The Conner-Zaritsky 45th Annual Advanced Estate Planning and Administration Seminar 2024

A pre-recorded VIDEO replay from the April 2024 live seminar, Conner-Zaritsky 45^th Annual Advanced Estate Planning and Administration.

Cosponsored with the Wills, Trusts and Estates Section of The Virginia Bar Association, this program of national reach and sophisticated content, features prominent experts from Virginia and across the country.

Topics covered:

• The Year in Review: Recent Federal Wealth Transfer Tax Developments
• Virginia Developments in Estate Planning and Administration
• Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts
• Settlor Intent – Roles and Mechanisms for Enforcing It
• AI and Its Impact on Estate Planning
• Secrets of Success Families
• Diminished Capacity
• Best Practice Tips with Special Needs Beneficiaries
• Hot Topics in Estate Planning
• The Popular Q&A Panel
• Plus 6.0 hours of GAL for Incapacitated Persons and 4.0 hours of Ethics!

The Year in Review: Recent Federal Wealth Transfer Tax Developments
William I. Sanderson

For at least the last two decades, the federal wealth transfer tax has been in a state of continued—sometimes gradual, sometimes fast-paced—evolution. This session will review the landscape of federal legislation dealing with the estate and gift tax, and it will address trends in recent cases, regulatory guidance, and administrative updates that have an impact on estate planning and estate administration.

Virginia Developments in Estate Planning and Administration
Alvi Aggarwal

This session will review significant state law developments.

Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts—Opportunities and Obstacles
Charles A. “Clary” Redd

Spousal lifetime access trusts (“SLATs”) have been widely promoted in recent years as the best “have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too” estate planning strategy out there. In this session, we will explore what is the purpose of a SLAT, the tax consequences that flow from creating and administering a SLAT, who is a good candidate for a SLAT, how to design a SLAT, whom to name as trustee of a SLAT, and how best to avoid the problems a SLAT can sometimes create.

The Ethics of Fixing Bad Moves
Stephanie Loomis-Price

Practicing law, particularly tax law, can feel like dancing on the head of a pin at times. We are all human, and errors will occur. This presentation will explore ethics and other considerations in managing mistakes and will present practical solutions for dancing your way out of danger.

Settlor Intent in Today’s Trust Administration: Understanding Its Role and Mechanisms for Enforcing It
Meghan Gehr Hubbard

During this presentation we will discuss the role of settlor intent in modern trust administration and recent cases on the topic.

Ethics—Recent Developments and News from the ACTEC Front
Lee Osborne

We will discuss the recent update to the ACTEC Commentaries on the Model Rules of Professional Responsibility, the current work on the ACTEC Guide to Engagement Letters, and other recent topics of interest in the ethical arena.

Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact on Today’s Estate Planner
Prof. Gerry Beyer

This session will discuss how the Model Rules of Professional Responsibility impact the use of AI (competency, confidentiality, informing clients, supervising staff, billing, and advertising).

Secrets of Successful Families: Creating a Lasting Legacy
Justin Miller

How can you help families avoid the “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” phenomenon? Not only do advisors need to prepare the money for the family, but they also should help prepare the family for the money. This seminar will present the common characteristics of families who have successfully transferred their values—in addition to their wealth—to future generations, and will provide examples of practical, contemporary tax and estate planning techniques that have helped such families build lasting legacies.

Representing Clients with Diminishing Capacity and Nefarious Children
Nathan Olansen

In our discussion, we will explore the ethical issues confronted by the estate plan drafting attorney, whose now elderly client previously appointed his two sons as his financial agents. Now that the client is suffering from diminished capacity, and his sons are at odds with each other, what ethical challenges will the drafting attorney face while: (a) protecting his client; (b) complying with the competing demands of the agents; and (c) dealing with one of the agent’s particularly cantankerous attorneys (and whose paralegal is the agent’s spouse!)?

Top 30 Best Practice Tips When Advising Families with Special Needs Beneficiaries
Kristen Lewis

This presentation will review the “network” of Special Needs Trusts that serves as the foundation for securing the future of persons challenged by disabilities; the team of “allied professionals” that helps design and implement a comprehensive Special Needs Estate Plan; the types of government benefits and programs that can be accessed and preserved with proper Special Needs Trust Planning; the most common challenges (and solutions) encountered in Special Needs Estate Planning; and the newest tool in the planner’s arsenal (but not a substitute for the network of Special Needs Trusts): the “ABLE” account.

Hot Topics
Farhad Aghdami, Howard Zaritsky

This session will cover significant developments or topics of interest that may have arisen after the program and speakers are set for the coming year.

Q&A Panel
Farhad Aghdami, William I. Sanderson, Howard Zaritsky

In this session, several of our speakers respond to questions presented by attendees.