Northern Trust Announces New ACTEC Officers, Fellows

Northern Trust announced today that Susan D. Snyder, Fiduciary Advisor to its Wealth Management Trust & Advisory Practice and Deputy General Counsel, has been elected President-Elect of the American College of Trust & Estate Counsel (ACTEC). Ray C. Odom, National Director of Wealth Transfer Services, was elected to ACTEC’s Board of Regents.

In addition, Elisa Shevlin Rizzo, Regional Chief Fiduciary Officer for the East Region, and Reetu Pepoff, Assistant General Counsel, have been named ACTEC Fellows. With their appointments, Northern Trust now has 17 ACTEC Fellows.

“These elections are recognition of the dedication, commitment and expertise across Northern Trust to the trust and estate profession,” said Pam Lucina, Chief Fiduciary Officer for Northern Trust. “I am thrilled that Susan, Ray, Elisa and Reetu are being recognized for the hard work and leadership they show to their clients and their colleagues.”

ACTEC is a professional organization of lawyers who have demonstrated the highest level of integrity, commitment to the profession, competence and experience as trust and estate counselors. Fellows are selected on the basis of experience, professional reputation and ability in the fields of trusts and estates and on the basis of having made substantial contributions to these fields through lecturing, writing, teaching and bar activities.

Susan D. Snyder is Fiduciary Advisor to Northern Trust’s Wealth Management Trust & Advisory Practice and Deputy General Counsel. Previously, Snyder served as Trust Counsel in the Northern Trust Legal Department, heading the group of 20 lawyers and paraprofessionals who support the fiduciary practice. Earlier in her career, Snyder was Partner at Sachnoff & Weaver, Ltd. and an associate with McDermott, Will & Emery, both in Chicago.

Snyder has been a Fellow of ACTEC since 2004 and is a member of the ACTEC Board of Regents, the Board's Executive Committee and its Fiduciary Administration Task Force and Communications Committee. Snyder is the creator and Founding Executive Producer of ACTEC Trust & Estate Talk, a podcast series launched in 2018, which has produced more than 240 podcasts and has had over 400,000 downloads.

Snyder has been appointed by the Illinois Governor to serve as a Uniform Law Commissioner for Illinois. She is a member of the Uniform Law Commission’s Conflicts of Laws in Trusts and Estates Acts, Directed Trust Act, Electronic Wills, Electronic Execution of Estate Planning Documents and Fiduciary Income and Principal Drafting Committees. Snyder is a frequent speaker on estate planning and administration topics for the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, American Bar Association RPTE Section, American Bankers Association, Delaware Bankers Association, American Law Institute-Continuing Legal Education (ALI-CLE), Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education, Midwest-Midsouth Estate Planning Institute, Chicago Estate Planning Council, and Chicago Bar Association.