Speaker Bios - South Dakota Trust Association

10th Annual Fall Forum

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Fall Forum 2026 – October 8-9

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Speakers

Bret AfdahL

Bret Afdahl was appointed Director of the South Dakota Division of Banking in May of 2011 after serving as Counsel to the Division since October of 2006. Bret is a Past Chair of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS), the nation’s leading advocate for the state banking system, and served on the FDIC Advisory Committee of State Regulators from 2019 through 2023. Bret is a graduate of Northern State University with a degree in political science and business and a graduate of the University of South Dakota School of Law.

Tim Billion

Tim practices in Robins Kaplan’s Business Litigation Group and has represented clients in a wide variety of cases, including trust and fiduciary litigation, contract and fraud claims, constitutional and election litigation, civil rights litigation, personal injury claims, internal investigations, and criminal proceedings. Tim also regularly advises tribes across the country.

Tim has garnered numerous recognitions for his practice. In 2023, the National Civil Justice Institute awarded Tim the national Appellate Advocacy Award for a victory on behalf of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in a tribal rights case: Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. United States, 9 F.4th 1018 (8th Cir. 2021). Chambers USA named Tim as one of two nationwide “Leading Lawyer in Native American Law: Associate to Watch” in 2021. Super Lawyers named Tim a “Rising Star” in 2019, 2020, and 2021, a distinction given to the top 2.5% of Overview Business Litigation Medical Malpractice Attorneys Personal Injury Attorneys Wealth Planning, Administration, and Fiduciary Disputes American Indian Law and Policy Class Action Litigation Health Care Litigation Practices lawyers. The Best Lawyers in America included Tim on its “Ones to Watch” list in 2021 and 2022 for Commercial Litigation and Trusts and Estates Litigation. Tim has also been named a North Star Lawyer in recognition of his commitment to providing pro bono legal services.

Tim has led trial and appellate teams in both state and federal courts. Regardless of the size or type of case, Tim uses the litigation process to maximize strategic advantage while staying focused on reaching the client’s goals. Tim also has experience in alternative dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration.

Tim is actively involved in bar associations and activities. Tim is a past President of the Second Circuit Bar Association and served as past Editor of the South Dakota Trial Lawyer’s newsletter, the Barrister. Tim also co-chairs the South Dakota State Bar’s Indian Law Committee and serves on the State Bar’s Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. In addition, Tim is the South Dakota state chair for the American Bar Association’s Council of Appellate Lawyers.

Outside of the office, Tim does his best to keep up with his two young kids, enjoys spending time with his wife, Kelsey, and tries to occasionally play a round of golf.

Tim attended law school at the University of Minnesota School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. During law school, Tim also served as a managing editor for the Minnesota Law Review. Prior to joining Robins Kaplan, Tim clerked for a federal district court judge in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and practiced general litigation for two years with a large law firm in Minneapolis.

Cynthia Brittain

Cynthia “Cindy” Brittain is a private wealth services attorney in Holland & Knight’s Los Angeles and Newport Beach offices. Ms. Brittain works closely with private clients in the U.S. and around the world, designing efficient strategies that maximize tax benefits for individuals and their companies while meeting personal wealth transfer and business succession needs.

International Tax and Estate Planning. Ms. Brittain has decades of experience advising high-net-worth and ultrahigh-net-worth individuals and families on domestic and international income and estate tax planning strategies and philanthropic endeavors. Her practice offers significant cross-border experience for families whose members are multinational and whose companies have a global footprint. Ms. Brittain helps clients navigate complex issues relevant to international and domestic wealth and asset transfers. She also assists with pre-immigration planning and international corporate tax matters, leveraging her extensive experience with the cross-border regulatory laws that affect planning and compliance. She is frequently sought out by international private clients and their advisory teams in urgent, high-stakes situations to help mitigate legal and reputational risk.

Hong Kong and United Kingdom. Ms. Brittain lived and worked in Hong Kong, where she served Chinese and Asian clients with their U.S. estate and tax planning. Having also lived in London, her experience in-country provides a solid foundation for U.S.-U.K. estate and income tax integration. International Charitable Giving. As part of Ms. Brittain’s practice, she advises individual clients and large nonprofit organizations on cross-border philanthropy related to compliance and due diligence. She also designs effective tax deduction strategies using dual-qualified charities for U.S. citizens living abroad. Ms. Brittain is an instructor for the American Institute for Philanthropic Studies Certified Specialist in Planned Giving program.

Sharia Law Estate Planning Compliance. Ms. Brittain has worked with many clients who wish to create desired estate planning when Sharia law generally applies to their estate assets.

Private Trust Companies and Family Offices. Pooling family assets offers several advantages, including succession planning, access to investments that would otherwise be unavailable to certain family entities and individuals, centralization of assets management decisions and the resulting reduction of overall investment fees and potential creditor protection. Ms. Brittain creates such entity structures to accomplish those goals and works with each client’s investment advisors to ensure that appropriate investment policies are developed focused on the objectives applicable to the client’s taxable and nontaxable estate. Ms. Brittain uses private trust companies and family office structures to retain the historic legacies and family values inherent in generational wealth.

Pre-Liquidity Event Planning. Prior to a sale of a business or a major liquidity event, there are several wealth transfer opportunities that should be considered. Such strategies focus on passing potential wealth to future generations in a tax-efficient manner. Ms. Brittain is often called upon to assist owners of businesses who are embarking upon such transactions to guide them in this critical pre-transaction planning process.

Domestic Estate Planning. Ms. Brittain counsels clients and their advisors on the implementation of sophisticated estate planning techniques designed to increase, maintain and transfer wealth in a manner that is consistent with each client’s intended legacy. As part of this process, Ms. Brittain creates estate plans and drafts a wide range of estate and tax planning instruments, including wills, revocable trusts, insurance trusts, dynastic trusts, charitable trusts, irrevocable defective grantor trust with related gifts and sales strategies and beneficiary deemed owned trust (BDOT) using Internal Revenue Code Section 678.

Anti-Money Laundering and Enforcements. Ms. Brittain also provides hands-on guidance for financial institutions and corporate trustees who work with international clients, advising on global enforcement initiatives relevant to companies, accounting firms and law firms that handle international clients. She has assisted in development and implementing anti-money laundering compliance manuals and programs for financial institutions and other clients in connection with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act.

In addition to her legal practice, Ms. Brittain is a frequent speaker on international estate and tax planning issues for beginners and advanced strategists. She also serves as an adjunct professor teaching International Estate Planning at California State University – Northridge and California Lutheran University.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. Brittain was an attorney at a boutique private wealth services law firm in Los Angeles, serving as head of its international estate planning practice.

Jennifer Bunkers

Ms. Bunkers is a partner with the Redstone Law Firm, LLP, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She received her J.D. degree in Law from the University of South Dakota and a B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Sioux Falls. A significant portion of Jennifer’s practice is devoted to representing individuals to craft their estate plans. Clients appreciate Jennifer’s extensive knowledge and her personal approach to tailoring clients’ estate plans to fit their wishes in a practical and tax-efficient manner.

Jennifer is also well-respected for her expertise in the area of dynasty trusts, representing both fiduciaries and beneficiaries on all aspects of trust administration. Since her appointment by Governor Dennis Daugaard in 2011, Jennifer has served on the Governor’s Task Force on Trust Administration Review and Reform and currently chairs the committee. Clients find that her extensive experience with trust administration, reformation, decanting and modification is a tremendous benefit to those who have availed themselves of the flexible and progressive trust laws of South Dakota.

In an effort to actively incorporate her passion for philanthropy into her law practice, Jennifer became a Charted Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP). Employing this additional area of expertise allows Jennifer to bring meaningful, tangible value to her clients and community.

Jennifer is married to her husband Jon, a fourth-generation farmer, and together they are raising two awesome teenagers. In her spare time Jen volunteers for numerous church and community activities, currently serving as the Chair of Volunteers of America – Dakotas Foundation, Inc., Vice Chair of the Avera McKennan Hospital and a member of the board of directors for the South Dakota Ag Foundation.

Adam Cox

Adam has been passionate about personal finance as early as he can remember. Before he could even drive, he would regularly ride his bike to a local restaurant to buy a copy of the Wall Street Journal and read every page, every word.

Advising clients for nearly two decades, Adam started his career helping high-net-worth clients navigate difficult trust issues and settle complicated estates. More recently, he spent 10 years leading the transformation of a community bank trust department managing $3.7 billion. Under his leadership, the department grew quickly into a modern, full-service wealth management firm managing more than $10 billion.

Fascinated by peoples’ stories, he often finds himself talking in-depth with clients about the intersection of business, money, faith, family, and everything in between.

Throughout his career, Adam has been a regular speaker and podcast guest on a variety of personal finance topics. In addition, he hosted the Common Cents on the Prairie™ podcast for over 6 years, earning national recognition and multiple industry awards along the way.

Adam graduated from the University of South Dakota with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, JD from the University of St. Thomas School of Law, and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame.

Adam and his wife, Diane, live in Sioux Falls along with their two teenage daughters. He enjoys being active in the community, currently serving on boards for Bishop O’Gorman Catholic Schools as well as Avera Health. When not working, Adam can often be found sitting next to the garden watching his vegetables grow.

Daniel Gespass

Daniel Gespass is a managing director in the US National Tax practice at Andersen. He focuses on taxation issues related to trust and estate planning and has extensive experience advising on complex estate, gift, generation-skipping transfer, and fiduciary income tax issues. Dan brings over a decade of experience in both the public and private sectors. Before joining Andersen, he served as a senior technician reviewer at the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, where he played a key role in drafting and reviewing Treasury regulations, sub-regulatory guidance, and private letter rulings related to transfer taxation and fiduciary income tax. He also contributed to the development of legislative policy proposals and responded to inquiries from taxpayers, congressional representatives, and professional organizations. Earlier in his career, Dan practiced at several law firms, where he advised high-net-worth individuals and corporate fiduciaries on estate planning, trust and estate administration, and related tax matters. In addition to his advisory work, Dan has served as an adjunct professor, teaching courses on transfer tax and fiduciary taxation at both Georgetown Law and American University.

Patrick Goetzinger

Pat is a partner with Gunderson, Palmer, Nelson, & Ashmore, LLP, where he leads the firm’s Business and Estate Planning Group. He practices in the areas of Business and Estate Planning with a focus on family-run businesses, affluent individuals, business transactions, and real property law.

Pat is past President of the South Dakota State Bar Association and the South Dakota Bar Foundation (and currently a director). He is a Fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and a Fellow in the American College of Real Estate Lawyers. Pat served on the American Bar Association Board of Governors and South Dakota Trust Association Board of Directors. He is listed among the Best Lawyers in America, Great Plains Super Lawyers, Chambers USA’s High Net Worth rankings, and America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in Corporate/Commercial Law and Real Estate Law, and Private Wealth Law. Pat received the 2022 Marshall M. McKusick Award, given annually to an outstanding member of the South Dakota Bar for contributions to the legal profession.

Pat has been actively involved in drafting and supporting the enactment of trust and business legislation in South Dakota legislature. He has managed this through his service to the South Dakota State Bar Association and from his appointment to the Governor’s Task Force on Trust Reform and Administration since its inception in 1997. He has been appointed to this task force by the last five successive governors.

Pat’s desire to give back to his profession and the state is demonstrated by being the founder of Project Rural Practice, an initiative to restock rural main streets with attorneys and improve access to justice in rural areas. Pat especially enjoys the connection to the Black Hills and the Mount Rushmore National Memorial provided by his lifetime membership in the Mount Rushmore Society.

Pat serves as counsel for several trust companies with offices in South Dakota, and represents a wide array of businesses in all sizes, including beverage distributors, food service, hi-tech manufacturers, Main Street businesses, agricultural operations and family-owned businesses. Pat served as lead counsel on some of the largest transactions in the state, including what was at the time (2015) the largest ranch sale in South Dakota.

Kim Kamin

Kim Kamin is a partner at Gresham Partners LLC, an independent wealth management firm currently managing over $13 billion for almost 130 families nationally as a multifamily office. At Gresham, Ms. Kamin serves as Chief Wealth Strategist, leading Gresham’s development and implementation of estate, wealth transfer, philanthropic, educational, and fiduciary planning activities. Previously she was a partner in the Private Clients, Trusts and Estates Group at a large national law firm where for many years her legal practice involved all aspects of trust and estate planning, administration, and dispute resolution; advising families and their privately held businesses on a wide array of wealth preservation, asset protection and succession planning issues; and serving as counsel for the formation and operation of not-for-profit entities.

Ms. Kamin is an adjunct professor at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law where she was awarded the William M. Trumbull Lectureship, and has taught Advanced Trusts and Estates, Income Taxation of Trusts and Estates, and Estate Planning. She is also on faculty for the Certified Private Wealth Advisor® (CPWA®) program through the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Executive Education.

Ms. Kamin is a Regent of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), is Past President of the Chicago Estate Planning Council, and serves as the Estate Planning & Legal Domain Chair for the UHNW Institute. She also served on the Founders’ Committee for the University of Chicago Center of Law and Finance.

Ms. Kamin is on the UHNW Families & Family Offices Committee of the Trusts & Estates Magazine Editorial Advisory Board, on the Investments & Wealth Review Editorial Advisory Board, and has authored numerous pieces at http://wealthmanagement.com/author/kimkamin. She has published on a wide variety of topics and is also a frequent lecturer in a variety of venues across the country (including, but not limited to, ACTEC, AICPA Engage, ALI-CLE, Family Office Exchange, Great Plains Federal Tax Institute, Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, Hawaii Tax Institute, Kansas City Estate Planning Symposium, Montana Tax Institute, Notre Dame Tax & Estate Planning Institute, Purposeful Planning Institute, Sacramento Estate Planning Council Technical Forum, Seattle Estate Planning Seminar, South Dakota Trust Association, Southern Federal Tax Institute, Tulane Tax Institute, and UCLA/CEB Estate Planning Institute).

She is co-executive editor and co-author for the Leimberg Library Tools & Techniques book, Estate Planning for Modern Families (4th Ed. 2024), and she has been a contributing author for chapters in books, including Wealth of Wisdom: Top Practices for Wealthy Families and Their Advisors (2022).

She serves on advisory boards for multiple local philanthropic organizations: the Chicago Community Trust Professional Advisory Council, the Art Institute of Chicago Gift Planning Advisory Committee, the Northwestern Memorial Foundation Professional Council for Philanthropy, the Goodman Theatre Spotlight Advisory Council, the Chicago Foundation for Women Professional Advisory Council, WTTW/WFMT Planned Giving Advisory Committee, PAWS T&E Professional Advisory Board (Chair), and the Executive Committee for the Lurie Children’s Legacy Partners. She also serves on the Chicago Stanford Association’s Board of Leaders. She is a member of The Economic Club of Chicago, where she has served on several committees.

Kim received her B.A., with distinction and departmental honors in Psychology, from Stanford University and her J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. She is a 21/64 Certified Advisor and an AEP® (Distinguished) meaning that she was inducted into the NAEPC Estate Planning Hall of Fame®.

Amanda Koplin

Amanda Koplin, LPC is a mental health counselor, entrepreneur and thought leader who creates innovative solutions to fill gaps in the mental healthcare system. In 2014, she created and developed an idea for a mental health urgent care clinic and sold it in 2016 to create Koplin Consulting, a nationwide concierge mental health treatment team service. Amanda is passionate about helping people achieve mental wellness and creating sustainable support systems and solutions which integrate seamlessly into real life.
She is a speaker and a nationally sought after consultant who specializes in creating unique treatment plans and recommendations for individuals struggling with psychological concerns such as addictions, eating disorders, lack of motivation, and other issues impacting mental wellness. She is particularly adept at involving trusted advisors and family members in order to create the greatest impact.

Matt McClintock

As co-founder of Bespoke Group, Matt McClintock helps ultra-affluent, globally mobile families create order, continuity, and meaning in their wealth. With more than 20 years of experience as an estate planning attorney and national educator, he guides clients through both the strategic and human dimensions of family capital, building coordinated wealth systems that align advisors and structures around each family’s goals. Recognized as a pioneer in integrating traditional wealth frameworks with Bitcoin and digital-asset ownership, his work emphasizes client control, privacy, and multigenerational planning.

Ron Scalise

Ronald J. Scalise Jr. is the John Minor Wisdom Professor of Civil Law at Tulane University Law School. Professor Scalise is a member of the American Law Institute, an associate member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, the Treasurer of the American Society of Comparative Law, a Professeur Invité at the Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas, an academician in the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, and an academic fellow in the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel (ACTEC). He currently serves as the Southern Regional Chair and the Louisiana State Chair for ACTEC and is a member of the Board of Regents. Professor Scalise has served on numerous law reform projects on both the state and national level, including as Reporter for both the Uniform Law Commission’s Community Property Disposition at Death Act and the Uniform Law Commission’s Drafting Committee for an Act on Conflict of Trust and Estate Laws. His scholarship focuses both on domestic trusts and estates issues as well as comparative and civil law perspectives on successions. He has authored an extensive number of law review articles, book chapters, and treatise updates.

Julian C. Zebot

Julian is a partner at Maslon LLP in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is licensed in both Minnesota and South Dakota, and chairs the firm’s Trust & Estate Litigation practice group. He is a frequent author and speaker on topics relating to probate, fiduciary, and trust litigation, fiduciary risk management, and professional ethics. Among other board and bar committee responsibilities, he is a member of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Committee of the Probate and Trust Law Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association, and he serves as Chair of the Litigation, Ethics, and Malpractice Group of the ABA’s Real Property Trust and Estate Law Section. Julian is also a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.

Presented by the South Dakota Trust Association