Fundamentals of Estate Planning
Why Attend?
Get a comprehensive review that leaves you with the confidence and foundation you can’t get from other “short” CLE programs. Small discussion groups led by an experienced practitioner apply the concepts covered in the faculty’s lectures to a “real life” case study. This intensive learning experience helps to prepare you to propose tax and non-tax solutions to a client in a bona fide estate planning conference.
What You Will Learn
It’s a whole new world. The law of federal estate and gift taxation has been revolutionized by a quarter century of legislative acts, and additional changes loom on the horizon. In 2009, the Federal estate tax exemption is $3.5 million per person but in future years, the estate tax exemption may be much lower. This means practitioners cannot ignore estate tax planning, since no one knows in what year a client will die. Even without a Federal estate tax burden, there may still be an estate tax imposed on the client’s estate, albeit on the state level. This can be very complicated in this era of clients who are constantly moving and/or have assets located in different states.
In any case, the gift tax still exists even for those clients who have no Federal or State estate tax burden, which can impact those clients who want to transfer assets to family members due to business succession or financial needs.
Even clients with no federal or estate tax concerns face many issues and concerns such as probate avoidance, privacy concerns, provisions for illness, providing for a surviving spouse, providing for a partner, protecting their children from the impact of too much money, protecting the family from creditors (including ex-spouses), and accomplishing charitable goals while addressing family needs. Practitioners need to be able to address these concerns in a comprehensive manner that ensures that the client leaves the practitioner’s office confident that the client’s goals, issues, and concerns will be addressed.
This course is designed to illustrate what issues are involved with the concerns expressed by a client, both tax-related and non-tax-related, and how such concerns and issues can be resolved.
Planning Chair
Mary Ann Mancini, Bryan Cave LLP, Washington, D.C.
Faculty
Farhad Aghdami, Williams Mullen, Richmond, Virginia
Gayle Evans, Doster Guin James Ullom Benson & Mundorf, LLC, Kansas City, Missouri
Dianne Hubbard Kennedy, Indianapolis
David Pratt, Proskauer Rose LLP, Boca Raton, Florida
Stanley L. Ruby, Schwartz Manes Ruby & Slovin, L.P.A., Cincinnati
ALI-ABA Staff Attorney: Kevin J. O'Connor, Senior Assistant Director, Office of Courses of Study
Program Schedule
THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2009
7:00 a.m. Registration
WEBCAST SEGMENT A
8:00 a.m. Introduction to Program and Case Study - Ms. Mancini
8:30 a.m. Fundamentals of Estate and Gift Tax - Mr. Ruby
9:30 a.m. Networking Break
9:45 a.m. Property Interests, Joint Property, and Powers of Appointment - Mr. Pratt
11:15 a.m. Questions and Answers
11:30 a.m. Lunch Break
WEBCAST SEGMENT B
1:00 p.m. Sections 2036-2038 - Ms. Mancini
1:30 p.m. Valuation - Ms. Evans
2:00 p.m. Community Property Issues - Ms. Mancini
2:30 p.m. Networking Break
2:45 p.m. Inter Vivos Transfers - Mr. Ruby
4:45 p.m. Questions and Answers
5:00 p.m. Adjournment for the Day; Networking Reception for Registrants and Faculty
FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2009
WEBCAST SEGMENT C
8:00 a.m. Review of Case Study - Ms. Mancini
8:15 a.m. Planning for the Surviving Spouse - Ms. Kennedy
10:00 a.m. Networking Break
10:15 a.m. Planning for a Client's Charitable Intent - Ms. Mancini
11:15 a.m. Questions and Answers
11:30 a.m. Lunch Break
WEBCAST SEGMENT D
1:00 p.m. Planning for Retirement Benefits - Ms. Evans
2:15 p.m. Networking Break
2:30 p.m. Planning Issues that are Not Tax-Driven - Mss. Evans and Mancini
4:15 p.m. Post-Mortem Planning and Disclaimers - Mr. Aghdami
4:45 p.m. Questions and Answers
5:00 p.m. Adjournment for the Day
SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 2009
WEBCAST SEGMENT E
8:00 a.m. Generation Skipping Transfers Planning - Mr. Pratt
8:45 a.m. Insurance Planning - Mr. Aghdami
10:00 a.m. Networking Break
10:15 a.m. Case Study
11:45 a.m. Ethics - Entire faculty
12:45 p.m. Adjournment
Total 60-minute hours of instruction: 18.5, including one hour of ethics and professional responsibility
Suggested Prerequisite: Limited experience in general legal practice or completion of CLE Orientation Course
Educational Objective: Development of initial level of competency as a practitioner
Level of Instruction: Basic
Here's what registrants have said about this course:
Testimonial by Harold Shaffer
Outstanding program and planning.
Testimonial by Jon Joffe
Well prepared and presented, very professional. Time table was kept well. The case study was excellent.
The course was great for someone like me who is just starting out.
Overall, fantastic program, I was glad it actually was a basic program as advertised.
The case study seminar was a great wrap up of the program.
I enjoyed the course; the speakers were informative and interested in teaching. The materials are extensive and will be helpful in the future.
Excellent program. The depth of knowledge by faculty was evident. Organization of the program and its execution provided seamless interaction between the faculty and attendees. Program was administered with an eye to detail --- again, a great experience.
This is the best CLE I’ve ever attended. The speakers were knowledgeable and communicated their topics very well. The depth of course content was perfect for a ‘relative neophyte’ in this area of practice. I’ll definitely attend other ALI-ABA courses in the future.
The estate planning problem session was a priceless wrap up.
The materials were organized extremely well and very practitioner-oriented. ALI-ABA continues to produce excellent materials.
The sample documents provided by the speakers were very helpful to illustrate their topics and some of their unique or different approaches to familiar concepts.
This course was exactly what I expected and what I needed. I greatly appreciated all of the work the presenters put into the materials. The materials really made this course useful to me in the long term. I would not remember most of the information otherwise. It also gives me the ability to delve more deeply. The included bibliographies are great as well.
