SCEP
SELECTED CRITICAL ISSUES FOR THE ESTATE PLANNER

The purpose of this course is to explore the current thinking of practitioners, commentators, and the Internal Revenue Service regarding estate-planning strategies and techniques. The course reviews current cases, rulings, regulations, and articles with a view toward practical applications.

Major topics include:

• Understanding the generation-skipping transfer tax -- what it is, how to calculate it, and planning opportunities to avoid or minimize the tax; use of trusts; reverse QTIPs; leveraging life insurance
• Discounting business and investment assets -- current issues with FLPs; what gets taxpayers into trouble; what is necessary to get the maximum discount; income tax issues
• Making maximum use of disclaimers to minimize transfer taxes; special problems of jointly-held property
• Asset protection: what opportunities exist to protect assets from creditors; uses of trusts, LPs, and LLC, and foreign jurisdictions
• Closely-held business interests: structuring estate plans to take advantage of deferral of estate tax; financing settlement costs; taking money out of a corporation tax-free through redemption of stock

Level of knowledge: Advanced