Learn More At Our Seminars And Lectures
MCLE New England, Latest Techniques for Middle Class Estates
Wednesday 2/5/2025 1-5pm at MCLE: Ten Winter Place Boston
Link to learn more and register: https://www.mcle.org/product/catalog/code/2250066P01
Description:
- Many estate planners find middle-class estates to be challenging. The category often encompasses a broad and disparate range of individuals, including young families with children, younger individuals with emerging wealth, recent empty-nesters, and elderly individuals concerned about long-term care. Each of these groups requires a different approach to estate planning. This program focuses on identifying the specific needs of the most common categories of middle-class estates and details the key estate planning strategies that best serve those needs.
- In today’s world, planning for the middle-class estate requires an attorney to wear many hats as an estate planning attorney, a trust attorney, a real estate attorney, an estate administration attorney, a corporate attorney, a tax attorney, and even sometimes a litigation attorney. As the Supreme Judicial Court stated in Gibney v. Hossack, SJC 13436 (April 10, 2024): “Death is not the end; there remains litigation over the estate.” (Citations omitted.) This timely program reviews the multi-disciplinary approach needed to plan for the middle-class estate which may be an estate of up to $4,000,000 in Massachusetts and up to $14,000,000. for a federal estate for deaths occurring on or after January 1, 2026.
- Learn how to skillfully craft an estate plan tailored to your client’s individual situation, while utilizing the latest in tax minimization and asset protection strategies. Get an in-depth look at how to add value and form a relationship with your clients that transcends the “one-off” nature common to middle-class estate planning. Emerge with expert tools and a deep understanding of the key issues facing your clients.
| Drafting Successful Medicaid Trusts – On Demand Webcast
Expert advice on withstanding MassHealth scrutiny Creating an effective Medicaid trust requires not only a deep understanding of trust law, but also of estate and tax planning. You must know how to draft trust terms that will get approved—not always easy when it seems unclear what the state will—and will not—allow. Using the right language and key terms is vital—and more challenging than ever. This program provides analysis of recent and current Medicaid trust cases both at the fair hearing stage and at the Superior Court and Supreme Judicial Court. The faculty include a complete review of the SJC’s decision in Fournier v. Sudders and explore the current arguments the state is making, which includes attacks on the limited power of appointment to charities or children, the argument that nominee realty trusts are revocable, the power to loan money to the donor, the power to buy life insurance, and several others. Review the Hirvi Settlement, the 130 CMR § 610.00 regulations, and the MassHealth Eligibility Operations Memo 20-04. Learn about the grantor powers that are safest to use and which ones are being challenged by the state. Hear a discussion of the income tax benefits of making the trust a grantor trust and the importance of keeping the § 121 capital gains exclusion. Learn what paragraphs should and should not be in these irrevocable trusts, as well as how to draft around current challenges and make arguments to distinguish your trust from the Cohen, Doherty, and most recent Braiterman cases that MassHealth uses to attack Medicaid trusts. Explore the step-up basis rules and the estate and gift tax rules related to drafting these trusts, along with the tax implications of using life estates. Learn how to draft a QTIP share and remainder share into these trusts to obtain estate tax reduction and nursing home protection at the same time. Finally, learn how naming the estate the beneficiary of your IRA coupled with a testamentary trust can offer significant estate tax savings and nursing home protection without a negative income tax hit on the required minimum distributions. Agenda
Faculty Lisa M. Neeley, Esq., Rubin and Rudman LLP, Boston, Chair; Karen B. Johnson, Esq., Madge & Johnson, PC, Westford; Todd E. Lutsky, Esq., LL.M, Cushing & Dolan, P.C., Waltham; Angelina Pargoff Stafford, Esq., Doherty, Wallace, Pillsbury & Murphy, PC, Springfield On Demand Webcast Register at www.mcle.org Tuition (includes written materials)
To apply for a need-based scholarship, email [email protected]. Materials
CLE Credits Earn up to 3 CLE credits Subscribe to the MCLE OnlinePass® for instant access to this program and everything else MCLE offers online. Learn more at www.mcle.org |