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Geoffrey K. Stauffer JD, CPA

Geoff Stauffer is an experienced tax attorney and CPA with over 9 years of experience advising high net worth individuals, families, and business owners on sophisticated tax planning and wealth preservation strategies.

As a Senior Associate in the Duggan Bertsch Tax Group, Geoff serves as a trusted advisor to clients on a wide spectrum of tax matters, with a particular focus on the tax implications of wealth transfer, business succession planning, and investment structuring. He regularly counsels clients on income and estate tax mitigation strategies, leveraging his extensive experience with vehicles such as trusts, family limited partnerships, qualified small business stock (QSBS) planning, and tax-advantaged real estate investments.

Throughout his career, Geoff has advised large private equity and hedge funds as well as public and private companies on the tax aspects of high-stakes mergers, acquisitions, debt financing, recapitalizations and capital markets transactions. He brings this big-picture perspective to bear in helping clients navigate the complex tax issues that arise in major business deals and wealth transfer events.

Geoff’s experience includes practicing tax law for over 8 years at several of the nation’s leading law firms in New York and San Diego. In these roles, he advised clients in many areas of taxation including partnership taxation, corporate transactions, tax-exempt organizations, state and local tax, and international tax matters.

In addition to his experience in legal practice, Geoff has also assisted family offices with tax and governance matters relating to complex cross-border holdings and transactions. He takes a business-minded approach, and has been able to be a single point of contact for the full scope of a client’s tax advisory needs.

Prior to entering private practice, Geoff earned his Juris Doctor from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, where he was a Senior Editor of the Journal of International Law and Business. He also completed his Master of Business Taxation from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, where he was admitted to the Beta Gamma Sigma business honors fraternity. Geoff holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration, with a concentration in Accounting, from California State University Fullerton.

Geoff is licensed to practice law in California, New York and New Jersey. He is also a Certified Public Accountant in California. His professional memberships include the San Diego County Bar Association and the California Society of CPAs.

With his unique skillset as an attorney and accountant, Geoff takes a holistic and proactive approach to help clients preserve and grow their wealth while minimizing tax liabilities. Clients rely on his deep technical knowledge, diverse experience and practical judgment to create tax-optimized solutions for their most important business and personal financial matters.

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