Practical Precautions Practitioners Should Consider for Estate Planning: Lessons from Sorensen, Smaldino and Levine

There have been several recent important decisions out of the United States Tax Court, Levine Est.  v. Comr., 158 T.C. No. 2 (February 28, 2022), a taxpayer victory in an intergenerational family split-dollar estate tax case, and Smaldino v. Comr., T.C. Memo. 2021-127 (November 10, 2021), a taxpayer loss in an indirect gift case. Most recently the Sorensen v. Commissioner, Tax Ct. Dkt. Nos. 24797-18, 24798-18, 20284-19, 20285-19 (decision entered Aug. 22, 2022) highlighted the importance of proper documentation and implementation of planning. While these cases present a plethora of substantive law issues worthy of discussion, this webinar will focus on the practical lessons for estate planning professionals of all disciplines, and for clients of all wealth levels, about how to plan considering the lessons of these cases. Understanding what was done right or wrong provides valuable guidance on how to better structure and implement estate plans. What about the step transaction doctrine? How to implement and administer a defined value clause? What steps should be taken in terms of tax reporting, entity records and trust records to support a Wandry clause or other planning step? Consistency, avoiding circularity of transactions, and getting appraisals right will be discussed. Considerations for how the client’s sophistication and comfort level may inform planning that is undertaken. Related party transactions are subject to close scrutiny. What does that mean to planning? And much more.

Speakers: Martin Shenkman, Esq. and Paul Hood, JD, LLM

*This may constitute attorney advertising.

* No CPE, CLE, etc. is offered but a certificate of attendance will be provided.