Estate Planning Tools & Techniques Webinar

To guide CPAs, accountants, and tax professionals through complex estate planning strategies while providing actionable checklists and practice aids to maximize tax-saving opportunities and safely implement proven wealth transfer techniques. 

• Federal transfer tax overview
  – Federal gift and estate tax (unified transfer tax system)
  – Strategies estate planners are using
  – Irrevocable life insurance trusts
     • Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts (SLATs)
     • Grantor retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs)
     • Dynasty trusts and GST-exempt structures
     • Family limited partnerships and minority-interest discounts
     • Charitable lead trusts and split-interest planning
     • The state-level estate tax overlay
     • What clients are actually getting wrong
• SECURE Act & SECURE 2.0
  – Designated beneficiary
  – Eligible designated beneficiary
  – Period distributions during the 10-year payout period
  – Deceased spousal beneficiary option
  – See-through trusts
  – Applicable multi-beneficiary trusts
  – Distributions in year of death
  – Timing of separate interests
  – Qualified longevity annuity contracts
  – Change in method for a surviving spouse
• State, inheritance and income tax issues
  – States that impose an estate tax
  – How state and federal rules work together
  – Compliance requirements for inheritance taxes
  – Planning for future inheritance tax changes
  – Legal implications of state tax regulations
  – Wealth transfer strategies and estate planning
  – Lifetime gifts and irrevocable trusts
  – LLC ownership
  – Charitable giving to reduce your state-taxable estate
  – Liquidity planning for heirs
  – Asset titling and beneficiary designations
• Advanced trust planning to reduce the taxable estate
  – General principles
  – Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs)
  – Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts (IDGTs)
  – Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRTs)
  – Dynasty trusts
  – Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts (SLATs)
• Life insurance in estate planning
  – General role of life insurance
  – Second-to-die (survivorship) life insurance
  – Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILITs)
• Beneficiary planning: Outright vs. in trust
  – Outright distributions to beneficiaries
  – Distributions in trust
  – Divorce protection
  – Generation-skipping considerations
• Educating the next generation about wealth
  – Family governance structures
  – Role of professional financial planners, wealth managers, and family offices
• Business succession planning
  – Strategies for sales of business interests to family members
  – Payment options
  – Income in respect of a decedent (IRD Section 691)
  – Ordinary income tax consequences
  – Capital gains realized during lifetime of seller
  – Federal estate tax inclusion
  – Post-death capital gain
  – Payment strategies
  – Traditional installment sale vs. SCIN
  – SCIN vs. private annuity
• Selected issues in buy-sell agreements
• Life insurance as an estate planning tool
  – Estate and income tax issues
  – Death benefits ILIT
  – Gift tax implications
  – Aftermath of the Connelly case
• Charity as a part of estate planning
  – Specific types of charitable trusts
  – Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs)
  – Charitable Lead Trusts (CLTs)
  – Filing requirements

Kristin Bagull, Counsel, KTS Law

Kristin G. Bagull focuses her practice on assisting both individuals and corporate fiduciaries with complex trusts, estates, and taxation issues. She works closely with her clients to develop tailored and effective asset protection strategies and business succession plans. Kristin has drafted numerous sophisticated estate plans on behalf of clients which includes lifetime qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) trusts, generation-skipping trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, private foundations, and prenuptial agreements.

Kristin has extensive experience preparing complex trust accountings, estate tax returns, gift tax returns, and income tax returns. She also works with clients in handling and resolving tax controversies at both the state and federal levels. In addition to her estate planning and administration work, Kristin regularly represents clients in trust-related litigation, estate contests, and guardianship litigation matters.

Kristin was recognized in 2025 as a “Leading Lawyer” for Tax Law: Individual Trust, Will and Estate Planning Law by Leading Lawyers magazine.
 

Jeremy Mertens, Tax Managing Director, Private Client Services, BDO

Jeremy Mertens is a highly motivated, experienced tax director, focused on utilizing a team approach to handle clients and engagements. With over ten years of experience in the field of income tax, he offers the ability to analyze a client's particular situation from a practical approach. Further, having a legal degree with a concentration in tax and estate planning, he possesses the requisite skills needed to complete complex income tax research that is necessary to understand various aspects of the income tax world.
 

Michael F. Rogers, Esquire, Head of Tax and Estates Department, Salvo Rogers

Michael F. Rogers, Esquire, is the head of the Tax and Estates Department of Salvo Rogers. He has over 20 years of experience advising clients on a wide variety of tax, estate and business matters. He was a member of the Tax Department of Arthur Young & Company (now Ernst & Young, LLP) for several years, and was a Vice President and Tax Manager with Butcher & Company in Philadelphia. He has been a shareholder of several Philadelphia area law firms, specializing in Tax and Estate Planning. He is a frequent lecturer for continuing education programs for attorneys, accountants and financial advisors, and has had many articles published. 

To guide CPAs, accountants, and tax professionals through complex estate planning strategies while providing actionable checklists and practice aids to maximize tax-saving opportunities and safely implement proven wealth transfer techniques. 

DETAILED LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Explain how the unified federal transfer-tax exemption applies to lifetime gifts, transfers at death, and generation-skipping transfers

• Identify the approximate federal gift and estate tax exemption available to a married couple in 2026 when portability is properly elected

• Explain how married couples can use gift splitting to increase the annual exclusion available for gifts to one recipient

• Describe how the federal anti-clawback regulations protect gifts made while a higher exemption is in effect

• Identify the reciprocal trust doctrine as a potential concern when spouses establish SLATs for each other

• Explain how a GRAT transfers appreciation exceeding the Section 7520 rate to remainder beneficiaries

• Evaluate how valuation discounts may increase the effectiveness of transfers involving limited interests in an FLP or LLC

• Recognize how state estate tax exemptions may differ from the federal estate tax exemption

• Identify the 10-year distribution requirement generally applicable to non-spouse beneficiaries under the SECURE Act

• Determine when the SECURE Act final regulations apply to required minimum distributions

• Identify the deadline for determining the designated beneficiary of a retirement account

• Explain how the distribution rules change when a minor child eligible-designated beneficiary reaches age 21

• Identify the Social Security Administration disability determination as a regulatory safe harbor

• Explain how transitional relief for missed RMDs affects—and does not extend—the original 10-year distribution deadline

• Describe the SECURE 2.0 owner-treatment election available to certain surviving spouses

• Identify which trust beneficiaries may be disregarded when applying the required minimum distribution rules to a see-through trust

• Explain how Illinois estate tax applies when an estate exceeds the state’s $4 million exemption

• Compare the estate tax consequences of residing in a state with a separate estate tax and one without such a tax

• Distinguish a federal estate tax from an inheritance tax and recognize that the federal government does not impose an inheritance tax

• Explain how a beneficiary’s relationship to a decedent can affect state inheritance tax rates and exemptions

• Identify the financial records and appraisals commonly required to prepare state estate or inheritance tax returns

• Recognize the probate and state tax complications associated with owning property in multiple states

• Explain how annual-exclusion gifts can transfer assets without using the donor’s lifetime exemption

• Evaluate how an ILIT can provide liquidity for estate taxes and other expenses

• Identify the portion of a GRAT’s investment return that may pass to beneficiaries with little or no additional gift-tax cost

• Explain why a sale of appreciated assets to an IDGT generally does not produce an immediately recognized capital gain

• Describe the estate tax result when a QPRT grantor dies before the retained term expires

• Identify ways to differentiate spousal trusts and reduce exposure to the reciprocal trust doctrine

• Explain how Crummey withdrawal powers can qualify ILIT contributions for the annual gift-tax exclusion

• Apply the three-year inclusion rule to an existing life insurance policy transferred to an ILIT

• Evaluate the creditor-protection benefits of retaining inherited assets in trust

• Describe a gradual, maturity-based approach to communicating family wealth, values, and responsibilities to future generations

• Explain how a sale of a business interest to a family member may freeze or reduce the value remaining in the seller’s estate

• Identify the income tax consequences of a business transfer using a private annuity under the post-October 2006 rules

• Recognize installment sale gain not reported before death as income in respect of a decedent

• Determine whether a buy/sell agreement expressly covers related or brother/sister entities

• Explain how a Section 754 election may adjust a transferee’s share of the basis in a partnership’s underlying assets

• Explain how an S corporation’s interim closing-of-the-books election can allocate tax-exempt insurance proceeds and affect shareholder basis

• Apply Revenue Ruling 93-12 when valuing a noncontrolling business interest transferred within a family

• Determine how an outstanding owner loan should affect the purchase price in a substantially cash-based business buyout

• Identify policy rights—such as the right to change beneficiaries—that constitute incidents of ownership under Section 2042

• Explain the general federal income tax exclusion for life insurance death benefits under Section 101(a)(1)

• Describe how an ILIT can keep life insurance proceeds outside the insured’s taxable estate

• Explain how Connelly v. United States affects the estate tax valuation of a corporation receiving insurance proceeds for a stock redemption

• Evaluate the administrative challenges of using traditional cross-purchase agreements for businesses with numerous shareholders

• Distinguish transfers that qualify for exceptions to the transfer-for-value rule from transfers that do not

• Identify provisions a partnership or LLC agreement should contain to prevent an insured member from possessing incidents of ownership

• Evaluate how unequal life insurance policy distributions may threaten a corporation’s S election

• Explain the availability of an unlimited estate tax charitable deduction for property passing to a qualified charity

• Identify retirement accounts and other IRD assets as potentially tax efficient sources for satisfying charitable bequests

• Apply the minimum 10% charitable-remainder-interest requirement to a charitable remainder trust

• Calculate conceptually how a CRUT’s annual payment is based on a fixed percentage of the trust’s annually determined value

• Explain the potential capital gains benefits of contributing appreciated, low-basis assets to a charitable remainder trust

• Describe the income tax treatment of a charitable lead trust structured as a nongrantor trust

• Identify appreciating or income-producing assets that may be suitable for funding a charitable lead trust

• Federal transfer tax overview
  – Federal gift and estate tax (unified transfer tax system)
  – Strategies estate planners are using
  – Irrevocable life insurance trusts
     • Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts (SLATs)
     • Grantor retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs)
     • Dynasty trusts and GST-exempt structures
     • Family limited partnerships and minority-interest discounts
     • Charitable lead trusts and split-interest planning
     • The state-level estate tax overlay
     • What clients are actually getting wrong
• SECURE Act & SECURE 2.0
  – Designated beneficiary
  – Eligible designated beneficiary
  – Period distributions during the 10-year payout period
  – Deceased spousal beneficiary option
  – See-through trusts
  – Applicable multi-beneficiary trusts
  – Distributions in year of death
  – Timing of separate interests
  – Qualified longevity annuity contracts
  – Change in method for a surviving spouse
• State, inheritance and income tax issues
  – States that impose an estate tax
  – How state and federal rules work together
  – Compliance requirements for inheritance taxes
  – Planning for future inheritance tax changes
  – Legal implications of state tax regulations
  – Wealth transfer strategies and estate planning
  – Lifetime gifts and irrevocable trusts
  – LLC ownership
  – Charitable giving to reduce your state-taxable estate
  – Liquidity planning for heirs
  – Asset titling and beneficiary designations
• Advanced trust planning to reduce the taxable estate
  – General principles
  – Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts (GRATs)
  – Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts (IDGTs)
  – Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRTs)
  – Dynasty trusts
  – Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts (SLATs)
• Life insurance in estate planning
  – General role of life insurance
  – Second-to-die (survivorship) life insurance
  – Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILITs)
• Beneficiary planning: Outright vs. in trust
  – Outright distributions to beneficiaries
  – Distributions in trust
  – Divorce protection
  – Generation-skipping considerations
• Educating the next generation about wealth
  – Family governance structures
  – Role of professional financial planners, wealth managers, and family offices
• Business succession planning
  – Strategies for sales of business interests to family members
  – Payment options
  – Income in respect of a decedent (IRD Section 691)
  – Ordinary income tax consequences
  – Capital gains realized during lifetime of seller
  – Federal estate tax inclusion
  – Post-death capital gain
  – Payment strategies
  – Traditional installment sale vs. SCIN
  – SCIN vs. private annuity
• Selected issues in buy-sell agreements
• Life insurance as an estate planning tool
  – Estate and income tax issues
  – Death benefits ILIT
  – Gift tax implications
  – Aftermath of the Connelly case
• Charity as a part of estate planning
  – Specific types of charitable trusts
  – Charitable Remainder Trusts (CRTs)
  – Charitable Lead Trusts (CLTs)
  – Filing requirements

Kristin Bagull, Counsel, KTS Law

Kristin G. Bagull focuses her practice on assisting both individuals and corporate fiduciaries with complex trusts, estates, and taxation issues. She works closely with her clients to develop tailored and effective asset protection strategies and business succession plans. Kristin has drafted numerous sophisticated estate plans on behalf of clients which includes lifetime qualified terminable interest property (QTIP) trusts, generation-skipping trusts, intentionally defective grantor trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, private foundations, and prenuptial agreements.

Kristin has extensive experience preparing complex trust accountings, estate tax returns, gift tax returns, and income tax returns. She also works with clients in handling and resolving tax controversies at both the state and federal levels. In addition to her estate planning and administration work, Kristin regularly represents clients in trust-related litigation, estate contests, and guardianship litigation matters.

Kristin was recognized in 2025 as a “Leading Lawyer” for Tax Law: Individual Trust, Will and Estate Planning Law by Leading Lawyers magazine.
 

Jeremy Mertens, Tax Managing Director, Private Client Services, BDO

Jeremy Mertens is a highly motivated, experienced tax director, focused on utilizing a team approach to handle clients and engagements. With over ten years of experience in the field of income tax, he offers the ability to analyze a client's particular situation from a practical approach. Further, having a legal degree with a concentration in tax and estate planning, he possesses the requisite skills needed to complete complex income tax research that is necessary to understand various aspects of the income tax world.
 

Michael F. Rogers, Esquire, Head of Tax and Estates Department, Salvo Rogers

Michael F. Rogers, Esquire, is the head of the Tax and Estates Department of Salvo Rogers. He has over 20 years of experience advising clients on a wide variety of tax, estate and business matters. He was a member of the Tax Department of Arthur Young & Company (now Ernst & Young, LLP) for several years, and was a Vice President and Tax Manager with Butcher & Company in Philadelphia. He has been a shareholder of several Philadelphia area law firms, specializing in Tax and Estate Planning. He is a frequent lecturer for continuing education programs for attorneys, accountants and financial advisors, and has had many articles published.