekly, WBEZ, Inside Edition, Yahoo News, and 18 other local, national and/or international media outlets.
  • Has been featured by The Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, The American Lawyer, The National Law Journal, Corporate Counsel magazines.
  • Published by the Illinois State Bar Association and the National Business Institute.TM
  • National Professional Advisor of the Year Award co-Recipient for dedication to American Cancer Society’s vision and for promoting charitable estate giving to fellow advisors, clients and constituents, March 2025.
  • “Attorney Kenneth Piercey is … an expert in high-dollar estate planning…” – The Times Weekly and Michael Frerichs, Illinois State Treasurer, October 2022
  • Guest speaker on WGN Radio and AM560.
  • Has worked on the most complicated probate heirship cases in Cook County, the largest court system in Illinois and the second largest unified court system in the world.1
  • Represented a corporate client in probate with assets in excess of $1 trillion.
  • Assisted individual clients with assets of more than $1 billion in partnership with Rodney Piercey.
  • Successfully completed over 2,000 estate plans.2
  • Successfully advised over 2,000 clients regarding their inheritance rights in estate or trust matters.2
  • Consistently retained to advise trustees, executors, agents, and court-appointed representatives regarding their fiduciary duties, and frequently serves in these fiduciary roles himself.
  • Successfully administered trusts and estates with assets exceeding $11 million.
  • Has provided continuing education (professional credit) to attorneys, CPAs, and IRS employees on tax reduction strategies, Charitable Trusts, Education Trusts, GSTs, QDOTs, QPRTs, and Grantor Trusts.
  • Frequently advises clients on how to eliminate capital gains taxes and reduce income tax liability.
  • Successfully modified Irrevocable Trusts and Wills in Chancery Court or through private agreement.
  • Successfully protected clients from claims in excess of $1 million, even after a judgment has been entered.
  • Successfully prevented over $521,000 in estate debts or claims from having to be paid from probated estates.
  • The only attorney in Illinois with the Certified Kingdom Advisor® designation, granted by Kingdom Advisors®, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing Biblical wisdom to private clients (as of 3/2024).
  1. At least two Cook County probate Judges have commented on the cases Ken has presented as being the most complex heirship cases they had ever seen. Also, see: https://www.cookcountyclerkofcourt.org/#:~:text=The%20Cook%20County%20Circuit%
    20Courtof,%20more%20than%201%2C400%20employees.
  2. This number is approximate and based on a review of all company matters since Ken began working as an attorney in May of 2010.

Education

  • John Marshall Law School, Chicago, Illinois
  • Regularly participates in the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning’s educational program – one of the nation’s leading (if not the best) conference on estate planning