About Us

First and foremost, Irv Blackman — both a CPA and a lawyer — is a tax guy.

Irv currently is the President of WCPN, LLC and chairman of the board of the New Century Bank, Chicago, Illinois. Irv is also a founding partner of Blackman Kallick Bartelstein, LLP (B/K), CPAs. Over the years, the firm grew from four people to 195 today. But back in the 70's a traumatic experience changed Irv's professional life. And could impact your life. Briefly, here's how it happened. While at B/K, one of Irv's clients (Jack) started his business in a rented garage. Jack struggled for 21 years before becoming wealthy. Very wealthy. But when he died, the estate tax bill almost bankrupted Jack's family. The business had to be sold. Who was at fault? Simply, the estate planning lawyer — supposedly one of the best — had bungled Jack's estate plan.

Irv shares the podium at a tax seminar with President Bush in Austin, Texas

Irv was young, but he vowed it would never happen to one of his clients again. He studied the estate tax law with a vengeance. After he became a recognized expert, he became a one-man gang educating others: by the written word and the spoken word.

Today, Irv is the most published CPA in the country. He has written 28 tax books. His monthly tax column appears in 57 trade journals. He has given hundreds of tax seminars from coast to coast, mostly to audiences of business owners and other professional estate planners.

The Network Changes the Estate Planning Profession

Early on, Irv realized B/K couldn't handle all the complexities — required to do estate planning the right way — alone. So, he formed A Network of dedicated and knowledgeable professionals (lawyers, CPAs, insurance consultants and others) to help him.

Finally, after a decade of exhaustive research, B/K (the nation's 26th largest CPA firm), led by Irv Blackman, and working with The Network broke through the conventional estate tax planning paradigm. They created an innovative and organized System that concentrates on transferring your wealth (every dime of it), intact, to your family. Reducing YOUR estate tax is now a secondary issue.

WCPN now uses The System for its clients. Over the years, Irv while at B/K, WCPN and Irv's Network have helped over 1000 business owners legally avoid the estate tax monster.

The secrets used by WCPN and The Network are revealed in Irv's latest Manual/Book, "Tax Secrets of the Wealthy." The Manual/Book now in its fourth edition, is sought after by three groups of people:

1. The wealthy.
2. Those who would like to be wealthy and need a tax roadmap to guide them.
3. Professionals — mostly CPAs, lawyers, and insurance consultants — who serve the first two groups.

Vaughan E. Reid, J.D., CPA

Vaughan Reid is a CPA and a lawyer with 15 years of estate tax planning experience. After graduating from law school he worked with wealthy business owners across the country as an estate tax consultant with Arthur Andersen in Memphis. Later he led the estate planning practice for George B. Jones & Co., then the nation's largest firm specializing in automobile dealerships. In that capacity he designed estate and business succession plans for automobile dealers across the United States. Seeking to round out his professional estate planning experience, in 1998 Vaughan opened a law firm dedicated to estate planning.

Over the years Vaughan has been a featured speaker on estate planning for a variety of legal, accounting, and insurance industry events. He has written dozens of estate planning articles and edited the Tax Brief, a newsletter on innovative tax strategies for automobile dealers.

All that is nice, but you may wonder how Vaughan, a Memphian, met Irv Blackman and joined The Network?

Well here's how. In 2004 something significant happened that dramatically changed Vaughan's career path. He left his law practice to lead the Chicago-area Estate Services practice for the national CPA firm of Crowe Chizek. In his initial weeks in Chicago he met David Greenspahn, the Network's leading insurance expert. Vaughan and David forged a business and personal relationship that eventually led to an introduction to Irv and Irv's writing.

After reading Tax Secrets of the Wealthy, Vaughan said, "At Arthur Andersen and Crowe Chizek I was exposed to the best of the best in my industry, or so I thought. I had also read the best books and journals written by the nationally recognized "guru's" and I was ingrained in their mindset. Irv's approach and techniques revolutionized my view of the business. I realized for the first time there is a better way and planners can, in fact, do a perfect estate planning job for their clients."

Eventually, Vaughan decided Irv was on to something big and he wanted to be a part of it. Then, we formed Blackman Reid Consulting.

It has been a joy to work together, help each other and get kudos from our clients.