Trusts & Estates is a peer-review journal and, as such, its advisory board plays a vital role. Board members act as editors, evaluating unsolicited manuscripts and assigning articles. They — along with the many experts contributing pieces — are what make this 100-year-old publication vital to today's estate-planning community. To keep the board fresh, we're constantly bringing on new talent. In that spirit, T&E is pleased to announce the following additions to the board for 2006:

• Charles Ratner will serve as vice chair of the overall Advisory Board in 2006, while continuing as chair of the Insurance Committee. Ratner is the national director of Personal Insurance Counseling for Ernst & Young. He is based in Cleveland. Since joining the firm in 1989, his practice has been devoted to providing life insurance consulting services to corporations, financial institutions and individuals as well as estate and business succession planning services to closely held companies. Before joining Ernst & Young, Ratner served as director of the advanced estate and business planning group of a major life insurance company.

  Ratner is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts and Emory University School of Law. He is an attorney, a Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) and a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU). He is a member of the Society of Financial Service Professionals and the American Bar Association, and has served as the vice chair of the Committee for Insurance of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of the American Bar Association.

• Gail E. Cohen will chair the Fiduciary Services Committee in 2006. Cohen is the executive vice president and general trust counsel of Fiduciary Trust Company International. She has 27 years in trusts and estates. Before joining Fiduciary in 1994, she was with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. Cohen is a member of the Committee on Estate and Gift Tax of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. She serves on the Executive Committee of Trust & Investment Division of the New York Bankers Association and acts as liaison to its Tax Committee. She also serves as a member of the New York City Ballet's Advisory Board and Professional Advisors Committee, The Rockefeller University Committee on Trust and Estate Gift Plans, and the Trusts and Estates Steering Committee of the UJA-Federation of New York. Cohen received a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College and a J.D., summa cum laude, from Brooklyn Law School.