Tara Anne Pleat

Tara Anne Pleat, CELA, co-owns the law firm Wilcenski & Pleat PLLC, with offices in Clifton Park and Queensbury, New York. She focuses on special needs and traditional estate planning and administration, as well as long-term care planning.

After graduating from the State University of New York at Albany, Tara discovered how much she enjoyed working with families as an estate planning paralegal. Law school was the natural next step. Shortly after earning her law degree from Albany Law School, she joined her current firm, where she was introduced to special needs law.

“Several years ago, my son was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, and my family’s experiences have deepened my understanding of the challenges faced by clients,” she says. “I recognize the limitations of Medicaid funding and the need to vigorously advocate for better services.”

Tara is a member of the Arc of New York’s statewide guardianship committee, which sets statewide practices for the organization’s corporate guardianship program. She also is an Advisory Board Member of Supported Decision Making New York, an organization developing New York State’s Supported Decision Making program.

She is an adjunct professor of law at Albany Law School, where she teaches a course on estate and financial planning for individuals with special needs and the elderly. “I want my students to recognize the important safety net provided by public benefits,” she says. “They need to understand how the system should work versus the reality, so that they can empathize with clients. And they need to be able to make the incredibly complex subject matter understandable to their future clients.” Tara is also a member of the University of Miami Law School Adjunct Faculty where she teaches Elder and Special Needs Law in the Estate Planning LLM program.

She is a former chair of the Elder Law and Special Needs Section of the New York State Bar Association; is the incoming chair of the Trusts & Estates Law Section of the New York State Bar Association (commencing January of 2026); a member of the Estate Planning Council of Eastern New York, Inc. (serving as president for the 2013/2014 year); a fellow and Regent of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC); and a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) where she sits on the Federal Advocacy Committee and Special Needs Law Steering Committee.

In 2023, Tara was honored to receive the National Academy of Elder Law Attorney’s Powley Elder Law Award, which is presented to a NAELA member who has demonstrated a commitment to promote, in the minds of the general public, a greater understanding of the rights and needs of older Americans and people with special needs and of how elder attorneys advocate for those rights.

In May of 2024, Tara joined the Elder Law Committee of the Editorial Board of Trusts and Estates Magazine.