Chris S. Hopkins

Tailored solutions rooted in practical experience

Chris focuses on building long-term relationships with clients and their trusted advisors, including accountants, financial advisors, family office professionals, corporate counsel, and other professionals who serve closely held businesses and private clients. He works collaboratively with those teams to design and implement tax-efficient estate planning and wealth transfer strategies tailored to each client’s family dynamics, business interests, philanthropic goals and risk tolerance.

Chris's practice is strengthened by his experience across the full private wealth life cycle — from proactive planning and business succession to estate and trust administration, fiduciary risk management, dispute avoidance, pre-litigation strategy, traditional litigation and negotiated resolution. He has administered numerous complex trusts and estates and regularly appears in the probate and chancery divisions of Chicago-area courts. He also represents individuals and financial institutions in wills, trusts, powers of attorney and fiduciary litigation matters.

Because Chris has litigated family and fiduciary disputes firsthand, he brings a practical perspective to planning. He is skilled at identifying potential sources of family tension, governance issues, and fiduciary risk before they become disputes. That experience allows him to help clients structure plans that are not only technically sound but also provide clear guidance when it matters most.

Chris is particularly focused on serving clients with significant, complex or private wealth — including entrepreneurs, business owners, multigenerational families, family offices, and fiduciaries navigating sensitive family, tax, business and governance issues. His approach is practical, responsive, and relationship-driven, with an emphasis on becoming a trusted long-term advisor to clients and the professionals who support them.