A pre-recorded streaming video replay from the February 2018 webcast, Estate Planning After the Reconciliation Act of 2017.
Course Benefits
Competence in this area requires you to be up to date on estate and gift tax laws and planning techniques. This program will address:
- Estate-freezing techniques utilizing lifetime gifting: What are spousal lifetime asset trusts? What are qualified personal residence trusts? Should we still be using grantor-retained annuity trusts?
- Formula clauses: Are formula clauses funding credit-shelter trusts to non-spouses too much now? Learn how to draft appropriate clauses.
- Do we need the existing credit-shelter trust? Do we want to terminate to receive a step-up in basis? How do we terminate existing trusts?
- Post-mortem tax planning for income taxes v. estate taxes; funding of trusts after death: Do we fund the credit-shelter trust, or should we fund the marital trust and make a QTIP election? What if we have documents that do not have appropriate language?
- Drafting estate planning documents in the future: What kind of flexibility do we need with the uncertainty of the transfer tax laws?
Under the Act, the basic exclusion amount has been increased from $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 (indexed for inflation after 2011) for estates, gifts, and generation-skipping transfer tax made after 2017 and before 2026. With the increase and sunset provisions, estate planning attorneys will need to utilize various planning techniques to minimize the transfer taxes for their clients. Estate planning attorneys also will need to review existing documents, especially with formula clauses, to determine if they are still in accordance with clients’ desires. Estate administration attorneys will need to advise on post-mortem tax planning decisions for documents that may not be up to date.
This seminar will highlight estate and gift tax law changes that estate planning attorneys need to be aware of to minimize transfer taxes for their clients.