Prominent real estate lawyer Oliver E. Frascona died Sunday in a plane crash that also killed real estate educator Tori Rains-Wedan and her three children.
Oliver Frascona
Frascona, 67, was a senior shareholder at Boulder, Colorado-based law firm Frascona, Joiner, Goodman and Greenstein P.C. The firm represents some 25 Realtor boards in Colorado and services the Colorado Association of Realtors’ legal hotline for members.
“We grieve with the real estate community in the sudden and tragic passing of our friend and colleague, Oliver Frascona. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones,” the firm said in a statement on its website.
“Oliver was a brilliant legal strategist, and a highly sought-after speaker on real estate and agency law. To his many friends and clients, he was fiercely dedicated and loyal. To the many thousands in Colorado and throughout our nation who came to seminars to hear him speak, he was unforgettable.”
Frascona was attempting to land his single-engine Piper PA-46 just before noon at an airport in Erie, Colorado, but crashed in a field short of the runway, the Boulder Daily Camera reported. The six-passenger plane is registered to Frascona’s The Real Estate School LLC, the newspaper said.
Fellow pilots told the Daily Camera that Frascona just bought the plane this spring, but that he learned to fly in the Navy and was an experienced pilot.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accident. An NTSB investigator told ABC News 7 that the plane’s landing gear was still stowed at the time of the crash.
Tori Rains-Wedan
Frascona’s girlfriend, 41-year-old Tori Rains-Wedan, and her three children, 15-year-old Mason Wedan and 11-year-old twin brothers, Austin and Hunter, also died.
Rains-Wedan, a former real estate broker and trainer, founded Educated Minds LLC, a continuing education school for real estate professionals, in 2010. Educated Minds was an “authorized agent” for The Real Estate School LLC, according to course descriptions posted on the Internet.
Frascona was a columnist for Realtor Magazine between 2001 and 2008 where he wrote about brokerage law, agency, and fair housing concerns, according to the magazine. He also authored seven versions of his reference book for real estate pros, “The Paper Trail,” updated to “The Digital Paper Trail” in recent editions.
Re/Max co-founder Dave Liniger had known Frascona since the ’70s, when he became Re/Max’s first outside lawyer, Liniger told Inside Real Estate News. Liniger described Frascona as a “very high-energy and enthusiastic” person who “laughed a lot” and was a “powerful speaker.”
“He had an unbelievable knowledge and understanding of the industry. He was a great friends of Realtors, boards of Realtors and multiple listing services. He promoted doing business correctly. And he literally educated thousands of us,” Liniger said.