Kathy L. Seidel, Esq. brings 29 years of legal and fiduciary experience to the mediation arena. Her early career as an estate planning attorney gave her broad experience in drafting simple plans for small estates as well as complicated documents for high net worth clients. Later, she moved to the financial services industry, gaining insight into the day-to-day practicalities of administering all types of trust agreements (such as family and marital trusts, generation skipping trusts, charitable lead and remainder trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts and grantor retained annuity trusts) as well as decedent’s estates. Having served for many years as a corporate fiduciary, she understands investment and asset management fiduciary requirements as well as common law fiduciary duties. She has experience working with traditional and blended families and the elderly and understands the dynamics of family relationships. One of the most rewarding aspects of her work in the financial services industry was working with families to resolve planning and interfamily issues.

Ms. Seidel’s approach to mediation is to meticulously prepare for each case by reviewing all relevant documents to ensure an understanding of the issues and to bring efficiency to the process. She brings a practical and common-sense approach to problem solving. Although each case is unique, she believes that her ability to remain calm in highly emotional or contested situations, as well as the ability to listen and communicate clearly, helps parties resolve their issues.

Ms. Seidel’s mediation experience includes cases dealing with trust and estate administration, will contests, allegations of breach of fiduciary (both individual and corporate) and civil theft.  She has worked with families dealing with the division of assets such as family businesses, art and jewelry collections, family vacation homes, ranches, water rights and oil and gas assets.

She has also mediated contested conservatorship and guardianship proceedings and cases involving allegations of incapacity, undue influence, elder abuse and financial exploitation.

Many of her cases involve attorney and fiduciary fee disputes and she is conversant with the guidelines set forth in Colorado’s Compensation and Cost Recovery Act.

As common law marriage is recognized in Colorado, she has mediated numerous matters involving allegations of common law marriage.