Deborah Lust Zaluda, JD,
Director, Private Client Services
dzaluda@bensman.com
847.572.0838

Deb is an attorney and brings more than twenty years of experience in the areas of trust, estate, tax and business matters. Given her client centric approach to working with individuals and organizations on multiple levels, Deb’s expertise and experience provides each client with a broad and “values based” approach to the client’s unique planning needs.

Deb believes that the most important aspect of planning for clients is a deep understanding of each client’s unique financial and non-financial needs, goals and values. She applies this principle with all of her relationships.

Her primary focus for the Bensman Group is in counseling the firm’s clients and working with their advisory team members in estate, trust, charitable and business succession planning and implementation.

Deb also works with Joel Feiger, COO, developing the firm’s family office services business. She further focuses her energies on developing relationships and strategic alliances with allied professionals and financial services firms.

Prior to joining the Bensman Group, Deb worked at the law firm of Rosenthal and Schanfield, was a partner with Levenfeld Eisenberg Janger & Glassberg (predecessor firm to Levenfeld Perlstein), and co-founded the firms of Zarlengo Planera & Zaluda, PC , and Wertheimer & Zaluda. In her practice, Deb counseled a wide variety of individuals, families, fiduciaries and entrepreneurs.

Education
University of Illinois – BA in Psychology
IIT Chicago Kent College of Law – JD with honors

Professional Affiliations
American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) - Fellow
Illinois State Bar Association - Member Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law Sections

Philanthropic/Community
Member - Partnership 2000 Committee of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago
Member of the board American Friends of Neve Hanna, Kiryat Gat, Israel
Founder Chicago Friends of Neve Hanna, a children’s home in Kiryat Gat, Israel

Personal
Deb lives in Highland Park with her husband Jeff, 2 daughters, Lauren and Jacquie, and her 2 Airedales. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling, playing tennis and being outdoors.