Estate Planning for the Family Business Owner
Why Attend?
Are you planning for the succession of the family business by using the latest techniques to preserve the value of the business and reduce estate taxes?
Specially featured in this course are optional breakfast workshops on Thursday and Friday. These well-received sessions allow registrants to discuss topics of concern with the faculty in informal small group settings.
What You Will Learn
This annual advanced course of study, comprising more than 18 hours of instruction, provides a comprehensive overview of estate planning techniques for the family business owner. The course covers the life cycle of the closely held business, from choice of entity to estate administration, including the dynamics of dealing with the family, valuations, getting the business ready to sell, with concentration on tax and estate planning issues, but keeping in mind that there are significant non-tax questions that also require attention.
Who Should Attend
The course is intended for lawyers, accountants, and others who advise privately owned business owners, as well as for the owners and financial officers of such businesses themselves.
Planning Chairs
Steve R. Akers, Managing Director, Bessemer Trust Company, Dallas, Texas
Mark B. Edwards, Poyner & Spruill, LLP, Charlotte, North Carolina
Myron E. Sildon, Sildon Law Group, P.C., Kansas City, Missouri
Faculty
Michael V. Bourland, Bourland, Wall & Wenzel, P.C., Fort Worth, Texas
Samuel A. Donaldson, Associate Professor of Law and Director, Graduate Program in Taxation, University of Washington School of Law, Seattle, Washington
Julie K. Kwon, Philanthropic Advisor, Stanford University, Stanford, California
Eric A. Manterfield, Krieg DeVault LLP, Carmel, Indiana
Constance L. Ochs, Triad Advisory Group LLC, St. Louis, Missouri
Charles L. Ratner, Ernst & Young LLP, Cleveland, Ohio
Elizabeth M. Schurig, Schurig Jetel Beckett Tackett, Austin, Texas
ALI-ABA Staff: Kevin J. O'Connor, Senior Assistant Director, Office of Courses of Study
Program Schedule
WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2009
7:30 a.m. Registration and Networking Session
WEBCAST SEGMENT A: Beginning the Business
8:30 a.m. Introductory Remarks and Course Overview - Mr. Edwards
8:40 a.m. Now You See It; Now You Don't - Estate Planning and Client Capacity Issues for Business Owners - Mr. Edwards
An essential element of all estate planning is the mental capacity of the client to conduct the actions anticipated. But how can we make the determination that such capacity exists, and what is our course of action if we are concerned about its presence? Finally, what techniques are available to guard against future diminished capacity, especially in the context of the family-owned business? These questions, and the ethical rules implicit in the answers, will be the subject of this presentation.
9:40 a.m. Income and Transfer Tax Aspects of the Entity Form - Professor Donaldson
Traps and planning opportunities for businesses in proprietorship, partnership, LLC, C Corporation or S Corporation form
10:45 a.m. Networking Break
11:00 a.m. Income and Transfer Tax Aspects of the Entity Form (continued)
12:00 p.m. Lunch Break
WEBCAST SEGMENT B: The Business Is Growing
1:30 p.m. Buy-Sell Agreements - Mr. Manterfield
Planning considerations for creation and implementation of buy-sell agreements, including redemption vs. cross purchase agreements, triggering events, setting the purchase price, tax considerations, and ethical issues for the family business attorney.
2:30 p.m. Practical and Creative Uses of Life Insurance for the Closely Held Business Owner; Coordination of the Overall Succession Plan - Mr. Ratner
The real purposes for the family owner to secure insurance and how best to structure the insurance purchase and ownership to achieve those goals; creative uses of life insurance in the family-owned business, and using insurance to fund buy-sell agreements, pay estate taxes, and provide liquidity to non-family employees; practical overview of the succession process from the business owner family's viewpoint.
3:45 p.m. Networking Break
4:00 p.m. Dealing with Issues in the Family Business Concerning Divorce and Non-"Traditional" Family Relationships - Mr. Sildon
Divorce can cause particular havoc in the family business, and tax planning techniques to address divorce issues in the family business are examined. Ethical issues also are reviewed.
5:00 p.m. Questions and Answers
5:15 p.m. Adjournment for the Day
THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2009
7:30 a.m. Optional Workshops and Networking Session:
Income and Transfer Tax Aspects of the Entity Form - Professor Donaldson*
Life Insurance Planning and Succession Planning Process - Mr. Ratner*
WEBCAST SEGMENT C: The Business Matures
8:30 a.m. Valuation Issues for the Family Business - Ms. Ochs
This presentation looks at the unique characteristics of a family business and their impact on company worth; the importance of valuation as part of the problem-solving process; techniques for determining a reasonable value of the family business; recent case law development regarding valuation adjustments (such as discounts for lack of marketability and control premiums); factors and provisions in documents that affect valuations, including formula price provisions in buy-sell agreements; suggested best practices for family business owners to enhance value; and how attorneys can best work with valuation firms.
9:30 a.m. Charitable Contribution Planning Opportunities - Mr. Bourland
Sophisticated charitable planning alternatives to address family asset, including family business, estate and succession planning; one or more case studies will be used to demonstrate the integration of charitable planning techniques, with traditional estate and family business succession planning tools.
10:30 a.m. Networking Break
10:45 a.m. Asset Protection Planning for the Family Business Owner - Ms. Schurig
In today's litigious society, the client's professional advisors must consider and address the potential risks from litigation to a client's personal assets and family wealth. This presentation explores the benefits, goals, and issues involved in establishing a domestic or offshore asset protection strategy for the wealthy client, family business owner, or executive with significant business holdings or investments at risk. The presentation also includes a discussion of the asset protection issues in drafting trusts, FLPs and FLLCs and the effect that the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform Act will have on asset protection and estate planning strategies.
11:45 a.m. Lunch Break
WEBCAST SEGMENT D: The Estate and Transfer Planning Process Continues
1:15 p.m. Current Developments and Hot Topics Update - Mr. Akers
Various current developments, including the legislative developments, family limited partnership structuring, recent important case law developments, and hot topics with the IRS.
2:15 p.m. Advanced Transfer Planning Issues - Ms. Kwon
Sophisticated and creative transfer planning strategies (including strategies for maximizing the amount transferred with GRATs, sales, and planning with grantor trusts); defined value clauses; particular problematic issues in dealing with transfers of business interests.
3:30 p.m. Networking Break
3:45 p.m. Pooh and the Honey Pot-Making the Money Last a Very Long Time - Mr. Edwards
We do live in interesting times! Forces of demographics, potential tax changes, a reeling economy and investment climate are challenging the dream of many people to retire andor live out their lives with financial independence. And this is especially true for the family business owner whose life work is the business, an asset difficult to monetize. We will look at these forces; we will look at the ways to make retirement funds "last a very long time," and examine the underlying theories, which will challenge some widely held conceptions.
4:45 p.m. Questions and Answers
5:00 p.m. Adjournment for the Day
FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2009
7:30 a.m. Optional Workshops and Networking Session:
Asset Protection Planning - Ms. Schurig*
Transfer Planning - Ms. Kwon*
Ethics Issues in Dealing with the Family Business Owner Client - Mr. Bourland*
WEBCAST SEGMENT E: Passing the Business to Successor Ownership
8:30 a.m. Getting the Business Ready To Sell - Mr. Sildon
Why would the family business owner consider selling or merging the business, or an IPO? The presentation discusses how to prepare the company for disposition, including identifying and contacting buyers, confidentiality agreements, and retaining key employees during the negotiations, and the form of the sale agreement.
9:30 a.m. Planning and Drafting Estate Planning Documents for Family Business Owners - Mr. Manterfield
Special estate and business planning considerations for the family business owner, including drafting to maximize the benefit of the applicable credit amount, the selection of marital deduction formulae, special trust provisions for owners of S corporations, tax charging clauses, and the selection of trustees.
10:15 a.m. Networking Break
10:30 a.m. Up-to-Date Tax Planning Considerations in Administering the Estate of the Family Business Owner - Mr. Akers
Various tax planning issues in administering the estate of the family business owner, including income, gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer taxes; alternative methods of paying estate taxes; summary of a wide variety of tax savings strategies for the family business owner's estate.
11:45 a.m. Questions and Answers
12:00 p.m. Adjournment
* These sessions will not be recorded or webcast.
Total 60-minute hours of instruction: 18.5. Note: The discussions include at least one full hour on ethics and professional responsibility issues, accepted as such by most, but not all, MCLE jurisdictions. A second, dedicated hour on ethics and professional responsibility issues is available as an optional workshop.
Suggested Prerequisite: Limited experience in legal or business practice in subject matter or completion of Basic CLE Course in subject matter
Educational Objective: Acquisition of knowledge and skills to develop proficiency as a practitioner; maintenance of professional competence as a practitioner; provision of information on recent legal developments
Level of Instruction: Advanced
Here's what registrants have said about this course:
This is one of the most stimulating and informative ALI-ABA programs I’ve ever attended. All of the speakers were both highly knowledgeable and excellent communicators. Bravo! -- Lee F. Mercier
This is a great course, and I will encourage my colleagues to attend future sessions. The scope of topics and quality of speakers fits very well with planners who work frequently with family business owners.
The speakers were excellent, addressed the subject matter in time allowed at the right level of sophistication.
Written materials were excellent. Appreciate the initial fact pattern set-up and each presenter’s reference to the fact pattern, very helpful.
Times
Mountain Daylight Time
