Robert Agresta is a Partner and the Chair of the firm’s Family Office & Private Wealth Advisory practice. For more than fifteen years, he has represented owners of closely held enterprises and family offices across their legal, governance, and wealth preservation needs, serving as trustee of family trusts and director of private trust companies.
Mr. Agresta takes a structured, multi-disciplinary approach. He begins by establishing a clear baseline, identifying the most consequential risks and opportunities, then works through defined planning sprints that adapt to changing family dynamics, tax regimes, and regulatory conditions — addressing governance, succession, tax strategy, and wealth preservation as an integrated whole.
His work focuses on the efficient organization of capital. Sound structuring reduces cost, improves tax efficiency, and opens access to institutional pricing and direct ownership. This also covers integrated family office functions — financial technology, payables, domestic employees, real property, and tangible assets.
Mr. Agresta has deep experience with Wyoming-based structures and is admitted to practice there. He forms and advises Wyoming private trust companies, structures directed and dynasty trust arrangements, and handles decanting, modification, and regulatory compliance in coordination with local fiduciaries and service providers.
He is also an experienced litigator, having handled complex commercial disputes, federal enforcement matters, antitrust and civil RICO cases, and appellate proceedings in state and federal courts and arbitration. That background informs a practical, risk-aware approach to planning and has been instrumental in protecting clients’ reputations, privacy, and security.
Mr. Agresta is admitted in New York, Wyoming, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. He holds an MBA from the University of St. Gallen (HSG) in Switzerland, is a dual citizen of Italy and the United States, and is fluent in English, Italian, German, and Spanish. He is an avid skier and pilot.
RELATED PRACTICES
Bar Admissions
- New York, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
- New Jersey, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
- District of Columbia
- Wyoming
- Third Circuit Court of Appeals
- United States Supreme Court
Education
- Universität Skt. Gallen, (E.M.B.L.-HSG [MBA], 2016)
- New York Law School (J.D., 2009)
- Fordham University (B.Sc., 2005)
Representative Matters
- Outside general counsel to single family office including management of all legal issues including corporate matters, litigation, reputation, privacy, security and risk management.
- Represented commercial borrowers as well as private and publicly traded banks in negotiations, litigation, refinancings, and workout transactions involving complex real estate and financing structures, often in distressed or transitional settings.
- Negotiated creditor-side forbearance agreements in bankruptcy-adjacent matters, secured by consents to judgment and pre-existing real property mortgages, requiring precision around collateral control, enforcement leverage, and downside protection.
- Served as U.S. strategic counsel to a major European investor entering the U.S. market, advising on transaction structure, regulatory posture, and commercial risk in connection with market entry.
- Prepared private placement materials and advised enterprises on U.S. securities compliance and capital-raising strategy, translating legal constraints into executable fundraising plans.
- Acted as counsel in distressed M&A transactions, including asset acquisitions out of liquidation involving cross-border considerations, insolvency risk, and operational transition.
- Resolved commercial disputes for principle owned enterprises with amounts in dispute in the hundreds of millions.
- Resolved regulatory enforcement matters involving asserted exposure in the tens of millions.
Articles
Robert A. Agresta, International Tax Planning as a Business Driver, 5 Penn. St. J.L. & Int’l Aff. 538 (2017).
Available at: https://insight.dickinsonlaw.psu.edu/jlia/vol5/iss2/11