Background

George D. Karibjanian is a Founding Member of Franklin Karibjanian & Law, a national boutique law firm based in Washington, D.C., with additional offices in Boca Raton, Florida and Naples, Florida.  George is Board Certified by the Florida Bar in Wills, Trusts & Estates and is a Fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and is licensed to practice in Florida, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. 

George divides his time between the firm’s Boca Raton and Washington offices, spending the majority of his time in Boca Raton. 

He earned his B.B.A. in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame in 1984, his J.D. from the Villanova University School of Law in 1987, and his LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Florida in 1988.  George has practiced his entire legal career in South Florida (over 37 years), practicing exclusively in the areas of estate planning and probate and trust administration, and also represents numerous clients with respect to nuptial agreements.  George has participated in over 225 formal presentations, either individually or as part of a panel discussion, to national, state-wide and local groups, and has over 80 publication credits in national and regional periodicals and journals.  Born and raised in Vineland, New Jersey (in the heart of South Jersey), George has called Boca Raton home since 1988. 

On the topic of the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act and its potential negative effect on estate planning, George has published many articles and has lectured in cities across the nation such as Las Vegas, Nashville, New York, Phoenix, Portland (Or.), San Diego, San Francisco, and Wilmington (Del.), and presented webinars to groups in South Dakota and Alaska.  George has also presented on the topic in October 2016 at the 42nd Annual Notre Dame Tax and Estate Planning Institute.

On the topic of same-sex estate planning, George has lectured at various conferences and estate planning councils throughout the United States and has published numerous articles in publications such as Thomson Reuters’ Estate Planning Journal, Steve Leimberg’s LISI Estate Planning Newsletters, Trusts & Estates Magazine and the Florida Bar Journal.  George has also been quoted by several estate planning publications and websites.

George was presenter at the 59th Annual Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning in Orlando, Florida in 2025, speaking on a panel discussion titled, “A Procrastinator’s Guide to Making and Reporting 2025 Gifts,” and also at the 48th Annual Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning in 2014, speaking on a panel discussion titled, “Living and Working with the Uniform Principal and Income Act.”

Since 2012, George has also been a nearly annual presenter at the annual Notre Dame Tax and Estate Planning Institute in South Bend, Indiana, and has been an annual presenter at the NYU Summer Tax Institute in New York, New York.

George’s other lectures have included topics such as Preparing a Federal Estate Tax Return, Portability, Decanting, Trustee Selection and Duties, Current Developments in Estate Planning and Taxation, Representing a Client with Potential Capacity Issues, Whether a Supplemental 706 is Required, Inter-Vivos QTIP Planning, Prenuptial Agreements for the Estate Planner, the Advantages and Disadvantages of Domestic Asset Protection Trusts and Differences in the States’ Version of the Uniform Trust Code.  With respect to the Estate Tax Return presentation, George has presented that topic at several of the ACTEC Fellows Institutes.

For the American Bar Association’s Section of Taxation, he is a past Co-Chair of the Estate and Gift Tax Committee; was the Chairperson for the Section’s 2016 Comments on the Basis Consistency Regulations, the Chairperson for a 2011-12 Section Task Force Subcommittee Advocating Changes to the Portability Provisions Added by the 2010 Tax Act; and a contributing draftsman to the Section’s 2012 Comments on decanting.

For the American Bar Association’s Section of Real Property Trusts & Estates, Income and Transfer Tax Planning Group, he is a current Co-Chair of the Generation-Skipping Tax Committee within the Income and Transfer Tax Planning Group, and has served as a Co-Chair or Vice-Chair of several other committees.  He is also a member of the CLE and eCLE Committees.

For the Florida Bar’s Real Property Probate & Trust Law Section, he is a past Chair of the Asset Protection Committee; the Co-Vice Chair – Probate & Trust and National Events Editor for the Section’s “ActionLine” publication from 2012 - 2022; the Co-Chairperson of the RPPTL Ad Hoc Committee regarding potential statutory changes in light of a change in Florida’s DOMA laws; a member of the Ad Hoc committee to study changes to Florida’s decanting statutes (which led the 2018 legislation enacting the suggested changes); the Chairperson and primary draftsman of the Section’s 2012 comments to the IRS on decanting, a member of the RPPTL Ad Hoc Committee that drafted a statutory change in response to Florida’s Morey v. Everbank decision; and a member of the Section’s Executive Council from 2012 - 2022.

George is also a member of the Greater Boca Raton Estate Planning Council and the Washington, D.C. Estate Planning Council.

George currently serves on the Professional Advisory Committee for George Snow Memorial Scholarship Foundation.  Previously, George served on the Professional Advisory Committee for the Boca Raton Museum of Art from 2011 to 2019 and served on the Board of Directors for the Palm Beach County Wealth & Estate Planning Seminar from January 2015 to the present.  George also served as President and a member of the Board of Directors of the Notre Dame Alumni Club of Boca Raton (1996-1997), a member of the St. Jude's Church (Boca Raton) Financial Education Council (1994-1996), and Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors of the Boca Raton Girls Fastpitch Softball Association (2004-2008).

In February 2025, George earned his Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) Level 2 Award in Wines (with distinction).

Education

• University of Florida - LL.M. in Taxation, 1988

• Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law – J.D., 1987

• University of Notre Dame - B.B.A. in Accountancy, 1984

Bar Memberships

• Florida, 1988

• Virginia, 2017

• District of Columbia, 2018

• Maryland, 2018

Professional Affiliations

Articles (Press Link)

Presentations (Press Link)

Quotes (Press Link)

Community Endeavors