National VP, Estate Settlement

American Heart Association • Dallas, TX

2d • $142,200 - $189,700 • Hybrid

About The Position

The American Heart Association is seeking a National VP, Estate Settlement to join their Mission Advancement Department. This role will be based in Dallas, TX, and will operate in a hybrid setting, requiring 2-3 days in the office per week. The Association emphasizes work-life harmonization and provides resources like Heart U, an award-winning corporate university, for employee success. The #TheAHALife culture embodies a commitment to work-life harmonization and core values, allowing employees to thrive personally and professionally.

Requirements

• Minimum five (5) years of relevant legal experience in estate administration, trust law, charitable giving, or a closely related area of practice.
• Demonstrated experience handling litigation, disputed estate and trust matters, and leading outside counsel.
• At least five (5) years of supervisory or team leadership experience.
• Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from an ABA-accredited law school.
• Active license to practice law in at least one U.S. state; admission to the Texas Bar or eligibility for Texas licensure preferred.

Nice To Haves

• In-house counsel experience in a nonprofit or financial services environment preferred.
• Board certification or advanced credential in estate planning, trust law, or nonprofit law is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Serves as the organization’s senior legal authority and executive leader for the Estate Settlement function, with enterprise-wide accountability for the overall success, performance, compliance, and strategic direction of the Association’s estate settlement operation.
• Provides strategic leadership, in-house legal counsel, and operational oversight across all estate, trust, and planned gift administration matters.
• Responsible for maximizing charitable estate distributions, minimizing legal and fiduciary risk, ensuring operational excellence, and leading cross-functional collaboration with internal stakeholders, donors, fiduciaries, beneficiaries, and outside counsel nationwide.
• Leads the Bequest Administration team, accountable for performance.
• Leads the organization’s overall Estate Settlement function, establishing strategic priorities, operational standards, workflows, governance practices, performance expectations, and cross-functional coordination for all estate settlement activities.
• Leads and manages the performance of the (remote) Bequest Administration team, promoting a positive and productive culture while ensuring revenue is realized as quickly as possible with the highest attention to donor gratitude, timeliness, detail, accuracy and documentation.
• Provides direct legal counsel on the administration of estates, trusts, beneficiary designations, gift agreements, and charitable interests.
• Reviews and drafts legal documents, interprets estate instruments, and advises staff and leadership on legal rights, risks, and strategies related to estate settlement matters.
• Monitors and ensures compliance with all relevant federal and state laws, regulations, and organizational policies governing estate settlement.
• Stays current on changes in estate, trust, and charitable giving law.
• Conducts regular reviews of estate settlement processes to identify and remediate legal and compliance risks.
• Oversees all litigation and disputed estate matters, including trusts, beneficiary designations, gift agreements, fiduciary administration, and other contested issues.
• Personally handles legal work as appropriate and directs outside counsel on strategy, budget, and case management to protect and maximize charitable distributions to the Association.
• Manages discovery, mediations, negotiations, court proceedings, and settlements while balancing legal, financial, and reputational considerations.
• Collaborates with counterparts representing other public charities when the Association is not the sole charity beneficiary of an estate or bequest.
• Partners with Finance to ensure accurate accounting of estate settlement transactions and provides legal review of financial instruments and Association reporting related to estate administration.
• Coordinates annual split-interest actuarial calculations with Finance.
• Prepares the annual CEP Audit and Accountability Report for the American Heart Association.
• Prepares the annual Estate Settlement Report for the Association.
• Provides regular progress updates and revenue insights, income projections and responds to other periodic report requests for use by the Mission Advancement executive leadership team.
• Develops and implements legal and operational strategies to streamline estate settlement processes for efficiency and effectiveness.
• Identifies best practices, ensures full legal documentation of estates and stakeholder relationships, and leverages technology to track progress and outcomes.
• Performs other duties as required or assigned which are reasonably within the scope and responsibility of the job level and family.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance
• Robust retirement program that includes an employer match and automatic contribution
• Employee assistance program
• Employee wellness program
• Telemedicine, and medical consultation
• Paid Time Off (PTO) at a minimum of 16 days per year for new employees, increasing with seniority
• 12 paid holidays off each year, including several days off at the end of the year
• Tuition Assistance

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior