Alan S. Gassman

Alan S. Gassman (born July 29, 1959) is a tax lawyer and author living in Clearwater, Florida. He founded Gassman Law Associates, P.A. (formerly Alan S. Gassman, P.A.), in 1987. This three-attorney, twenty-plus staff firm works with high net worth business owners, physicians and retirees in tax, estate, business and wealth preservation planning.

Mr. Gassman has written for Forbes, Bloomberg BNA, the American Bar Association, Florida Bar Journal, Thomson Reuters, Trusts and Estates, Healthcare Law Monthly, Medical Economics and the Journal of Asset Protection. He has contributed over 40 articles to Leimberg Information Services (LISI), a legal newsletter subscription service. Mr. Gassman speaks often for Florida Bar continuing education conferences. He has also spoken for Bloomberg Link, Accounting Today and the American Legal Institute Continuing Education Group (ALI CLE, formerly ALI ABA, and has presented over 20 nationally televised webinars for Bloomberg BNA on tax law, estate planning, legal pitfalls in medical practice and creditor protection planning. His collaborators have included Jerry Hesch, Howard Zaritsky, Stacey Eastland, Louis Mezzullo and John Porter, as well as his partners Ken Crotty and Chris Denicolo. He has been quoted in The New York Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Medical Economics, Modern Healthcare, Tampa Bay Business Journal, Florida Trend and Physician's Practice Digest''.

In 1998, Mr. Gassman was part of a court decision that had a significant impact on the Florida physician and medical community. He represented a number of Florida physicians involved in disputes with Phymatrix, a physician practice management company (PPM). Mr. Gassman requested specific guidance from the Florida Board of Medicine, and the Board determined in 1998 that the contracts the practice management company had set up with the physicians and their practices were illegal "fee-splitting" contracts. In addition, Mr. Gassman obtained a letter of opinion from the Office of Inspector General of Medicare that a typical practice management arrangement violated the federal anti-kickback statute. These decisions enabled thousands of physicians to terminate or renegotiate contracts where a large portion of their profits had gone to third party PPMs, and a number of public medical practice management companies went bankrupt soon thereafter.

In 1996, Cigna Healthcare of Florida attempted to have physicians on Cigna’s panels sign new contracts with Vivra, Inc. a national care management company. The intent was to form a new set of specialty networks, but many physicians felt the agreements had ill-defined terms and stipulations disadvantageous to doctors, including proposed contractual provisions that prevented doctors from involvement with competing healthcare plans. Under the advice of Gassman and others, a number of physicians refused to sign the new contracts, even though this jeopardized their ability to service patients insured by Cigna. After 77 days of doctor non-compliance, Cigna gave up its attempt and the doctors continued to work under their then-existing network systems. This physician victory was covered in both regional and national publications as an example of physicians' power when working collectively.

Mr. Gassman has written and co-written a number of books, including Bloomberg BNA’s Estate Tax Planning in 2011 and 2012 and the 2012 Supplement thereto, Creditor Protection for the Florida Physician, The Essential Planning Guide to the 2013 Income and Estate Tax Increases, The Florida Guide to Prescription, Controlled Substance and Pain Medicine Laws, and The Florida Physician Advertising Handbook with Haddon Hall Publishing.

Mr. Gassman holds an AV Preeminent peer review rating from the Martindale-Hubbell attorney community. He has been included as a Florida Super Lawyer annually from 2006-20012 and holds a 10 out of 10 rating from Avvo.

Mr. Gassman completed his undergraduate studies at Rollins College and holds a B.A. with honors in Business Administration. He attended law school at the University of Florida, where he obtained a J.D. with honors as well as a post law Masters degree (LL.M) in Taxation. He is also board certified in Wills, Trusts and Estates by the Florida Board of Legal Specialization and is an Accredited Estate Planner (National Association of Estate Planning Counsels).

Mr. Gassman is married to his wife Marcia, who supervises a program to provide their three therapy dogs and other community animals to libraries and nursing homes for weekly reading and Alzheimer patient support. They have a daughter, Nicole, who has a Doctorate in clinical psychology and a son, Brent, who has a Masters degree in business administration and works at Deloitte in Atlanta.