Tara Anne Pleat, Esq., CELA*, co-owns the law firm Wilcenski & Pleat PLLC. She practices in the areas of special needs estate planning and administration, traditional estate planning and administration, long-term care planning, and elder law.
Tara is a past Chair of the Elder Law and Special Needs Section of the New York State Bar Association. She is also the Treasurer of the Trusts and Estates Law Section. She is honored to be a member of the Special Needs Alliance, an invitation-only, national network of leading attorneys dedicated to the practice of disability and public benefits law, where she serves as Vice President of the Board. She is also a Member of the Academy of Special Needs Planners and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA). She currently serves on the Board of Directors of New York NAELA.
In March of 2016, Tara was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) where she now serves as the Upstate Chair and the Chair of the Mid-Atlantic Region.
In addition, Tara is a graduate of the 2006 class of Leadership Saratoga, sponsored by the Saratoga Springs Chamber of Commerce, and a member of the Leadership Saratoga Advisory Board, and the 2019 award winner of the Lisa Niles Distinguished Leadership Award for commitment to community service. She is also the immediate past Chair of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. Tara is a Member of the Board of Directors of AIM Services, Inc., a disability service organization based in Saratoga Springs, New York. She is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Wesley Community, a continuing care community for seniors in Saratoga Springs, New York and serves on the Board of the Wesley Foundation. Tara also co-chairs the Planned Giving Committee of the Wildwood Foundation, an organization that supports Wildwood Programs, a school for individuals with disabilities in Albany, New York. She is a Member of the ARC New York’s Statewide Guardianship Committee as well as a Member of the Advisory Board of Supported Decision-Making New York (SDMNY). Finally Tara is a Member of the Anderson Center for Autism’s Capital Region Advisory Group.
Tara has been an adjunct professor of law at Albany Law School for the last ten years, where she teaches a course in the spring semester on estate and financial planning for the elderly and individuals with special needs.
She is a co-author of the Lexis-Nexis Publication, New York Elder Law.
*This certification is not granted by any governmental authority within the State of New York.
