Office Hours
Office hours are back! I have not had much interest from readers in the last couple of rounds of office hours I have conducted, but I want to hear from you - whether you have questions, feedback, or simply want to talk shop.
Paid subscribers have a broader range of one-on-one office hours, which I am making available during the week of March 25-29. Click here to skip below to the link for one-on-one office hours.
For all readers, I will also be hosting group office hours the week of March 25-29. These generally will be held between 1-2 pm ET on March 25-28, and 12-1 pm ET on March 29. Click here for the open reader office hours.
Business Roundup
This week, my content feeds have taken on some common themes:
A trend towards non-attorney recommendations to do “quick and easy” estate planning through the use of POD and TOD designations, beneficiary/ladybird deeds, beneficiary designations on life insurance and tax-deferred assets, and joint tenancy titling;
The increasing push towards the “advanced planning team” available through TAMPs and networks serving independent advisors breaking away from captive relationships, and vice versa; and
Tech companies pushing the idea of advisor-led estate planning discussions.
A lot of what I cover from a business perspective is the increasing demolition of the silo of estate planning, which traditionally limited estate planning to attorneys. As an attorney I can seem biased towards defending the status quo, which is accurate to a certain extent, but I think the next frontier of estate planning will be creativity in attorney business models as opposed to creativity in planning strategies. The problem is that demolishing some of the traditional business structures in the practice of law can be like steering an aircraft carrier, or can go like this…
Big picture, there is an information and education gap between attorneys and financial advisors. While many of my article series on this newsletter have trended towards more advanced topics, I have long had on my list a series objectively educating financial advisors on estate planning. This is a topic on which I have overpromised and underdelivered, mainly because I have tried too hard to adapt what was familiar to me - the CFP curriculum - to this education gap.
But, the trends above have shown me the need for something more widely applicable. For example, there is a difference between trusts created for minor children at the death of a parent, versus a revocable living trust - confusing the two can lead to kneejerk reactions (often about fees and a perceived mismatch between complexity and need). These are the topics I hope to tackle as I close out some of my current article and video series.
Non-Subscription Article Summaries
From the Archives: The IRC Section 691(c) Deduction
In this article, I recycle one of my old YouTube videos to shine light on the deduction for estate tax attributable to income in respect of a decedent under IRC Section 691(c).
This is a deduction that often flies under the radar, mainly because it affects inheritors of wealth more that transferors/creators of wealth. I have in the queue, pending the finalization of proposed regulations, a “State of the Union” on IRA inheritance and trust look-through rules post-SECURE Act. But, one item I hope to tackle is the sacred cow of avoiding the 5-year IRA payout. In some cases, that may not be the worst outcome, and the deduction discussed in this article partially contributes to that benefit.
What is a Credit Shelter Trust?
This article, as part of the Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Estate Planning Trusts series, covers a trust that has waned in popularity but is still a valuable planning tool - the credit shelter trust, also sometimes known as a bypass trust, family trust, or B trust.
As these trusts have become less popular post-portability, some of the legacy knowledge about structuring and common issues has been lost. In this article, I discuss what drafters and reviewers should know at the top of the bell curve.
Subscription Article Summaries, and Subscriber Office Hours
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