The recent passage of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 has changed the playing field, and professional advisors and authorities have been working for weeks now to get their arms around how to handle the new estate tax planning world brought about by this.
The new $5.0 million exemption, together with a 35% tax rate, applies to estates of those dying in 2011 and 2012, as well as to gifts and generation-skipping transfers made in those years. Then, in 2013, the pre-EGTRRA law will return, with a $1.0 million exclusion and a maximum 55% tax rate. This presentation allows participants to focus on the opportunities offered for planners by these changes, and bring clarity where there has been much confusion.
What will be covered:This live webinar provided participants with a good basic and some advanced knowledge of the following: • Estate and tax planning opportunities for clients with estates both above and below the new $5,000,000 thresholds. • A working knowledge of the new rules, and how to work with them• Deadlines for taking action and filing tax returns and important tax elections • What to do for estates of clients with over $5,000,000 in assets who died in 2010• Professor Hesch’s analysis of the clawback risk, and why it should not prevent large 2011 and 2012 gifting• How many favored past techniques will continue to apply in 2011 and 2012, but in different ways• How dynasty trust planning will be different and more popular• The pros and cons tax exemption portability in 2011 and 2012, and how to make credit shelter trust planning more flexible• Why this is an opportune time to review estate plans• Expanded opportunities to use the estate tax regime for income tax planning if an individual owns interests in real estate where liabilities exceed tax basis
Education Objectives:Participants learned:• How to advise estates of decedents dying in 2010 on whether to accept the estate tax or to elect the carryover basis regime• The continued merit of credit shelter trusts versus exemption portability• Leveraging the increased estate and gift exemptions by the use of dynasty trusts and grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs) • How to advise clients on generation-skipping transfers in 2011 and 2012• Why this is an opportune time to review estate plans
Alan Gassman, Jerome Hesch, Christopher Denicolo
Alan Gassman, J.D., LL.M.
Admitted to Bar, 1983, Florida.
Education: Rollins College (B.A., with distinction, 1980); University of Florida (J.D., with honors, 1982; LL.M., Taxation, 1983).
Listed in: Florida Trend's 2004 "Top 1.8% of the Best Lawyers in Florida"; Who's Who in American Law, 1991-1998; Who's Who in America, 1998; Who's Who in Science and Industry and Law and Leading Lawyers. Mr. Gassman has received an AV rating in Martindale-Hubbell Directories, based upon confidential colleague survey, which is the highest rating available.
Author: Articles published in Journal of Asset Protection: "Implementing Asset Protection Strategies to Protect the Medical Practice," Nov./Dec. 1996 and "Tax Planning for Offshore Trust Arrangements," July/Aug. 1997; Articles published in Medical Staff Counselor: "Structuring Group Medical Practices: Shareholder and Partnership Agreements," Fall 1992 and "Structuring Group Medical Practices: Tax Planning Aspects; Articles published in Estate Planning Magazine "The 10 Most Common Mistakes that Estate Planners Make in Asset Protection Matters"; and over 200 more articles.
Member: Board of Advisors, Journal of Asset Protection (1994-1997), Law & Leading Attorney, 1996-2000. Contributing Author, Leimberg Information Services (LISI). President, Pinellas County Estate Planning Council, 1994. Fellow, American Bar Foundation. Member, National Association of Estate Planers & Councils.
Continuing Education Programs: Co-Chairman and Presenter of the Florida Bar's annual Physician Representation Seminar, and Vice Chairman and Presenter of the Florida Bar's annual Wealth Conservation Seminar. Mr. Gassman's outlines on Asset Protection In the Estate Plan, Physician Disaster Avoidance, and What Every Doctor Should Know About Asset Protection have and continue to be presented each year at numerous continuing education and professional seminar conferences, including the ALI-ABA Sophisticated Planning Techniques Seminar in Boston, Massachusetts, The Midwestern Estate and Tax Planning Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, The Florida Society of Osteopathic Physicians and numerous Estate Planning Council presentations throughout the State of Florida.
(Board Certified Wills, Trusts and Estates Lawyer, Florida Bar Board of Legal Specialization and Education).
Practice Areas: Estate Planning; Health Law; Tax Planning; Corporate Law; Business Law.
Jerome M. Hesch, Of Counsel, Carlton Fields, Miami
Practice Experience
Jerome Hesch has extensive experience as a tax and estate planning consultant. His practice experience also includes the use of captive insurance companies, financial derivatives, and energy tax credits. Mr. Hesch is a member of ACTEC and has published extensively, including several Tax Management Portfolios. He also co-authored a law school casebook on federal income taxation, now in its fourth edition.
Mr. Hesch has appeared before groups such as: the University of Miami Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning; the University of Southern California Tax Institute; AICPA; and the New York University Institute on Federal Taxation.
Professional Recognition Selected for inclusion in Florida Super Lawyers (2006-2008) Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America (2003-2009, 2011)
BackgroundAdjunct Professor of Law (Miami, FL)
Florida International University
St. Thomas University
University of Miami School of Law
Office of Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service (Washington, D.C.)
Law Professor (1975-1994)
Albany Law School, Union University
Christopher J. Denicolo, J.D., LL.M. is an associate at the Clearwater, Florida law firm of Gassman, Bates & Associates, P.A., where he practices in the areas of estate tax and trust planning, taxation, physician representation, and corporate and business law. His e-mail address is christopher@gassmanpa.com.