ESTATE PLANNING COUNCIL OF SEATTLE

This presentation will be a potpourri of practical estate planning tips, and ideas for practitioners in all disciplines, that will include discussion of some recent developments and how they might be addressed in practice. The presentation will be tailored for any developments occurring up to the day before the program. Some topics might include:

• Estate planning in the current post-election environment.
• 4 ways clients can make gifts before 2026 to use exemption but unravel those gifts if they change their mind or if the bonus exemption is extended.
• SLATs: practical and often overlooked planning, funding and structuring and administration of SLATs to enhance the access clients have and increasing the likelihood of the IRS and creditors respecting the plan including an approach that might obviate a reciprocal trust, step transaction and other tax or creditor challenges.
• Mass affluent clients ($2-$10M) can benefit from SLATs too! How to apply what is often viewed as only an estate tax reduction technique to lower wealth clients.
• Revocable Trusts – how to tailor them to be more robust later life protective tools to deflect elder abuse, identity theft and more for your aging clients.
• The Powell/Moore cases what they mean to estate planning and various approaches to deflect a challenge.
• Trust decanting – tax and other practical considerations.
• How practitioners can practice more defensively given the growing malpractice risks in the estate planning area including recommendations based on an analysis of recent cases. Tips on language to include in engagement letters and billing.

Martin M. Shenkman, CPA, MBA, JD, AEP® (distinguished) is author of more than 40 books and almost 1,500 articles is active in many charitable endeavors and lectures frequently around the country.