Financial and legal advisors have seen many important changes in recent years. Our clients have more options and greater certainty in planning their legacies through trusts. Congress has given us the greatest opportunity to shelter significant wealth from estate taxes, but those opportunities also came with a deadline that we cannot count on being extended. We have fewer than three years to help our clients avail themselves of these critically important strategies before they disappear. We’ve already seen what some in Congress and the White House want to do to these planning tools, with proposals last year that would eliminate our ability to create intentionally defective grantor trust and would roll back current estate tax exemptions to 2005 levels. Those attempts have failed so far, but the sunset provisions in existing law remain in place. The time for our clients to act is now, and we need to spread the word and help them do it.

Our state legislature has been busy as well, with the adoption of numerous additions of the uniform trust code that clarify some questions and add creditor protection mechanisms to our trust law. Additionally, they have added numerous changes to law automatically revoking beneficiary designations for life insurance and certain retirement accounts upon divorce, along with statutory disinheritance from existing wills. Our state has finally embraced ABLE accounts to give greater autonomy to public benefit recipients over supplemental funds without incurring the expense of creating stand-alone special needs trusts. Additionally, the law has changed the order of liquidation of estate assets needed to pay estate claims, known as abatement, which could affect many of our clients’ estates. They have also given us a new tool for avoiding probate in the transfer of land and vehicles through pay-on-death deeds and pay-on-death titles. Our state has also adopted a law allowing for ancillary probate of estates allowing assets to pass under the laws of another jurisdiction.

Nursing home costs continue to rise, and most clients are simply unprepared to pay for the possibility of this expense during their lifetime. Without preplanning, many clients and their surviving families will be left destitute in the event of a catastrophic illness requiring skilled nursing care. To explore these planning opportunities, I am pleased to present this eighth installment of our Trusts, Estates, & Elder Law Boot Camp for Advisors. This year’s presentation will focus on the current state of the law and the anticipated changes to better equip you to answer your clients’ questions and encourage them to plan. In addition to covering the fundamentals of trusts, wills, and probate, we will cover Asset Protection Techniques for the Wealthy and Middle Class, Asset Protection Opportunities for Beneficiaries, Veterans Special Pension Benefits for Aid & Attendance, Elder Law and Medicaid Planning, and Special Needs Planning. Regardless of the estate tax, the huge demographic group called the Baby Boom continues to age and represents the largest accumulation of wealth the world has ever seen. As their trusted advisor, your Boomer clients are seeking advice from you on how to best plan for these transfers and how to preserve their wealth from creditors, the government, and the costs of long-term care. Boot Camp will prepare you to advise your clients on their many options, while enabling you to meet most, if not all, of your continuing education requirements for the year.

Very truly yours,

Ronald C. Morton, J.D., LL. M.

Certified Elder Law Attorney