Drafting Effective Wills and Trusts Training Class

Course ID: 9333

Drafting Effective Wills and Trusts Training Seminar

Help Your Clients Meet Their Estate Planning Needs

People don't like to contemplate their own death, but they do need to consider what will happen to their assets when they die. Tax issues, medical decisions, and a wide range of planning documents make the process even more complicated. But you can give your clients peace of mind by creating effective wills and trusts that carry out all of their wishes.

This basic-level program will provide you with the fundamentals of preparing estate planning documents, including wills, trusts, and ancillary documents such as powers of attorney. Discover the pros and cons of using various types of documents, as well as the tax ramifications involved. Tackle the ethical issues related to estate planning, both from the attorney's perspective and from that of the client who must make end-of-life medical decisions.

Choose the planning document that is best suited for your client.
Provide protection for minors, incompetent persons, and beneficiaries with special needs.
Learn how and when to use revocable living trust, pour-over wills, and durable powers of attorney.
Make sure that your client's property qualifies for the marital deduction.
Reduce your client's estate tax, gift tax and generation-skipping transfer tax.
Use a living will or durable power of attorney for health care to help the client control end-of-life medical decisions.
Handle ethical issues that arise in estate planning, such as competency of the client and conflicts of interest.


	Agenda
	FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF WILL DRAFTING Selecting the Vehicle - Initial Advice to the Client Checklist for Gathering Client Information The Statutory ABCs: What is Required? Methods of Designating Fiduciaries Disinheritance and No Contest Clauses - Will They Stand? Protective Clauses for Minors, Incompetent Persons and Beneficiaries With Special Needs Building Flexibility Into the Plan - Checklist of Special Provisions Practical Pointers With Sample Forms Developing a Document Preparation System USING LIVING TRUSTS AND POWERS OF ATTORNEY AS ESTATE PLANNING TOOLS Common Elements in Trust Agreements The Revocable Living Trust - Why You Should Use It Disadvantages of Revocable Living Trusts Sample Pour-Over Will and Living Trust Agreements Durable Powers of Attorney BASIC TAX CONSIDERATIONS -- WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW IN ORDER TO CHOOSE THE APPROPRIATE PLAN Tax Considerations of Drafting Living or Testamentary Trusts Marital Deduction Planning - Qualifications and Basic Formula Approaches Estate and Gift Taxes Generation-Skipping Transfer Taxes Income Tax - Ramifications of Trusts ETHICS AND ESTATE PLANNING Selected Ethical Rules Affecting the Estate Planner Who's Your Client? Conflict of Interest Competency - A Word to the Wise Attorney Fees PLANNING METHODS TO CONTROL MEDICAL TREATMENT What a Living Will Can and Cannot Accomplish Picking Up Where a Living Will Ends - Durable Powers of Attorney for Health Care/Health Care Proxy Preserving Your Client's Dignity Through the Patient Self-Determination Act Anatomical Gifts - Making the Difficult Decisions During Life and Upon Death


	Audience
	This basic-level seminar is for attorneys who have little or no experience drafting wills and trusts, as well as paralegals, trust officers and accountants.