39th Annual Trusts and Estates 2020 Online Seminar)

This session covers all of the past year's legislation, cases, regulations, revenue rulings and procedures, and selected private letter rulings and proposed legislation regarding the income, estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax laws of importance to estate planning.

This session will provide an overview of the issues commonly encountered by trusts and estates practitioners who plan for international families. Many of our clients are foreign-born, green-card holders, or have spouses or other family members who are non-citizens, and many of our clients have family or financial interests abroad. This presentation will assist practitioners in identifying and addressing issues in international estate planning. Topics covered will include an overview of both international transfer tax planning and international income tax planning, foreign trusts, expatriation rules, and reporting requirements. It will also highlight planning strategies available to clients with international ties.

This presentation will discuss the increasingly common situation of planning for beneficiaries suffering from addiction and substance abuse and provide practical suggestions about drafting appropriate documents and administering estates and trusts with at-risk beneficiaries.

This session will walk through the ethical issues that practitioners face when representing multiple members and generations of the same family in estate planning or administration matters.  From siblings named as co-fiduciaries or as fiduciaries for other siblings, to family members who share trust or business interests, this presentation will analyze and discuss issues of communication, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, joint representation, and engagement agreements.