Estate Taxes for Estate Planners: Understanding the laws that determine how wills and trusts are written

Robert E. Ward
Robert E. Ward | WardChisholm, LLP

Robert E. Ward, J.D., LL.M. has practiced law as a tax attorney for more than 40 years. He is the founding principal of Ward Chisholm, LLP, a firm of tax lawyers with offices in Bethesda, Maryland and Vancouver, British Columbia.

On-Demand: October 26, 2022

Estate Taxes for Estate Planners: Understanding the laws that determine how wills and trusts are written

$195.00 2 hour CLE

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Program Summary

Regardless of who you are and how little or how much you own, one reality facing you at death is that you and your property must part. While you may conclude that the most fortuitous arrangement would be to spend your last dollar as death nears, this rarely happens. Whether intentionally or otherwise, most all of us leave much of our wealth behind. If then, we cannot take it with us, what are we to do? Instead of our money, personal effects, and financial assets falling into tax traps and passing to the government, we usually prefer to benefit and provide for our families and organizations that are important to us.

How can you most effectively plan for the orderly distribution of your assets? This is the question which estate planning answers and the tax considerations that drive that planning are the subject of this program.

This course is co-sponsored with myLawCLE.

Key topics to be discussed:

  • The relationship between the unified credit (the estate tax exemption) and the marital deduction
  • The rights a surviving spouse may have as a trustee or beneficiary of a bypass trust without frustrating its tax-saving purpose
  • When the tax basis of assets held in trust will be adjusted to fair market value and when will it not
  • How to take advantage of the generation-skipping transfer tax exemption
  • How the income taxation of trusts may be managed to leverage wealth transfer benefits

Date: October 26, 2022

Closed-captioning available

Speakers

Robert E. Ward_WardChisolm, LLP_FedBarRobert E. Ward | WardChisholm, LLP

Robert E. Ward, J.D., LL.M. has practiced law as a tax attorney for more than 40 years. He is the founding principal of Ward Chisholm, LLP, a firm of tax lawyers with offices in Bethesda, Maryland and Vancouver, British Columbia. Ward Chisholm, LLP provides tax, business, estate planning, and asset protection planning advice and represents taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Tax Court. The firm focuses on providing tax planning and representation to owners of privately held businesses, integrating business planning with personal estate planning needs.

The firm also assists clients in establishing foreign asset protection trusts, public and private tax-exempt charitable organizations, and all forms of business entities, both foreign and domestic.

In addition to practicing law full-time, Bob taught as an adjunct faculty member at George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Virginia for 29 years. He taught three courses at George Mason: Business Planning, Estate and Gift Taxation, and Estate Planning. He has also taught Corporate Tax at Golden Gate University and Income Taxation of Trusts and Estates at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Most recently, he has taught the class on United States Taxes in the graduate tax program at the University of British Columbia School of Law.

Bob is a frequent lecturer at continuing education programs and is the author of over fifty articles on various tax topics appearing in the Journal of Taxation, Tax Management International Journal™, Taxes, Beyond Numbers, The Practical Lawyer, The Practical Tax Lawyer, Practical Tax Strategies, and The Journal of Asset Protection Planning.

Bob has been recognized by Washingtonian Magazine as one of the Washington area’s top estate planning attorneys and by Super Lawyers® Magazine as one of Maryland’s top tax lawyers.

Agenda

I. The relationship between the unified credit (the estate tax exemption) and the marital deduction | 11:00am – 11:30am

II. The rights a surviving spouse may have as a trustee or beneficiary of a bypass trust without frustrating its tax-saving purpose | 11:30am – 12:00pm

Break | 12:00pm – 12:10pm

III. When the tax basis of assets held in trust will be adjusted to fair market value and when will it not | 12:10pm – 12:30pm

IV. How to take advantage of the generation-skipping transfer tax exemption | 12:30pm – 12:50pm

V. How the income taxation of trusts may be managed to leverage wealth transfer benefits | 12:50pm – 1:10pm