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Year-End Tax Planning: Do’s and Don’ts for Estate Tax Planners


Product Code - TMW36
Speaker(s): Alan S. Gassman, Esq., Kenneth J. Crotty, Esq., Christopher J. Denicolo, Esq., Gassman Law Associates, P.A. and Jerome Hesch, Carlton Fields (Miami)
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 Through the end of 2012, the lifetime gift exemption for clients has been increased to $5,120,000 and is set to revert to $1,000,000 on January 1, 2013. This program concentrates on what techniques are available for planners to utilize clients’ increased lifetime gift exemptions and the potential planning pitfalls and traps that need to be considered. Practitioners who want to be ready to maximize their clients’ increased lifetime gift exemption before the end of the year should not miss this program.

Major Topics:

  • How to take advantage of the increased lifetime gift tax exemption
  • Establishing Dynasty Trusts for the benefit of spouses and descendants
  • Using valuation adjustment clauses to maximize the value of gifts while reducing the likelihood of making a taxable gift on audit
  • Application of the Step Transaction to gifts
  • Utilizing LLCs or LLPs when making gifts
  • Discussion of the Reciprocal Trust Doctrine for spouses considering establishing trusts for each other
  • Utilizing split gifts and common mistakes related to same
  • The potential "clawback" (recapture) problem, both generally and in relation to portability, should the applicable exclusion amount drop
  • Intentionally defective grantor trusts (IDGT); grantor deemed owner trusts (GDOT); and beneficiary defective inheritor's trusts (BDIT)
  • Analysis of Keller v. United States and how this important case will help taxpayers, including useful charts summarizing the decision
  • Forgiving loans or reducing debt and using Swap-Back SCINS to utilize the increased lifetime gift exemption.
  • Anticipating higher income tax rates and the 3.8% Medicare Tax.
  • Accelerating income, and planning to “spray” income to trust beneficiaries in lieu of using Grantor Trusts.
  • How the Estate of Turner v. Commissioner will impact the use of Crummey Powers.
  • Discussion of a Planner’s Checklist which can be reviewed by practitioners with their clients to help discover additional planning opportunities.

Learning Objectives:

Maximize the use of client’s increased lifetime gift exemption
Understand the traps which may apply to year-end planning

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 and avoid adverse gift tax consequences.

Course Level: Intermediate

Alan S. Gassman, Esq., Kenneth J. Crotty, Esq., Christopher J. Denicolo, Esq., Gassman Law Associates, P.A. and Jerome Hesch, Carlton Fields (Miami)

 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 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 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 BNA book Estate Tax Planning in 2011 & 2012. 

Jerome Hesch, Esq., is Of Counsel at Carlton Fields in Miami. Mr. 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. Prior to practicing law, Mr. Hesch was a full-time law professor for 20 years, teaching at both University of Miami School of Law and Albany Law School, Union University.