Steve Akers, J.D., Moderator
Steve R. Akers is an attorney with 29 years of experience in estate planning and probate law matters.  Mr. Akers is a managing director at Bessemer Trust, where he directs the family estate and legacy planning practice for the Southwest Region.  He was previously a partner with Ernst & Young, LLP (1995-2001) and with Jenkens & Gilchrist, PC (1977-1995).

Mr. Akers has lectured on a variety of estate planning, estate administration, and family business planning topics at national meetings of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel; American Bar Association Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Annual CLE Meetings; the U.S.C. Tax Institute; the University of Miami Philip E. Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning; the Annual Notre Dame Tax and Estate Planning Institute; the Southern Federal Tax Conference in Atlanta, Georgia; the UCLA Estate Planning Institute; the Annual AICPA Advanced Estate Planning Conference; the ALI-ABA Annual Seminar on Estate Planning for the Family Business Owner (co-chair of this annual national seminar since its inception 14 years ago); the ALI-ABA Annual Seminar on Estate Planning for Large Estates (held in San Francisco and New York), the ALI-ABA Estate Planning In-Depth Annual Seminar (held annually in Wisconsin), and national teleconference to Internal Revenue Service estate and gift tax agents.  He was selected by the State Bar of Texas as having the “Best CLE Paper” in 2002.  He has also spoken to a variety of other groups, including bar groups and estate planning councils in a number of different states.   He is a co-author of A Planning Guide to Buy-Sell Agreements.  Mr. Akers has presented numerous lectures and served as program chair for a wide number of estate planning seminars in Texas.

Mr. Akers is the past-chairman of the Texas State Bar Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section.  He is also a past chairman of the Dallas Bar Association Probate, Trusts, and Estates Section.  He has served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Dallas Estate Planning Council.  He is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and is a member of the ACTEC Strategic Planning Task Force.  He is a fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation.  He has previously served as a member of the National Conference of Lawyers and Corporate Fiduciaries (sponsored by the American Bar Association and the American Bankers Association).

Mr. Akers currently serves as an officer (Probate and Trust Division Vice-Chair) and member of the Executive Committee of the American Bar Association Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section.  Mr. Akers previously served as the chair of various committees, as a Supervisory Council member, and as the Finance Officer of the Section.  An article that he wrote for the Section’s bimonthly magazine (Probate & Property) was selected as the Best Overall Article-Probate and Trust in 2003.

Mr. Akers is a member of the Advisory Committee to the University of Miami Philip E. Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning (held annually in Miami), and he has spoken at that Institute on various occasions, including as moderator of the Current Developments Panel in 2005.  He will again be the moderator of the Current Developments Panel in 2007.  Mr. Akers also serves as a member of the ALI-ABA Estate Planning Advisory Panel.

Mr. Akers has served as the Chairman of the Baylor Health Care System Foundation Professional Advisors Council from 1995-2001.  He is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Communities Foundation of Texas.

Mr. Akers received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma State University (1974) and his J.D. degree from the University of Texas Law School (1977).

John Porter, J.D., CPA

John is a partner in the Houston office of the law firm of Baker Botts, LLP.  A board certified specialist in the area of probate, trust and estate law (Texas Board of Legal Specialization) and a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, John is the current Co‑Chairman of the Tax Litigation and Controversy Committee of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of the American Bar Association.  John is also a certified public accountant. 

John specializes in gift, estate and income tax litigation and controversy work (including disputes and litigation involving the valuation of business interests), and fiduciary litigation, representing corporate and individual fiduciaries regarding breach of fiduciary duty claims and issues.  John is also a frequent speaker on transfer tax and fiduciary issues.  John's recent published decisions in the transer tax area where he represented the taxpayer include McCord v. Commissioner, 120 T.C. 13 (2003), Dunn v. Commissioner, 301 F.3d 339 (2002) (5th Cir. 2002); Kerr v. Commissioner, 292 F.3d 490 (5th Cir. 2002); Jameson v. Commissioner, 267 F.3d 366 (5th Cir. 2001); and Davis v. Commissioner, 110 T.C. 530 (1998). 

John received his B.B.A. from Texas A&M University, and his law degree from the Baylor University School of Law.

William Frazier, ASA

Will Frazier, a principal and founder of the firm of Howard Frazier Barker Elliott, Inc, has thirty years of experience in business valuation and corporate finance. An Accredited Senior Appraiser of the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) since 1987, Will has participated as an appraiser in numerous U.S. Tax Court cases, including testimony in Jelke, McCord, Dunn and Gladys Cook. Will currently manages the Dallas office of  Howard Frazier Barker Elliott,Inc.

Will frequently speaks and writes about the valuation of family-owned investment entities. His most recent work on this subject  is due to appear in Valuation Strategies in November. This is a follow up to  Quantitative Analysis of the Fair Market Value of an Interest in a Family Limited Partnership  which appeared in that publication in 2005.  In October, 2004,  Will delivered a presentation and paper on the valuation of tiered partnerships ( Its Turtles All the Way Down) at the ASA’s Advanced Business Valuation Conference. He is the co-author of the chapter on valuing family limited partnerships in the most recent edition of the Handbook for Advanced Business Valuation. His articles on the subject of business valuation have been published by the Philip E. Heckerling Institute of Estate Planning (1999), The Journal of Business Valuation (1999), Valuation (1997), Shannon Pratt’s Business Valuation Update (1997), Estate Planning (1996), and Business Valuation Review (1989). Will is a member of the Business Valuation Committee of the ASA and is also a member of the Government Relations Committee of that organization.