R. Lee Elsberg
The Early Years
Lee was born and raised in Sioux City, Iowa. The son of a small business owner, he worked at his dad’s furniture store during high school and when he was home from college. That experience gave him his desire to help small business owners in his accounting and legal career as he saw first hand the many burdens placed on small business for compliance with government rules and regulations and especially as to taxes. Lee came to Colorado for college and received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Colorado. He worked as a tax accountant for a national CPA firm in Denver before returning to the University of Colorado and receiving his law degree. After spending time in Montana and Idaho and briefly back at the furniture store, Lee returned to Colorado and obtained a Master’s Degree in tax law from the University of Denver. While pursuing his masters degree he worked on 17th Street in Denver for a large tax and estate planning law firm, then moved to Longmont to return to the small town life he had growing up.
Professional
Since moving to Longmont over 30 years ago, Lee has represented local businesses, professionals, farmers and individuals in all variety of legal and business matters with an emphasis on taxation. He has advised on real estate matters from the most basic purchase and sale of a personal residence to the formation and funding of complex real estate partnerships owning millions of dollars worth of commercial buildings and apartments. He has helped clients start dozens of businesses and been fortunate enough to advise on the eventual sale of many of those businesses, often in very tax sophisticated ways. Similarly he has helped many clients by preparing their first wills establishing trusts and safety for their children and also helped create sophisticated estate plans saving clients many thousands in death taxes. As a lawyer in a city that has grown from 20,000 people to nearly 100,000 people in the time he has lived here, he has been counsel to families with modest means, but also represents clients with significant annual incomes and estates with millions of dollars of assets. He has prepared hundreds of individual, trust and estate income tax returns and many complex US Estate tax returns.
Lee has been designated a peer-review AV-rated attorney for many years. He has served on the board of directors for the Longmont Red Cross and the Hover Retirement Community as well as being an officer and member of the board of trustees for the Longmont Odd fellows. Lee has been named by 5280 Magazine as one of Colorado’s Best Personal Wealth Managers and Estate Planning Attorneys. Lee’s practice focuses on Business Law and Entity Formation, Estate Planning and Probate, Real Estate, and Taxation.
Personal
Lee’s a heavy lifter in business and in his personal life having won several weightlifting titles in college and afterward, before raising children and running a law practice consumed more of his energies, though he continues to find time to exercise every day.
