WILLIAM PEITHMANN

The Peithmann Law Office was founded in 1948 by Ortheldo A. Peithmann and his CPA wife, Winona C. Peithmann, as a general practice law firm with a tilt toward municipal law, farm estate planning and tax matters. William A. Peithmann joined the firm in 1985 after a stint as international corporate counsel in California. Areas of Practice: Trusts & Estates law (agribusiness; estate, business and succession planning; wealth management and asset protection; commercial and farm real estate; fiduciary support; trust and estate administration; contested estates; Tax law (gift and estate tax; individual and fiduciary income tax; nonprofit organizations; charitable giving); Expert analysis, advice and witness testimony on core competence; Independent fiduciary services.
Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC); elected 1994.
Martindale-Hubbell “AV” rating since 1994.
Listed in The Best Lawyers in America® for Trusts & Estates matters, 1999 – 2023, 2025; Tax matters, 2003 – 2023, 2025. For 2013, and again for 2016, named Best Lawyers’ “Lawyer of the Year” in the category of Trusts and Estates law for the Springfield/downstate Illinois metropolitan area.
The Peithmann Law Office has been included in the U.S. News & World Report’s compilation of “America’s Best Law Firms”® with a Tier 1 metropolitan ranking in the field of Trusts and Estates law from 2011 through 2023.
Included with “Leading Illinois Attorneys” (now, “Leading Lawyers”) each year since 1996 in the areas of “Agriculture Law”; “Real Estate Law: Commercial”; “Real Estate Law: Residential”; “Tax Law”; and “Trust Will & Estate Planning Law”.
Listed as an Illinois “Super Lawyer” in the field of Wills, Trusts and Estates law each year since 2006
University of Denver Sturm College of Law: J.D. 1978
Bar Admissions: Colorado, Illinois, California (inactive), U.S. Supreme Court
Frequent contributor to legal publications on estate planning matters and lecturer at various tax and estate planning institutes for the ABA, IICLE, ISBA, the Colorado Bar Assn., the University of Illinois College of Law, and other professional organizations, on such topics as basic and advanced estate planning and administration, qualified disclaimers, applied valuation discount theory, powers of appointment, advising and protecting fiduciaries, the practical use of revocable and irrevocable trusts, and the various features of the generation skipping transfer tax scheme.

Serving as probate executor as requested since 2001; as co-trustee or trustee’s agent for non-charitable trusts since 2001; as trustee for charitable trusts since 2004.