John A. Warnick: Biography

John A. Warnick is a senior partner in the Denver office of Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, a firm of 250 lawyers with offices in Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, London and Munich, and chairs the firm's Individuals, Trusts and Family Business practice group. Mr. Warnick is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a member of AFHE (Attorneys for Family Held Enterprises) and Advisors in Philanthropy. He also serves as a member of the advisory board of the Family Building Institute, on the Board of Elders of the Copper Beech Tree Society and as an advisor to a 501(c)(3) organization which is seeking to become a “global community foundation.”

Mr. Warnick's practice emphasizes multi-generational trust planning and wealth transfer planning. He has also assisted numerous families in choosing the most favorable trust situs for the tax and non-tax objectives of existing trusts as well as in designing and drafting “new” trusts which have the flexibility to adapt to changing legal and tax climates. He particularly enjoys holding workshops for both clients and their legal and planning advisors to help them design Purposeful Trusts with insightful questions and exercises which insure the planning is congruent with the client's core values.

Working with a team of nationally recognized family wealth coaches and psychologists, Mr. Warnick has explored the intersection of wealth and emerging adulthood. That collaboration has led to a series of ongoing surveys that explore how trustees are reacting to the sociological phenomena of emerging adulthood and how emerging adult beneficiaries and family members are getting launched in life. He has pioneered new trust distribution and governance models which will assist trust makers and trustees in their quest to assure that wealth contributes to positive growth in the lives of heirs and beneficiaries. He has been asked to share his concepts and ideas on how trustees can better serve beneficiaries with a number of family offices, private trust companies and professional trustees.

Mr. Warnick has written and spoken extensively across the nation. He was the author of two BNA (Bureau of National Affairs) Tax Management portfolios. He co-authored "Selecting a Trust Situs in the 21st Century" which was published in the March/April 2002 issue of Probate and Property. He is currently serving as co-editor of a book on best practices for trusts and is also working on two other books entitled Purposeful Planning and Gifts and The Generative Trustee.

Mr. Warnick received a BA magna cum laude from Brigham Young University and his JD from George Washington University with honors.