45th Annual Duke Estate Planning Conference – October 19 – 20, 2023

 

Thursday, October 19, 2023

Registration & Continental Breakfast

7:00 am – 8:15 am

Welcome & Opening Remarks

8:15 am – 8:30 am

Recent Developments in Wealth Planning and Transfer Tax

8:30 am – 9:30 am

Thomas W. Abendroth, ArentFox Schiff LLP

This session will include a review of recent cases, rulings, IRS projects and legislative initiative that impact wealth planning for our clients.

Break

9:30 am – 9:40 am

No contest clauses: Striking terror into the hearts of anyone seeking to undermine testamentary intent?

9:40 am – 10:40 am

Meghan Hubbard, McGuireWoods LLP

This presentation will include a survey of different jurisdiction’s approaches to no contest clauses and recent updates.

Break

10:40 am – 10:50 am

Inbound Investment into U.S. Markets

10:50 am – 11:50 am

Scott A. Bowman, McDermott Will & Emery

Advising a non-U.S. person on the ideal structure for investing into U.S. markets is complex.  This presentation will review the tax considerations that underlie structuring decisions and explore the application of these structures to common objectives of non-U.S. investors.

Lunch

11:50 am – 1:00 pm

The Estate Planner’s Guide to Religious Implications in Estate Planning

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Stacy E. Singer, Northern Trust Company

When an estate planning attorney is working with someone strong in their faith, especially when that client has a different faith than that of the attorney, doesn’t the attorney provide a greater service to the client with an understanding of how the client’s faith might impact their estate plan? This presentation discusses how the religious requirements of Christianity, Islam and Judaism may impact the estate planning for clients who practice those faiths. The ethical implications of those requirements will also be discussed.

Break

2:00 pm – 2:10 pm

The Best Laid Plans: Avoiding Litigation Of Your Estate Plans…And How to Handle the Witness Chair if you Do Not

2:10 pm – 3:10 pm

Joan and Mike Anderson, Anderson Law Firm

This section will discuss strategies for the estate-planner in cases with a potentially higher risk of contest, including approaches from intake through execution that might help mitigate the risk of litigation. If those efforts are not successful in avoiding litigation, the second half of this presentation will provide background information and general pointers for estate-planners who are called to testify at deposition or trial.

Break

3:10 pm – 3:20 pm

Drafting Charitable Gift Agreements to Stand the Test of Time

3:20 pm – 4:20 pm

Alan Rothschild, Jr., Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker and Ford, P.C.

Donors increasingly want significant control and input over the use of their charitable gifts.  This session will review the legal and practical issues impacting the negotiation, drafting and enforcement of a charitable gift agreement, including race and gender-based grant making, donor involvement post-gift, the enforceability of charitable pledges and standing to sue to enforce the terms of the gift.

The Evolution of the SECURE Act: Proposed Regulations and SECURE 2.0

4:20 pm – 5:20 pm

Larry Rocamora, McPherson, Rocamora, Nicholson, Wilson & Hinkle, PLLC

Christina Hinkle, McPherson, Rocamora, Nicholson, Wilson & Hinkle, PLLC

In late 2019, the SECURE Act ushered in sweeping changes to the required minimum distribution rules for beneficiaries of retirement accounts. In 2022, the IRS issued proposed Regulations, and SECURE 2.0 was enacted into law. We will examine how these developments clarified and changed our understanding of the required minimum distribution rules.

Friday, October 20, 2023

Continental Breakfast

8:00 am – 8:30 am

Ethics and privilege landmines with Gifts and Form 709

8:30 am – 9:30 am

Christine Wakeman, Winstead

Estate planners often assist clients with gifts and those gifts may involve several parties: donor, donee, appraiser, donor’s spouse, tax preparer and maybe others. In working with these parties, the estate planner needs to consider the ethical implications in the interactions with each of them, including confidentiality and joint representation. Further the estate planner has to be aware of confidentiality requirements of the ethics rules as well as privilege surrounding or not surrounding various communications. Importantly, all these ethical and other concerns are particularly implicated as the estate planner prepares or assists in the preparation of the gift tax returns reporting gifts. This presentation addresses these ethical, privilege and practical considerations in working with gifts and satisfying the obligations to all involved.

Break

9:30 am – 9:40 am

Problems with Marital Deduction Planning

9:40 am – 10:40 am

Stuart B. Dorsett, Brown Advisory

This presentation explores potential problems – and solutions – involved in planning for the use of the estate tax marital deduction, including portability, use of bypass trusts, marital deduction formulas, and marital trust arrangements.

Break                                                                                                                                                 

10:40 am – 10:50 am

Not Too Rich, Not Too Poor – Goldilocks Planning for the Middle-Rich Clients Who Need Our Help

10:50 am – 11:50 am

Turney Berry, Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs

Planning for clients who are too rich to keep everything and too poor to transfer everything remains an estate planning challenge.  These clients typically lack family offices that can help implement and oversee our most complex planning, yet oftentimes it is just that planning that the client needs.  And, of course, the clients need everything else too – charitable planning, asset protection, retirement plan thinking, preserving the family farm and vacation cabin, and so on. We will discuss intelligent, implementable, and interesting ideas for the Middle-Rich (even if we can’t quite define who they are).

Lunch

11:50 am – 1:00 pm

Reality versus Scary Theory: What’s really going on these days in Estate and Gift Tax Audits, and Approaches to Avoid Turning a Sunny Day (good result) into a Cloudy One (bad result)

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Louis S. Harrison, Harrison & Held, LLP

We examine the state of audits in 2022 and 2023, as well as providing different approaches to handling audits, as well as the presenter’s biased pareto optimal approach to the handling of audits.

Break

2:00 pm – 2:10 pm

You’re Fired! Why, When, and How to Fire Clients

2:10 pm – 3:10 pm

Bruce Stone, Goldman Felcoski & Stone P.A.

It may be necessary or desirable to terminate representation of a client for various reasons. But there are restraints under the ethics rules on the ability unilaterally to fire a client. Some common examples of situations where termination of representation should be considered will be explored with analysis of the governing ethics rules.

Break

3:10 pm – 3:20 pm

Challenges Cometh: Demographics, Disability and Declining Availability of Adequate Medicaid Funded Supports for Seniors and those with Special Needs

3:20 pm – 4:20 pm

Tara Anne Pleat, Wilcenski & Pleat PLLC

Demographic challenges abound for seniors and individuals with disabilities seeking adequate and appropriate support. This program will discuss those challenges, the federal and state responses to these challenges and how to best advise our clients in this increasingly difficult landscape.

North Carolina 2023 Statutory Updates: An overview of the latest Legislative Developments

4:20 pm – 5:20 pm

Catherine Wilson, McPherson, Rocamora, Nicholson, Wilson & Hinkle, PLLC
Judy Linville, Linville Law Office, PLLC

Discussion of recent changes in the North Carolina General Statutes that impact estate planning and elder law attorneys. These NC legislative updates include changes to North Carolina laws governing estate administrations, wills, trusts, and guardianships.