Estates and Creditor Claims 2026

Scott S. Small is a Senior Vice President serving as the Senior Regional Fiduciary Manager for Wells Fargo’s Wealth & Investment Management Estate Services for its East and North divisions. Estate Services is responsible for the successful completion of the detailed and sometimes difficult day-to-day duties of estate and trust settlement, and Scott leads a team of experienced estate advisory specialist professionals from Washington, D.C. to Denver, CO who work closely with the decedent’s heirs and other advisors. Prior to joining Wells Fargo Bank in 2012, Mr. Small worked at BNY Mellon for 15 years where he held numerous positions, including the National Managing Director posts for BNY Mellon’s Estate Settlement and Administration, Life Insurance Trust Administration, Special Needs Trust Administration, Estate Tax and Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax business segments.  He also chaired two Regional Trust Administration Committees at BNY Mellon during his tenure there. Scott has been in the financial services industry for 25 years. While not currently practicing law, Mr. Small is admitted to practice law in both Pennsylvania and Florida.  He practiced law for almost 10 years with two prominent national law firms before leaving private practice.  Scott is a cum laude graduate of the University of Florida School of Law and a cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan.  Scott is a past president of the Philadelphia Estate Planning Council and a past chair of the Probate and Trust Law Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association.  He is a member of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Sections of the Florida Bar, the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Philadelphia Bar Association.  Mr. Small currently is an elected member to the Board of Governors of the Philadelphia Bar Association. Mr. Small’s provision of pro bono estate administration services to families who lost loved ones on 9/11 was featured in an article published in the September 2004 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.  Scott is a frequent author and lecturer for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, and his revised chapter on “Choosing Fiduciaries” was published in the Fifth Edition of Estate Planning in Pennsylvania (PBI Press 2019). 

E. Nego Pile received his J.D. from Temple University Beasley School of Law and his B.A. in Philosophy from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Prior to law school, Nego was selected by the Council on Legal Education Opportunity to be a Thurgood Marshall Fellow during the summer of 1995 at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Today, he provides legal counsel for clients throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey primarily in matters relative to estate planning, elder law, special needs planning, personal injury law, and real-estate law.
An active member of the Pennsylvania and Montgomery Bar Associations, Nego recently completed a three-year term as Board Member of the latter group. He also volunteers with the Montgomery Bar Association Civics Education Program, which brings civics education to Norristown-area middle schools. Through the PBA Minority Bar Committee’s Community Outreach Subcommittee he regularly participates in panel discussions on various legal topics of significance to Philadelphia residents. Besides all this, Nego volunteers with the Montgomery Child Advocacy Project, providing legal representation to local children who are victims of abuse and neglect, and with the Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent Program, for which he has handled real estate and probate cases.

Mr. Strauss is a partner with the Lehigh Valley law firm Gross McGinley, LLP, with offices in Easton, Allentown, and Stroudsburg, where he focuses his practice on Estate Planning, Estate Administration, and Orphans’ Court litigation. He received his B.A. from Syracuse University in 1987 and his J.D. from the Western New England School of Law in 1989. Mr. Strauss is a member of the Lehigh and Carbon County Bar Associations as well as the Pennsylvania Bar Association (member: PBA Elder Law Section and Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section: Vice President Probate Trust Division 2012-2014, Section Chair 2014-2015) and Lehigh Valley Estate Planning Council. Eric is an elected fellow of The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC). He has authored numerous articles and frequently lectures to community and professional groups, including the National Business Institute and Pennsylvania Bar Institute, on the topics of estate planning, estate administration, trust administration, fiduciary income tax, Pennsylvania Inheritance Tax, Federal Estate Tax, and related areas. He also devotes time to community organizations including the Allentown YMCA-YWCA, Board of Directors (President 1997-1998), Trustee (1999-present); Lehigh County Senior Center, Board of Directors(2003-2009) and Trout Unlimited.