This set includes 12 programs on 24 CD. All material in this set were recorded at the 2012 Annual Meeting held March 6-11, 2012 in Miami Beach, FL
Seminar A – Oil and Gas Law 101 for ACTEC Dummies
This program will be presented by a panel of three Fellows who practice in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas (three of the major on-shore producing states). Panelists will address the basic issues related to ownership, development, transfer (intervivos and via probate), and valuation of oil and gas interests. Fellows who have had little exposure to this industry will gain the tools to determine how best to address issues related to oil and gas interests that arise in their estate planning and probate practices.
Moderator:
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Seminar B – Dancing with the Tax Man: Defending Transfer Tax Returns with Closely Held Entities
This session will provide practical tips with some discussion on recent developments in audits and case law related to closely held entities, including family limited partnerships and LLCs. Topics to be addressed will include:
Seminar C – Difficult Clients, Difficult Situations: Practical Ways to Manage Professional Conversations
Learning how to manage difficult circumstances or conversations is a vital skill for the attorney who is also considered a counselor. It could be a client who is normally reasonable but facing a stressful situation, either financial or familial; or a client who is just plain hard to work with. It may be opposing counsel in a negotiation that is heading south, or a person in our firm with whom we must work every day. Panelists who include a practicing psychologist/attorney will discuss common difficult situations, personalities and problems faced by trust and estate practitioners and review the wrong way and a better way to manage conflict resolution. Attendees will gain concrete guidance on how to resolve a number of professional difficulties in a successful manner.
Seminar D – Where No Ethics Have Gone Before: Staying on the Right Course in an Expanding Universe of Technology (CLE Ethics)
These days practitioners are constantly bombarded (photon torpedoed?) by new technologies and new requirements that affect our delivery of services and our communications with clients, colleagues, and the public. (Do your tweets include a Circular 230 disclosure?) This program will attempt to provide some guidance for navigating through the increasingly complex ethical minefields created by these developments.
Seminar E – Pixar for Estate Planners: Animating your Practice through Social Media and Forever Friending Your Client’s Digital Assets—the Do’s, Don’ts and How to’s of New Communication Channels
Our clients (and many colleagues) are up to their necks in social media and if we don’t learn what they’re doing, we could be knee-deep in trouble. The panel will tackle two distinct yet related topics: the issues involved in planning for, as well as the administration of, your client’s “digital assets”. Fellows will also hear the nightmares, successes, and how to’s of using social media in your law practice.
Seminar F – Estate Planning Issues with Intra-Family Loans and Notes
Transactions with intra-family loans are quite popular in light of the current extremely low interest rates and this session will address a variety of related issues including: estate planning opportunities with lowinterest intra-family loan transactions, income tax issues associated with notes (the section 7872/1274 rules) and when income must be recognized on notes, income tax issues associated with gifts of notes such as discharge of indebtedness income and the possibility of avoiding any gain recognition even as to the interest under a position in long proposed regulations and home mortgages for the client’s children. Additional topics will include transfer tax issues associated with intra-family notes including valuation of notes and gift tax consequences of gifts (or forgiveness) of notes, refinancing existing loans at lower interest rates, gift and income tax consequences of guaranties, planning opportunities with Graegin notes and intra-family loans in the postmortem context, and significant income tax traps for installment notes under the installment sales rules.
Seminar G – Same as It Ever Was: Integrating Family Law, Property Law and Non-Marital Status Issues in Estate Planning for Committed Couples
This program will review estate planning for couples who either are not married or whose marriages are not recognized for Federal purposes, including: selected drafting and administration issues raised upon death or divorce in connection with planning for the disposition of assets; satisfaction of debts; use of personal care directives and powers of attorney; comparison of rights (and liabilities) that can be achieved (or incurred) by partners, with or without marriage or domestic partner status; intentional or unintentional status determination; highlights concerning non-probate and probate disposition of property at death; and similarities between family and probate law disciplines in dispute resolution.
Seminar H – The Morning After: GST Tax Headaches and Some Palliatives Post-2010
The panel will discuss planning and drafting in light of the 2010 Tax Act and the continuing uncertainty of future transfer tax law, including the use of the $5 million GST exemption, planning for non-exempt trusts, modifying grandfathered and 0 inclusion ratio trusts, and the possible sunset of the 2001 and 2010 Tax Acts.
Symposium I – Protecting Asset Protection: What Works, What Doesn’t and Why
Watch a bankruptcy judge, a bankruptcy trustee and forensic accountant, a bankruptcy attorney and an estate planning attorney hold a lively discussion regarding the interplay of fraudulent transfer law and asset protection. Learn what steps are required to ensure your estate planning is not undone by third parties, what courts are doing (even years later!) and what is happening outside the courtroom.
Symposium II – Be Careful What You Wish For: The Pluses and Pitfalls Facing the Expert Witness
Serving as an expert witness in trusts and estates litigation may seem like a welcome opportunity but Fellows may not be aware of many important considerations. Panelists will discuss what types of matters to accept, how to get paid, what to include in the engagement letter, and practical considerations once you are engaged. Fellows will be surveyed with regard to serving as an expert witness.
Hot Topics
The “Hot Topics” panel will review the most recent legislative, judicial, and regulatory developments in the fields of estate, gift, and generation-skipping taxation, fiduciary income taxation, estate planning, and estate and trust administration. Areas to be discussed include the current status of legislation possibly affecting the estate, gift, generation-skipping, and fiduciary income taxes, the marital deduction, gifts, valuation, family limited partnerships and limited liability companies, insurance, charitable giving, state death taxation, and asset protection.
Annual Joseph Trachtman Lecture
