Jonathan G. Blattmachr is Director of Estate Planning for Peak Trust Company. He is a retired member of Milbank, LLC (formerly Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP) and of the Alaska, California and New York bars.

Jonathan is recognized as one of the most creative trusts and estates lawyers in the country. He has been involved with many of the most important developments in estate planning and administration in recent times. He developed and wrote the first legislation in many areas of trust and estates in numerous states including Alaska, Delaware, and New York.

Jonathan was the principal drafter of the 1997 Alaska Trust Act that revolutionized modern trust planning, and was the first legislation that allowed for advanced planning techniques such as self-settled trusts. He developed and wrote the Alaska Community Property Act, which was the first form of “opt-in” community property in the country, including the concept of a Community Property Trust, which allows non-Alaskan married couples to create community property through an Alaska trust instrument.

Among his numerous contributions to the advancement of sophisticated trust and estate planning, Jonathan helped draft a number of provisions in the Internal Revenue Code including Section 2055(e)(3) which permits the reformation of Charitable Remainder Trusts and Charitable Lead Trusts to be in qualifying form.

Jonathan has written or co-authored nine books and more than 500 articles on estate planning and tax topics. He is a frequent contributor for many trust industry publications including Leimberg Information Services Inc. (LISI) and Trusts & Estates Magazine.

Jonathan graduated from Columbia University School of Law cum laude, where he was recognized as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. Jonathan served two years of active duty in the US Army, rising to the rank of Captain and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal.