Flex Your Beneficiaries: How to Reduce Trust Income Taxes and Maintain Creditor Protection

Douglas Blattmachr founded Peak Trust Company, formerly Alaska Trust Company, in 1997. Douglas served as the President and CEO from 1997 until 2018. Douglas currently serves as Chairman of the board and continues to serve in an advisory capacity for the company as well as board management. He brings with him over 40 years of trust and investment management experience. Prior to starting Peak Trust Company, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer for a $5 billion trust division at WestOne, President & CEO of Neuberger & Berman Trust Company, and headed up the D.A. Davidson Trust Company. In 1996 Douglas along with his brother Jonathan Blattmachr took an active role in the passage of the Alaska Trust Act, which ultimately passed in 1997. This groundbreaking legislation set the model for modern trust legislation across all top trust jurisdictions in the nation today. From 1997 until 2018, Douglas maintained a major role in the passage of trust and estate-related legislation in Alaska, and was instrumental in the passage of numerous bills over that time period. Douglas has taught investment management at the university level and has been a speaker at many seminars on investments, retirement plans, and estate planning. He has also written or co-authored numerous articles on estate planning and investment topics. Douglas holds a Master of Business Administration in Banking and Finance from Adelphi University, a Bachelor of Science degree from Clemson University, and is a graduate of Pacific Coast Banking School.

Mr. Blattmachr is a Principal in ILS Management, LLC and a retired member of Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP in New York, NY and of the Alaska, California and New York Bars. He is recognized as one of the most creative trusts and estates lawyers in the country and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America. He has written and lectured extensively on estate and trust taxation and charitable giving.

Elizabeth (“Beth”) Boehmcke graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School in 1993. After graduation from law school through 2003, she specialized in high net worth estate planning, with an emphasis on cross-border and asset protection planning, and the representation of fiduciaries managing complex trusts and family businesses. During her career in New York, she was an associate attorney at both Rogers & Wells (now Clifford Chance) and Hodgson Russ in New York City. After a hiatus in her legal career to care for her children, she resumed her legal career by passing the Virginia bar in 2014 and began working for the Hook Law Center, P.C., where she expanded her estate planning practice to include elder law, specifically focusing on asset protection planning for Medicaid and Veteran’s benefits. She is a proud graduate of the University of Virginia where she received a B.A. with distinction in Psychology in 1988 and is also a graduate of SUNY-Buffalo where she received an M.A. in Clinical Psychology in 1990.

Martin M. Shenkman is an attorney in private practice in Fort Lee, NJ, and New York City.  His practice concentrates on estate and tax planning, planning for closely held business, and estate administration.  Mr. Shenkman is an author of over 42 books and more than 1,000 articles.  He is an editorial board member of Trusts & Estates Magazine and the Matrimonial Strategist, and an advisor for InterActive Legal.  He is the recipient of many awards including being a 2013 recipient of the prestigious Accredited Estate Planners (Distinguished) award from the National Association of Estate Planning Counsels.  Mr. Shenkman was named Financial Planning Magazine 2012 Pro-Bono Financial Planner of the Year for his efforts on behalf of those living with chronic illness and disability.  Investment Adviser Magazine featured him on the cover of its April 2013 issue naming as the lead of their “all-star lineup of tax experts.”