James Edward Hickmon

Jim Hickmon is certified by the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization as a Board Certified Legal Specialist in Estate Planning and Probate Law and is a Certified Financial Planner®. In addition to Super Lawyers, he is recognized through peer review by Martindale Hubbell as an AV Preeminent Peer Rated Lawyer and at Business North Carolina Legal Elite. He serves as an adjunct professor of law at Wake Forest University teaching Wealth Transfer and Fiduciary Income Taxation of Trusts and Estates to upper-level law students. Jim is admitted to practice before the State Bars of North Carolina and Virginia.
Jim is passionate about protecting family and closely held business owners through succession planning that protects family assets after the owner’s death keeping family businesses within families. He has counseled families with businesses across a spectrum of industries, from farming to real estate development and trucking to software engineering. He is the author of numerous articles surrounding this subject focusing on wealth transfer, tax, probate, and fiduciary responsibility. Jim’s work is published in both regional and national publications, including the Bureau of National Affairs’ Tax Management and Compensation Planning Journal. He is a contributing author to the North Carolina Bar Association’s Estate Administration Manual and Fiduciary Litigation holds an undergraduate degree in finance from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, an MBA from East Carolina University and his law degree from the Wake Forest University School of Law. 

Jim has involved himself in a number of charitable and community service organizations at the local, state, and national levels.  He was selected by his fellow members of the Bar as a member of Business North Carolina magazine’s Legal Elite in the field of Tax and Estate Planning Law for 2010 and 2012. He is a member of the Charlotte chapter of the Financial Planning Association and the Charlotte Estate Planning Council.