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JAMES S. AUSSEM is a partner with Cavitch Familo & Durkin Co., LPA, and focuses his practice primarily in succession planning, business, and estates and trusts. His extensive background includes helping closely-held businesses with mergers, acquisitions and dispositions, as well as complex tax issues. Mr. Aussem is a sought-after speaker, facilitator and instructor for many professional organizations on topics such as business succession, estate planning, insurance, and trusts and estates. He has spoken at the Cleveland Estate Planning Institute, the AICPA Advanced Planning Institute, the Cleveland Tax Institute, the Ohio Accounting Show, the Ohio State Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association and the Northern Ohio Planned Giving Day. Active in many civic and professional organizations, Mr. Aussem is a director of the Cleveland Society of Financial Service Professionals, serving as its president for the year 2010-2011, and serves on the Planned Giving Committees of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the American Cancer Society and Baldwin-Wallace College, which in 2004 presented him with its Distinguished Alumni Award. He also is a member of the American, Ohio State and Cleveland Metropolitan bar associations, and the Estate Planning Council of Cleveland. Mr. Aussem was listed as an Ohio Super Lawyer in 2005 and 2006, and was chosen as One of America's Best Lawyers for 2010 and 2011. He earned his B.A. degree from Baldwin-Wallace College and his J.D. degree from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University. HOWARD J. KASS is a tax partner in the Cleveland accounting firm of Zinner & Co. LLP. Mr. Kass has more than 30 years experience and has cultivated particular expertise in individual and business income taxes, tax aspects of real estate investment, gift and estate taxes, and tax exempt organizations. He applies his extensive knowledge and experience to a diverse client base of individuals and companies, including closely held businesses in a variety of industries and ownership structures such as C Corporations, S Corporations, Partnerships, and LLCs. Industries served include real estate, manufacturing, retail establishments, insurance agencies, distributors and service companies. Mr. Kass is a member of the American Institute of CPAs and the Ohio Society of CPAs. He has served on the boards of the Real Estate Investors Association of Northern Ohio and the Cleveland Digital Publishing Users Group (CDPUG), and currently serves as the President of CDPUG. Mr. Kass has authored numerous articles on taxation, including a number of articles specific to the real estate industry that have appeared in publications such as Properties Magazine, Commercial Investment Real Estate Magazine, as well as local and national Real Estate Investors Association newsletters, and the Cleveland Area Board of Realtors magazine. He has spoken on a variety of tax topics before such organizations as National Business Institute, the Ohio Society of CPAs, the Cleveland Area Board of Realtors (CABOR) and the Cleveland Digital Publishing Users Group (CDPUG). Mr. Kass earned his B.B.A. degree from Kent State University. TINA MYERS is a tax manager with the Cleveland accounting firm of Zinner & Co. LLP. Ms. Myers joined Zinner & Co. LLP in February 2010 with more than 13 years of tax experience working in public accounting. Previously, she was working with a regional firm for 10 years and with the private client group of a large multi-national firm. Ms. Myers is currently a manager specializing in estate, gift and trust taxation. She has worked with individuals and multi-generational families with tax planning and preparation and worked with client estate attorneys in implementing estate planning strategies. Ms. Myers also has worked with some ultra high net worth individuals and their family members in financial planning and coordinating tax services with family investment advisors. She has worked with numerous trustees, executors and administrators in the trust and estate administration process. Ms. Myers is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the Ohio Society of CPAs (OSCPA), the American Bar Association and the Cleveland Estate Planning Council. She earned her B.S. degree from the University of Richmond and her master's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.
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