Estate Planning: An Overview Webinar

To provide CPAs and finance professionals with a foundational understanding of estate planning concepts, tax considerations, and strategies for wealth transfer and post-death planning.

• General principles
• Probate estate
• Other estate planning documents
• Federal gift tax
  – Annual exclusions
  – Marital deduction
  – Charitable contribution deductions
  – Reporting gifts
• Federal estate tax
• Federal generation-skipping tax (GST)
• The role of income taxes
• Planning strategies
  – Unified credit planning
  – Titling of assets
  – Life insurance
  – Disposition of business interests
• Post-death strategies

To provide CPAs and finance professionals with a foundational understanding of estate planning concepts, tax considerations, and strategies for wealth transfer and post-death planning.

DETAILED LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Identify the different legal forms of property ownership 

• Identify the terminology used when an individual dies without a will

• Recognize the major functions of a will 

• Identify the scope of fiduciary discretion given under the terms of a fiduciary power clause

• Recognize the role of the probate process in estate planning

• Recognize the common methods used to avoid probate

• Identify the implications to an estate plan when assets are held in a living trust

• Identify the steps in the probate process

• Identify the income tax implications of estates and trusts

• Recognize the main functions of the personal representative 

• Recognize the contingent future interest time limits imposed by the “Rule Against Perpetuities” 

• Recognize the circumstances required for the imposition of federal gift taxes

• Recognize the circumstances required for the unlimited medical and education deduction in gift taxation 

• Recognize the annual gift tax exclusion 

• Identify the role of annual exclusion giving in estate planning

• Identify the age at which a Section 2503(c) trust beneficiary must receive the funds from the trust

• Identify the reason a grantor may prefer a Section 2503(c) minor’s trust over an UTMA/UGMA account

• Identify the benefits of making taxable gifts in excess of the donor’s lifetime exemption

• Recognize the gift tax consequences of gifting a residence to a spouse as a “tenant in common”

• Recognize the tax implications of gifting less than an entire interest in property to charity

• Recognize the reason that adjusted taxable gifts are included in the estate tax calculation

• Recognize the characteristics of the marital deduction

• Identify the significance of a terminal interest in estate planning

• Identify the applicable GST tax rate

• Identify the basis implications of both lifetime and testamentary gifting

• Identify the circumstances creating income in respect of a decedent, or IRD

• Identify the circumstances creating deductions in respect of a decedent, or DRD

• Identify the typical will used by most long-term married couples with adult children and modest estates 

• Identify the characteristics of marital/non-marital trusts in estate planning

• Identify the type of trust often used in second marriage situations where there are children from a first marriage

• Recognize the role of a QTIP trust in estate planning

• Recognize the role of life insurance in estate planning

• Recognize the circumstances in which life insurance on a decedent will be included in his gross estate

• Recognize the characteristics of a qualified disclaimer

• Recognize the commonly-accepted methods for determining the value of a business for purposes of a buy-sell agreement

• Identify the qualifying business disposition percentage necessary to terminate the deferral of the payment of estate taxes under Section 6166

• Identify the maximum available deferral of the payment of estate taxes under Section 6161(a)(2)

• General principles
• Probate estate
• Other estate planning documents
• Federal gift tax
  – Annual exclusions
  – Marital deduction
  – Charitable contribution deductions
  – Reporting gifts
• Federal estate tax
• Federal generation-skipping tax (GST)
• The role of income taxes
• Planning strategies
  – Unified credit planning
  – Titling of assets
  – Life insurance
  – Disposition of business interests
• Post-death strategies