Charities can appear in a variety of places in living trusts, such as recipients of pre-residuary bequests, takers of a portion of a residuary bequest, permissible appointees of powers of appointment, or as “atom bomb clause” beneficiaries. They can also be named as remainder beneficiaries of conduit trusts, “age 31” trusts, special needs trusts, standard accumulation trusts, and testamentary charitable remainder trusts. This presentation will explore whether charities found in each of those places would be beneficial (a “friend”) or detrimental (a “foe”) to the tax advantages enjoyed by IRAs and other retirement plans.

The OBBBA has reshaped trust and tax planning, raising new questions and opportunities for practitioners. This two-hour program will examine whether life insurance in trusts should be surrendered or repurposed, how basis planning is affected, and when (if ever) to unwind trusts for a step-up in basis. We’ll address incomplete vs. complete gifts, Kiddie Tax concerns, and state law opportunities such as Community Property Trusts and JESTs. The session also explores income shifting with non-grantor trusts, DNI and 643(f) challenges, charitable deduction strategies post-OBBBA, and key considerations when converting grantor to non-grantor trusts. Attendees will leave with practical, actionable insights for navigating post-OBBBA planning with confidence.

As the landscape of elder law grows increasingly complex, understanding and advising on dementia-specific directives has never been more crucial. That’s why I’m excited to invite you to our upcoming webinar: “Beyond the Will: Dementia Directives, Care Navigation, and Client Advocacy” featuring Julie Steinbacher, Esq., CELA, President of The Million Dollar Solution and elder law expert, and Teresa L. Bush, Esq., Director of Education & Support Services at InterActive Legal.

After years of speculation about what would happen with the estate (and gift) tax exemption, we now have some clarity. Things can always change, but at the moment, federal estate taxation has become irrelevant for most clients. This means estate planning could fall off their radar. Yet even without a tax component, estate planning remains a necessary endeavor for any client who owns any type of property – both to permit the most efficient transfer of that property to the desired recipients at death and to plan for management in the event of incapacity.

Each InterActive Legal practice system provides subscribers with the ability to draft at least one type of “irrevocable trust.” All systems contain the standard Irrevocable Trust, which is the document typically used to create an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust and a Spousal Lifetime Access Trust , and will be the primary focus of this subscriber drafting webinar.

This Webinar will cover planning strategies and how to run the numbers and illustrate a number of mathematical aspects of estate and estate tax planning, including IRA and pension minimum distributions, Qualified Charitable Distributions from IRA’s, Monte Carlo rate of return illustrations, QPRT’s, Installment Sales to Grantor Trusts, Private Annuities, GRAT’s and Rolling GRATS to help planners understand where these strategies can apply and how they fit into an estate plan. Attendees will receive free use of EstateView Estate Planning calculation and illustration software and other useful tools.