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Making the Most of Year End Planning Opportunities with Checklists, Forms and Client Letters


Wednesday, October 30, 2013
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM ET
Product Code - TMW129
Speaker(s): Alan S. Gassman, Esq., Kenneth J. Crotty, Esquire, and Christopher J. Denicolo, Esquire
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This new practical webinar from Bloomberg BNA, presented by Alan S. Gassman, Kenneth J. Crotty and Christopher J. Denicolo, concentrates on year-end planning techniques which practitioners need to consider for their clients.  This includes techniques that are available to utilize the clients’ lifetime gift exemption, to structure clients’ planning to reduce or eliminate possible income tax exposure, and the potential pitfalls and traps that need to be considered. Practitioners should not miss this program.

During this live webinar, Gassman, Crotty and Denicolo will cover:

  • Stepped-up basis planning - considering the use of a JEST trust, Alaska community property trusts, and similar techniques
  • Income tax planning as a result of the higher income tax rates and the 3.8% Medicare tax
  • Mechanizing office correspondence client interaction and drafting systems to facilitate annual gifting to make use of annual exclusions and lifetime gift tax exemptions
  • Utilizing split gifts and common mistakes related to same
  • Reforming irrevocable trusts to facilitate a stepped-up basis upon the Grantor’s death
  • How asset growth and savings can make a currently non-estate taxable client subject to possible estate tax in years to come
  • Designing valuation adjustment and assignment clauses to maximize the value of the gifts while using valuation discounts
  • Application of the Step Transaction Doctrine to year-end gifts
  • Utilizing LLCs or LLLPs when making gifts
  • Establishing Dynasty Trusts for the benefit of spouses and descendants
  • Using Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts (IDGT)
  • Forgiving loans or reducing debt and using Swap-Back SCINs to utilize the increased lifetime gift exemption
  • Analysis of CCA 201330033, and how this may impact utilizing SCINs
  • Accelerating income, and planning to “spray” income to trust beneficiaries in lieu of using Grantor Trusts
  • Reconsidering the use of irrevocable life insurance trusts because of the 40% Rule
  • Discussion of a planner’s checklist which can be reviewed by practitioners with their clients to help discover additional planning opportunities

Learning Objectives:

  • Understanding the traps which may apply to year-end planning
  • Facilitating a stepped-up income tax basis on assets on death to eliminate possible future capital gains
  • Recognizing that planning for possible estate tax is important for currently non-estate taxable clients because of future assets growth and savings
  • Structuring clients’ planning to plan for income tax avoidance
  • Maximizing the use of clients’ increased lifetime gift exemption
  • Implementing and annual gifting system that is easily communicated to clients
  • Reviewing a checklist of important items to review with clients

Designed For:Any tax practitioner who wants to understand various strategies to utilize a client’s lifetime gift exemption before the end of the year, structure clients’ planning to reduce income tax exposure, and avoid adverse consequences.

Course Level: Intermediate

CPE Credits: 1.5

Prerequisite: Basic understanding of estate planning techniques

Advance Preparation: None

Alan S. Gassman, Esq., Kenneth J. Crotty, Esquire, and Christopher J. Denicolo, Esquire

Alan S. Gassman, J.D., LL.M. practices law in Clearwater, Florida. Each year he published numerous articles in publications such as BNA Tax & Accounting, Estate Planning, Trusts and Estates, The Journal of Asset Protection, and Steve Leimberg’s Asset Protection Planning Newsletters. Mr. Gassman is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a member of the Executive Council of the Tax Section of the Florida Bar, and has been quoted on many occasions in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine, Medical Economics, Modern Healthcare, and Florida Trend magazine. He is an author, along Kenneth Crotty and Christopher Denicolo, of the Bloomberg BNA Tax & Accounting book Estate Tax Planning in 2011 and 2012. He is the senior partner at Gassman Law Associates, P.A. in Clearwater, Florida, which he founded in 1987. 

Kenneth J. Crotty, J.D., LL.M., is a partner at the Clearwater, Florida law firm of Gassman Law Associates, P.A., where he practices in the areas of estate tax and trust planning, taxation, physician representation, and corporate and business law. Mr. Crotty has co-authored several handbooks that have been published in BNA Tax & Accounting, Estate Planning, Steve Leimberg’s Estate Planning and Asset Protection Planning Newsletters and Estate Planning magazine. He, Alan Gassman and Christopher Denicolo are the co-authors of the Bloomberg BNA book Estate Tax Planning in 2011 & 2012. 

Christopher J. Denicolo, J.D., LL.M. is a partner at the Clearwater, Florida law firm of Gassman Law Associates, P.A., where he practices in the areas of estate tax and trust planning, taxation, physician representation, and corporate and business law. He is the author of several noted articles in The Florida Bar Journal, BNA Tax & Accounting, Estate Planning Magazine and Leimberg Information Services, Inc. He, Alan Gassman and Kenneth Crotty are the co-authors of the Bloomberg BNA book Estate Tax Planning in 2011 & 2012.