Key Estate Panning Technique for Married Clients in 2020: Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts

Spousal lifetime access trusts (“SLATs”) planning can provide tremendous planning benefits for many married clients. They may well be the most popular technique to plan for married clients (and others) in 2020. Every practitioner needs to be comfortable and knowledgeable of SLAT planning and drafting. With proper tailoring for the current environment, a useful default estate and financial planning strategy are to employ non-reciprocal SLATs. This can provide a flexible framework for a wide range of clients and can achieve an array of planning goals. The technique can be adapted for modest estates needing life insurance trusts and vehicles to use some of the temporary high exemption, to ultra-high net worth clients requiring more aggressive tax-oriented estate planning, e.g. sales of discounted assets to a grantor trust. Many anticipate that the transfer tax system will be made harsher in the near future to help pay the government bailouts. Some variations of SLAT planning may remain useful to many married clients. This webinar will provide a practical how-to discussion of how to plan and draft a SLAT plan. Clauses and techniques that will be discussed and illustrated with sample language will include specific examples of how to different each spouse’s trust to deflect a challenge under the reciprocal trust doctrine, hybrid DAPTs, loan provision, floating spouse clauses, life insurance provisions, tax reimbursement clause and more. Practical funding considerations, including consideration of step-transaction doctrine risks, due diligence, solvency affidavits, etc. SLATs are powerful, relevant and robust planning techniques for every planner’s tool kit today.

Speakers: Martin M. Shenkman, Esq.

Sponsor: The Jones Financial Group, Southbury, CT – Brian Jones.

Featured Charity: The American Cancer Society, Inc. – Augustine Burriesci.

*There are no professional advancement credits.

*This may constitute attorney advertising.