Advanced Trusts & Estates 2024 (presented by NYU School of Professional Studies)

Brad J. Richter, Esq. | Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP

Brad J. Richter is the chair of Fried Frank’s Trusts and Estates Department, resident in the New York office. He joined the firm as a partner in 2005.

Brad’s practice focuses on all aspects of trusts and estates representation, including sophisticated tax and estate planning, the administration of large estates and trusts, succession and business planning, and the formation and operation of charitable foundations.

He represents high-net-worth individuals; principals and sponsors of private equity funds; executives, entrepreneurs, and financial services personnel; family and real estate business owners; and fiduciaries of estates, trusts and charitable organizations.

Brad counsels individuals seeking to engage in all forms of wealth transfer planning. He assists clients in structuring new business entities; transferring fund, private equity or closely-held family business interests; and establishing multi-generational trusts. He also helps clients implement general or specific charitable desires, analyze retirement plan issues, and fulfill fiduciary responsibilities with respect to unusual aspects of both foreign and domestic estates and trusts. He represents clients engaging in litigation with, or under audit by, the IRS, and clients engaging in litigation with third parties before the Surrogate’s Court on contested tax and probate matters.

Brad is recognized by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business as a leading individual in Wealth Management: Eastern Region (Nationwide).

Eric M. Fischer, Esq. | Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

N. Todd Angkatavanich, Esq. | McDermott Will & Emery

Todd Angkatavanich focuses his practice on advanced wealth and succession transition planning. He regularly creates and implements wealth planning and investment structures to provide for the orderly and tax efficient transition of family assets from one generation to the next while providing for the effective stewardship of family assets for future generations. He also educates future generations on the non-tax concepts of engagement and flexible stewardship for families to achieve effective, long-term wealth preservation coupled with beneficial enjoyment.

Todd represents both national and international families and family offices in structuring multigenerational wealth transfer, preservation and business succession vehicles, with an emphasis on navigating the transfer tax pitfalls that often arise under Chapter 14 of the Internal Revenue Code. Todd’s practice often involves structuring vehicles such as Sales to Grantor Trusts, Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs), Family Limited Partnerships, Preferred “Freeze” Partnerships as well as “Vertical” and “Non-Vertical” approaches to planning with carried interests in private investment vehicles.

Todd has published articles in publications such as Trusts & Estates, the American College of Trust & Estate Counsel (ACTEC) Law Journal, Estate Planning, Bloomberg/Tax Management, the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners (STEP) Journal and other publications. Todd is co author of Bloomberg/Tax Management Portfolio No. 875, entitled “Wealth Planning with Hedge Fund & Private Equity Fund Interests.” A frequent speaker, Todd has given presentations for a number of organizations including the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, ACTEC, the Notre Dame Tax & Estate Planning Institute, the University of Southern California Tax Conference, the Seattle Estate Planning Conference, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) as well as numerous other estate planning conferences and family office groups.

Eduardo S. Chung, Esq. | Forvis Mazars

Practice Leader for the Tax Practice and Procedures Group, Ed has over a decade of experience representing individuals, estates, C corporations, Subchapter S corporations and other flow through entities. He has served on a number of engagements advising on laws applicable to and the policies and procedures followed by the IRS and the various state and local tax jurisdictions in the examination of tax returns, administrative appeals of examination determinations, tax court litigation, and the collection of outstanding tax liabilities.

Prior to joining Mazars in the US, he served in nationally recognized law firms, where he participated both in the litigation of a variety tax controversies and advised clients in the tax aspects of business transactions.

Ed received his JD from Boston University School of Law and received his executive LLM in Taxation from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Timothy Evans, Esq. | Forvis Mazars

Norman Lencz, Esq. | Venable LLP

Norm Lencz is a tax attorney who focuses his practice on matters relating to international, federal, state, and local tax. Norm advises clients on issues associated with corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies, joint ventures, real estate investment trusts (REITs), and regulated investment companies (RICs); tax-free and taxable mergers, acquisitions, and spin-offs; compensation planning; installment sales and like-kind exchanges; and real estate development and investment.

His counsel covers all aspects of tax planning and tax controversy, leveraging his deep knowledge base and broad experience to provide creative solutions to any tax issues his clients confront.

Kevin Matz, Esq. | ArentFox Schiff LLP

As a trusted adviser to clients with significant wealth, Kevin Matz, Partner at ArentFox Schiff focuses on domestic and international estate and tax planning, estate administration, and related litigation.

Kevin counsels clients on wealth transfer planning; drafting wills and trusts; gift, estate, income, and generation-skipping transfer tax planning and tax return preparation; charitable gift planning; probate proceedings and estate administration; and associated litigation as well as corporate counseling. Kevin often serves as outside general counsel to his high net worth clients and their family offices, and melds a unique combination of technical and practical excellence with outstanding skills as both a communicator and empathic listener.

Kevin has advised clients on entity and succession planning, including use of family limited partnerships, use of grantor retained annuity trusts, transfers to irrevocable trusts involving complex valuations, qualified personal residence trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, and the use of charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, and private foundations to further family planning and philanthropic objectives. Kevin is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), for which he currently chairs its Business Planning Committee, and also a certified public accountant.

Kevin is also currently the chair of the New York City Bar Association’s Estate and Gift Taxation Committee, and a former co-chair of the Taxation Committee of the New York State Bar Association’s Trusts and Estates Law Section. A frequent speaker and author, Kevin presents at national industry conferences on the use of leveraged transfer techniques and estate planning for groups ranging from private equity fund managers and real estate investors to professional athletes and creative artists. Highly regarded by peers and clients, Kevin is ranked among industry leaders in the 2020 – 2023 Chambers High Net Worth guides, and was the Honoree at the UJA-Federation of New York Trusts and Estates Annual Event in June 2023 in recognition of his professional and philanthropic achievements and leadership.

In addition, Kevin is a recognized national leader in the area of qualified opportunity zone (QOZ) funds, and in July 2019 testified on ACTEC’s behalf before the U.S. Department of Treasury concerning the proposed regulations on qualified opportunity funds. Kevin has also presented on QOZ funds, and their estate planning considerations, at several national conferences including the renowned Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning and the Notre Dame Tax and Estate Planning Institute.

Joseph P. Scorese, Esq. | Sills Cummis & Gross P.C.

Joseph P. Scorese is a Member of the Sills Cummis & Gross Tax, Trusts and Estates Practice Group. Mr. Scorese’s primary area of practice is complex estate planningand estate and trust administration for high net worth individuals and families. Mr. Scorese counsels clients in the New York and New Jersey area and helps them design and realize both appropriate and realistic estate planning goals. He then implements those goals with customized drafting solutions utilizing the latest cutting-edge strategies including sophisticated wills, revocable trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts (ILITs), charitable remainder trusts (CRATs and CRUTs) and charitable lead trusts (CLATs and CLUTs), family limited partnerships and limited liability companies, qualified personal residence trusts (QPRTs), grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs) and intentionally-defective grantor trusts (IDGTs). In the complicated area of estate and trust administration, Mr. Scorese readily and regularly engages with fiduciaries and beneficiaries to provide creative tax planning ideas which can help minimize the bite of taxation from income and capital gains taxes, estate tax, gift tax and generation-skipping transfer tax, thereby maximizing the amount of wealth passing to family.

Mr. Scorese has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School in Newark, New Jersey, and currently serves as the Program Chair for the New York University Summer Institute in Taxation’s “Introduction to Trusts & Estates” program, where he lectures on the generation-skipping transfer tax. He has also presented various estate planning continuing legal education programs offered through the American Bar Association, New York City Bar Association, New Jersey State Bar Association and other legal and non-legal organizations.

Paulina Mejia, Esq. | Fiduciary Trust Company International

George D. Karibjanian, Esq. | Franklin Karibjanian & Law PLL

George D. Karibjanian is a Founding Member of Franklin Karibjanian & Law, a national boutique law firm based in Washington, D.C., with additional offices in Boca Raton, Florida and Naples, Florida. George is Board Certified by the Florida Bar in Wills, Trusts & Estates and is a Fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and is licensed to practice in Florida, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. George divides his time between the firm’s Boca Raton and Washington offices, spending the majority of his time in Boca Raton.

He earned his B.B.A. in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame in 1984, his J.D. from the Villanova University School of Law in 1987, and his LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Florida in 1988. George has practiced his entire legal career in South Florida (over 33 years), practicing exclusively in the areas of estate planning and probate and trust administration, and also represents numerous clients with respect to nuptial agreements. George has participated in over 200 formal presentations, either individually or as part of a panel discussion, to national, state-wide and local groups, and has over 80 publication credits in national and regional periodicals and journals. Born and raised in Vineland, New Jersey (in the heart of South Jersey), George has called Boca Raton home since 1988.

On the topic of the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act and its potential negative effect on estate planning, George has published many articles and has lectured in cities across the nation such as Las Vegas, Nashville, New York, Phoenix, Portland (Or.), San Diego, San Francisco, and Wilmington (Del.), and presented webinars to groups in South Dakota and Alaska. George has also presented on the topic in October 2016 at the 42nd Annual Notre Dame Tax and Estate Planning Institute in South Bend, Indiana. On the topic of same-sex estate planning, George has lectured at various conferences and estate planning councils throughout the United States and has published numerous articles in publications such as Steve Leimberg’s LISI Estate Planning Newsletters, Trusts & Estates Magazine and the Florida Bar Journal. George has also been quoted by several publications and websites.

George was a presenter at the 48th Annual Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning in Orlando in 2014, speaking on a panel discussion titled, “Living and Working with the Uniform Principal and Income Act,” focusing on the tax effects on the power to adjust trust principal to income, the power to convert an income trust to a unitrust, comparing the various unitrust statues and focusing on potential litigation facing fiduciaries in this area.

George’s other lectures have included topics such as Portability, Decanting, Trustee Selection and Duties, the Principal and Income Act, Current Developments in Estate Planning and Taxation, Representing a Client with Potential Capacity Issues, Whether a Supplemental 706 is Required, Inter-Vivos QTIP Planning, Prenuptial Agreements for the Estate Planner, Florida Homestead and the Advantages and Disadvantages of Domestic Asset Protection Trusts.

Jerome M. Hesch, Esq. | Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone, LLP

Jerome M. Hesch is Counsel to the firm’s Business & Real Estate Taxation, Trusts & Estates, Tax Exempt Organizations and Private Wealth & Taxation Practice Groups. Prior to joining the firm, Jerry served as an income tax and estate planning consultant for lawyers and other tax planning professionals throughout the country. Jerry was a consultant for Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone, LLP, Dorot & Bensimon PL, Jeffrey M. Verdon Law Group and Oshins & Associates LLC.

Jerry is the Director of the Notre Dame Tax and Estate Planning Institute and is on the Tax Management Advisory Board. Jerry is a Fellow of the American College of Trusts and Estates Council and the American College of Tax Council. He is also a member of the NAEPC Estate Planning Hall of Fame. He has published numerous articles, Tax Management Portfolios, and co-authored a law school casebook on federal income taxation, now in its fourth edition. Jerry presented papers for the University of Miami Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning, the University of Southern California Tax Institute, the Southern Federal Tax Conference and the New York University Institute on Federal Taxation, among others. He has participated in several bar association projects, including the Drafting Committee for the Revised Uniform Partnership Act.

He was with the Office of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service (1970-1975) and was a full time law professor at the University of Miami School of Law and the Albany Law School of Union University for twenty years. He continues to teach courses as an adjunct law professor and has taught courses for Vanderbilt University Law School, University of Miami School of Law Graduate Program in Estate Planning, University of Buffalo School of Law, Florida International School of Law, On-Line LL.M. Programs for University of San Francisco Law School and Boston University School of Law. In addition, he was the Director of the Graduate Program in Estate Planning at the University of Miami from 1982-1992.

Alan S. Gassman, Esq.| Gassman, Crotty & Denicolo, P.A.

Author of many books, including Gassman and Markham on Florida and Federal Asset Protection Law, The Estate Planner’s Guide to Bankruptcy, Florida Law for Tax, Business & Financial Planning Advisors, Eight Steps to a Proper Florida Trust and Estate Plan, A Practical Guide to Kickback & Self-Referral Laws for Florida Physicians, The Florida Power of Attorney & Incapacity Planning Guide, The Florida Advisor’s Guide To Counseling Same Sex Couples, and is co-author of the Legal Guide To NFA Firearms and Gun Trusts, among others.

A frequent speaker for continuing education programs and has published well over 200 peer reviewed articles with publications such as Bloomberg BNA Tax & Accounting, Trusts and Estates Magazine, Estate Planning Magazine, The Florida Bar Journal, Forbes, and Leimberg Information Services Inc. (LISI). Lecturer: Co-chairman and presenter, The Florida Bar’s annual Physician Representation seminar Vice chairman and presenter, The Florida Bar’s annual Wealth Conservation seminar BNA national webinars.

DAY 1: THURSDAY, JULY 18

SUMMER (TAX) FUN IN THE SUN WITH 2701 | 8:45am – 10:15am

This program discusses the technical provisions of Section 2701 including historical context and various planning pitfalls. It also includes a discussion of advanced planning applications with Section 2701, including Preferred Partnerships, Carried Interest Transfer Planning and Profits Interests.

Eric M. Fischer, Esq., Counsel, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, New York, NY
Materials: N. Todd Angkatavanich, Esq., Partner, McDermott, Will & Emery, New York, NY

UPDATES ON REPORTING FOR FOREIGN ASSETS AND ACTIVITIES BY U.S. TAXPAYERS INCLUDING TRUSTS AND ESTATES | 10:15am – 11:30am

This last year has had a myriad of important decisions affecting the reporting of foreign assets. The session covers the potential impact on international reporting forms of recent decisions like the Supreme Court’s opinion in Moore v. U.S. and Loper Bright Enterprises et al. v. Raimondo, Secretary of Commerce et al as well as other Court’s decisions such as Farhy v. Commissioner and Mukhi v. Commissioner and Aroeste v. Commissioner.

Eduardo S. Chung, Esq., Principal, Forvis Mazars, New York, NY
Timothy Evans, Esq., Principal, Forvis Mazars, New York, NY

Break | 11:30am – 11:45am

ADVANCED PLANNING FOR REAL ESTATE | 11:45am – 1:00pm

Changes in the law in recent years have had a particularly significant impact on owners of real estate. While the new rules certainly create many opportunities for tax savings, careful planning is necessary to ensure that owners of real estate take maximum advantage of these new opportunities. While there have been clarifications over the years, many unanswered questions as to how the rules will apply still remain. This presentation assists in understanding how to best navigate planning for real estate under long-established and more recent rules, and includes planning tips and ideas to maximize use of the 20% pass-through deduction, as well as an in-depth analysis of the impact of the rules on the “choice-of-entity” decision for real estate.

Norman Lencz, Esq., Partner, Venable, Baltimore, MD

Lunch | 1:00pm – 2:00pm

SUPERCHARGING TRUSTS: ADVANCED TECHNIQUES TO GIVE AN OCTANE BOOST | 2:00pm – 3:15pm

Once established, trusts can be powerful mechanisms for continuing to provide clients with additional tax benefits. “Supercharging” trusts – pushing more and more appreciation into one or more tax-free pots – can be accomplished in a number of ways. This session explores several of those techniques, focusing on the preferred freeze partnership as a way to achieve multi-generational tax benefits for a family using leverage and a variety of configurations. The session also touches upon various issues, pitfalls and planning opportunities that should be considered in connection with these structures.

N. Todd Angkatavanich, Esq., Partner, McDermott, Will & Emery, New York, NY

HOT TOPICS IN ESTATE PLANNING | 3:15pm – 4:30pm

This session covers important developments, updates, and recent highlights in estate planning areas that are essential for planning professionals to know. Topics that will be covered include: the approaching sunset of the 2017 tax law changes; the Corporate Transparency Act; CCA 20235201 and potential gift tax consequences resulting from changes to grantor trusts by adding reimbursement clauses; take-away summaries from important recent cases in the area, including the Connelly Supreme Court decision, Schlapfer, Paulson, and Hoensheid; and the latest on retirement planning with respect to required minimum distributions from qualified plans and IRAs.

Kevin Matz, Esq., Partner, ArentFox Schiff, New York, NY

DAY 2: FRIDAY, JULY 19

ETHICS/DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION SESSION: VIVA LA FAMIGLIA! ADVISING DIVERSE CLIENTS AND THE FAMILIES IN A CHANGING ESTATE PLANNING WORLD | 9:30am – 11:15am

Estate planning practitioners now face a myriad of subtle considerations when counselling clients. Attorneys in this practice area who are insensitive to a client’s unique family configuration do so at their peril. This panel presentation highlights the changing face of diverse family situations for clients in the world of estate and trust planning. Specific circumstances that are explored include age diversity between spouses, providing for children born through assisted reproductive technology (ART), planning for LGBTQ spouses, partners and children, and special considerations involving geographic, cultural and religious diversity. Practical tips in understanding and relating to a client’s individual needs and desires and proposing and implementing flexible and dynamic solutions are discussed. [CLE credits may be available for ethics and diversity and inclusion where applicable.]

Joseph P. Scorese, Esq., Member, Sills Cummis & Gross., New York, NY, and Newark, NJ
Paulina Mejia, Esq., National Fiduciary Counsel, Fiduciary Trust Company International, New York, NY
Brad J. Richter, Esq., Partner, Fried Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, New York, NY

Break | 11:15am – 11:30am

INTER-VIVOS QTIPs | 11:30am – 12:45pm

With 2026 quickly approaching, practitioners are scrambling to identify the best methods for the use of their clients’ transfer tax exemptions. Portability is wonderful, but it only ports the applicable exclusion amount and not the generation-skipping transfer tax exemption. This presentation focuses on the use of the Inter-Vivos QTIP Trust and ways in which such trusts can fully utilize a less wealthy spouse’s applicable exclusion amount AND the generation-skipping transfer exemption by explaining the basics of the Inter-Vivos QTIP Trust and then explaining how and why the use of such trusts involving inter-spousal transfers is the best approach for planning. Further, the presentation discusses the importance of such planning for a terminally ill spouse whose death is imminent.

George D. Karibjanian, Esq., Member, Franklin Karibjanian & Law, PLLC, Boca Raton, FL & Washington, DC

Lunch | 12:45pm – 1:45pm

USE OF SPREADSHEET MODELING TO UNDERSTANDABLY COMMUNICATE THE BENEFITS OF ESTATE PLANNING TECHNIQUES | 1:45pm – 3:00pm

When discussing estate planning strategies with clients, it is imperative to discuss the benefits of planning versus not planning. Sometimes the benefits can be showcased with an easy example or two, as when discussing the use of the lifetime exemption to make taxable gifts. The primary objective of financial modeling is to discuss the tax benefits of a planning technique and communicate these tax benefits in an understandable manner. The financial models will consider the impact on the grantor because the grantor has to pay the income taxes on the grantor trust’s income. In addition, financial modeling also be used to have the client actively engaged in the design of the proposed strategy. The materials will also discuss what can be done to eliminate the financial hardship caused by the grantor having to pay the income tax on the grantor trust’s income. Modeling out strategies not only provides tangible numerical data for clients, but it can also often provide deep insights into the strategies we propose. This presentation will use financial modeling to highlight a few of those insights and hopefully provide its readers with practical planning tips to help their clients make better decisions around their planning, ones that align more closely with their spending needs and their financial goals.

Jerome M. Hesch, Esq., Of Counsel, Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone, Boca Raton, FL
Alan S. Gassman, Esq., Partner, Gassman, Crotty & Denicolo, P.A., Clearwater, FL