| Boston Tax Institute
What’s New in Medicaid Planning and What Needs to be Reviewed?
From last minute Medicaid eligibility tips for the unplanned to drafting and taxation of irrevocable income only trusts and testamentary trusts for the advanced planner.
Register Now
DESCRIPTION:
Last Minute Medicaid Techniques: Come Learn How:
- To protect the primary residence for married and single folks;
- To make countable rental property non-countable;
- To make countable vacation property non-countable;
- To protect life insurance policies (whole life vs term life);
- To protect excess resources through Medicaid annuities and pooled trusts;
- To differentiate countable vs non-countable assets;
- To deal with the caretaker child exception, related rules, and recent fair hearing decisions regarding the same;
- Medicaid liens operate and how they can actually be a good thing;
- The five-year lookback period operates and related exceptions to it vs the penalty period;
- Special needs trusts and sole benefit trusts operate; and
- To get a family worth $2 million eligible for Medicaid last minute when one spouse gets sick.
Drafting and Taxation of Irrevocable Income Only Trusts: Come Learn:
- How to draft irrevocable trusts to withstand MassHealth scrutiny;
- Frequent arguments made by MassHealth;
- How the Hirvi settlement is helping to support irrevocable trusts, administrative consistency, and due process;
- How eligibility operations memo 20-04 is helping practitioners to better draft trusts and how it operates;
- How the Fournier v. Sudders case reads and its benefit to drafting these irrevocable trusts
- About other recent fair hearing decisions;
- How the limited power of appointment operates;
- The grantor trust rules for income tax purposes;
- How IRC §1014(a) and step up in basis works with these trusts;
- Gift tax consequences of these trusts IRC § 25.2511(c)
- Estate tax consequences of these trusts including drafting of the marital and remainder shares to both protect assets and shelter for estate taxes; and
- About eligibility operations memo 19-12 re-defining calculation of life estate and remainder values and the Medicaid and income tax consequences.
Testamentary Trusts, IRAs, and Life Insurance:
- How trust and transfer rules apply to testamentary trusts, how to draft them, and how they operate; and
- Estate tax benefits of naming estate as the designated beneficiary of an IRA coupled with a testamentary trust.
Medicaid, Income and Estate tax benefits of naming estate as the designated beneficiary of an IRA vs naming the surviving spouse, when coupled with a testamentary trus:t
- To calculate the RMDs after naming the estate as the designated beneficiary under the Secure Act vs surviving spouse;
- The Medicaid benefits and protections from naming the estate as the designated beneficiary of the IRA; and
- The estate tax and Medicaid benefits of naming the estate as the designated beneficiary of a life insurance policy.
Zoom Live Video Conference
Date: THURSDAY, November 10, 2022
Time: 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Speaker
Todd E. Lutsky, Esq., LL.M., Cushing & Dolan, P.C., Waltham
Thomas J. McKinnon, Esq., Cushing & Dolan, P.C., Waltham
CPE Credits: 4.0
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| Boston Tax Institute
Estate Planning Essentials: Federal & MA Issues (706, 709, & M-706 Workshop)
Register Now
DESCRIPTION:
While the estate tax exemption and the present interest exclusion for gift taxes both will increase for 2023, it appears that the Biden Administration attempt to pass the 99.5% Act has failed. While there still may be future attempts, it appears the exemption would not fall back more than the current legislation’s 2026 level. We will explore the latest legislation known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2018 which introduced a variety of new planning opportunities – it is all about the basis. Massachusetts, however, continues to limit its exemption to $1,000,000, although there has been some legislation reintroduced to Beacon Hill to increase this exemption to $2,000,000 – stay tuned. In this program, we will guide you through the proper preparation of federal and state estate tax returns, as well as any necessary gift tax returns, including a discussion of the pros and cons of the portability election and how it works, the QTIP election for the state, and even the potential benefits of a federal QTIP election, coupled with gifting assets flush with basis by the surviving spouse to reduce the future Massachusetts estate tax. Finally, we will explore the recent Supreme Judicial Court decision in the Schaffer case showing how not making a federal QTIP election, even without gifting by the surviving spouse, could lower the estate tax of the surviving spouse.
Using a hypothetical example we will guide you through schedule by schedule the preparation of a federal and Massachusetts estate tax return along with an explanation of the different estate planning techniques you may encounter when preparing these returns as well as whether they are included in the estate or not, such as revocable trusts, irrevocable life insurance trusts, first and second to die variety, Medicaid income only trusts, limited liability companies, and much more with special attention paid to a joint trust and the application of § 1014(e) to the trust and the possible double step-up in basis through a combination of the federal QTIP election and portability. So, sharpen your pencil and come to this hypothetical-packed session ready to “do the math.”
Zoom Live Video Conference
Date: TUESDAY, December 13, 2022
Time: 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Speaker
Todd E. Lutsky, Esq., LL.M., Cushing & Dolan, P.C., Waltham
CPE Credits: 4.0
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| Foundation for Continuing Education
Medicaid Planning
Register Now
DESCRIPTION:
Last Minute Medicaid Techniques: Come Learn How:
- To protect the primary residence for married and single folks;
- To make countable rental property non-countable;
- To make countable vacation property non-countable;
- To protect life insurance policies (whole life vs term life);
- To protect excess resources through Medicaid annuities and pooled trusts;
- To differentiate countable vs non-countable assets;
- To deal with the caretaker child exception, related rules, and recent fair hearing decisions regarding the same;
- Medicaid liens operate and how they can actually be a good thing;
- The five-year lookback period operates and related exceptions to it vs the penalty period;
- Special needs trusts and sole benefit trusts operate; and
- To get a family worth $2 million eligible for Medicaid last minute when one spouse gets sick.
Drafting and Taxation of Irrevocable Income Only Trusts: Come Learn:
- How to draft irrevocable trusts to withstand MassHealth scrutiny;
- Frequent arguments made by MassHealth;
- How the Hirvi settlement is helping to support irrevocable trusts, administrative consistency, and due process;
- How eligibility operations memo 20-04 is helping practitioners to better draft trusts and how it operates;
- How the Fournier v. Sudders case reads and its benefit to drafting these irrevocable trusts
- About other recent fair hearing decisions;
- How the limited power of appointment operates;
- The grantor trust rules for income tax purposes;
- How IRC §1014(a) and step up in basis works with these trusts;
- Gift tax consequences of these trusts IRC § 25.2511(c)
- Estate tax consequences of these trusts including drafting of the marital and remainder shares to both protect assets and shelter for estate taxes; and
- About eligibility operations memo 19-12 re-defining calculation of life estate and remainder values and the Medicaid and income tax consequences.
Testamentary Trusts, IRAs, and Life Insurance:
- How trust and transfer rules apply to testamentary trusts, how to draft them, and how they operate; and
- Estate tax benefits of naming estate as the designated beneficiary of an IRA coupled with a testamentary trust.
Medicaid, Income and Estate tax benefits of naming estate as the designated beneficiary of an IRA vs naming the surviving spouse, when coupled with a testamentary trus:t
- To calculate the RMDs after naming the estate as the designated beneficiary under the Secure Act vs surviving spouse;
- The Medicaid benefits and protections from naming the estate as the designated beneficiary of the IRA; and
- The estate tax and Medicaid benefits of naming the estate as the designated beneficiary of a life insurance policy.
Date: TUESDAY, December 6, 2022
Time: 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Location: Marriott Residence Inn in Natick
Address: 1 Superior Drive, Natick MA 01760
Speaker
Todd E. Lutsky, Esq., LL.M., Cushing & Dolan, P.C., Waltham
Thomas J. McKinnon, Esq., Cushing & Dolan, P.C., Waltham
CPE Credits: 4.0
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| Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education
Drafting Successful Medicaid Trusts
Register Now
DESCRIPTION: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 a review and analysis of recent and current Medicaid trust cases both at the fair hearing stage and Superior Court stage. The analysis explores 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 terminate the trust, and several others. Learn about the grantor powers that are the 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 when it might be okay to not make the trust a grantor trust in an effort to reduce the risk of the state challenging the trust, along with the pros and cons of such advice and the circumstances when such advice may be appropriate.
Learn what paragraphs should be in these irrevocable trusts, and which ones to avoid. You also learn 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 these Medicaid trusts. We also explore the step-up basis rules and the estate and gift tax rules as they relate to drafting these trusts. More specifically, learn how to draft a QTIP share and a remainder share into these trusts to obtain both estate tax reduction and nursing home protection at the same time. Finally, we walk through when to use life estates, the two ways to create life estates, and the related income and gift tax issues associated with them. You come away with an in-depth understanding of how these trusts work, how best to draft them, and related estate, income, and gift tax implications associated with using them.
Finally, come and learn how naming the estate the designated beneficiary of an IRA can be the panacea of Medicaid, estate and income tax planning when coupled with a testamentary trust.
Live Webcast
Date: TUESDAY, December 6, 2022
Time: 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Live Webcast, www.mcle.org, Live Webcast
Chair
Lisa M. Neeley, Esq., Mirick, O’Connell, DeMallie & Lougee LLP, Worcester
Faculty
Karen B. Johnson, Esq., Madge & Johnson, PC, Westford
Todd E. Lutsky, Esq., Cushing & Dolan, PC, Waltham
Angelina Pargoff Stafford, Esq., Doherty, Wallace & Pillsbury, PC, Springfield
Agenda & Materials
- How to Draft and Use Medicaid Income Only Trusts in Your Practice
- How to Make a Medicaid Trust into a Grantor Trust and the Related Income Tax Benefits
- When and Why It Could Make Sense to Not Make the Trust a Grantor Trust
- Life Estates and How to Use Them with Medicaid Trusts in Light of Daley
- Medicaid Trusts: Income, Estate, and Gift Tax Planning
- Drafting Bypass Trusts and Marital Shares in Medicaid Trusts to Accomplish Estate Tax Savings at the Same Time
- How Naming the Estate as the Designated Beneficiary of an IRA Might be the Panacea of Estate Tax, Income Tax, and Medicaid Planning for IRA Assets
- Current Fair Hearing Decisions and Ongoing Superior Court Cases Dealing with These Trusts and Related Arguments Being Made
CLE Credits: 3.0 |
| Mass NAELA
Annual Dinner Meeting
IN-PERSON ONLY
All About Estates
Thursday, December 8, 2022
*****RETURN TO OUR USUAL VENUE*****
Boston Marriott Newton
2345 Commonwealth Avenue, Newton, Massachusetts 02466
(Parking available on site)
Join us for our IN-PERSON ONLY annual dinner meeting and catch up with colleagues that you haven’t seen in a while! For the first time since January 2020 we will be back at the Newton Marriott that we all know and love.
We will have three great presenter that will address the following topics:
- Naming the Estate as designated beneficiary of retirement accounts coupled with testamentary trusts may be the panacea for Medicaid, income and Estate tax planning;
- MassHealth’s latest efforts to expand Estate Recovery by refusing to release lifetime liens, and what to do when you experience this problem; and
- Some of the most common issues that court clerk encounter during the Estate Administration process.
Prior to our educational program, we will hold our Vendor Fair (in-person) for the first time since 2019! Don’t forget your business cards since many of the vendors will have raffle prizes. In addition, any members that visit all of the vendors will be entered in a raffle to win a $500 gift card.
Finally, we will present our annual awards to well-deserving community partners and MassNAELA Members. We look forward to seeing you in-person on December 8!
Panelists: Brian Barreira, Sarah Long, and Todd Lutsky
Click Here for the Detailed Program Notice
Click Here to Register
(Although you can register at the event, we encourage you to purchase your ticket as soon as possible for planning purposes.)
3:00PM: Advocacy Committee Meeting Updates*(We will also attempt to stream this, however it will not be recorded.)
4:30PM: Vendor Fair
6:00PM: Dinner Meeting and Program
*Members are encouraged to attend the Advocacy Meeting. |
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