Education

Law School/Year: University of Southern California, 1991

College/Year: UCLA, cum laude, 1985

Bar Admissions|

California

Practice Areas

Estate Planning

Professional Background

Carol Kao is co-chair of the family wealth and exempt organizations practice group. Kao specializes in estate planning with an emphasis on family wealth transfers for large estates, sophisticated estate and gift tax saving techniques, charitable planned giving, family foundations, and complex probate and trust administrations.

Kao has been selected as one of the “Best Lawyers in America.” She was also named one of “Southern California Super Lawyers” and ranked as one of the “Top 25 Women Attorneys” and one of the “Top 50 Attorneys” in San Diego by San Diego Super Lawyers.

Professional Affiliations

Certified Public Accountant, California (Inactive); Fellow of the American College of Trust & Estate Counsel; Former member of the Executive Committee of California State Bar, Trusts & Estates Section; (Past Chair of Education Committee and Past Chair of Income and Transfer Tax Committee); Co-author of Chapter on Regulation of Fundraising in CEB’s Advising California Nonprofit Corporations (Second Edition, 1998); Contributing author of Chapter on Ancillary Probate in CEB’s California Decedent Estate Administration; Past chair of California State Bar Tax-Exempt Organizations Committee (also served as chair-elect and vice-chair); San Diego County Bar Association; Member of the Planned Giving Committee of University of California, San Diego; La Jolla Estate Planning Trust and Probate Section; Past member of the board of directors and secretary of Make-a-Wish Foundation of San Diego; Pan Asian Lawyers of San Diego.