Beyond DOMA-Repeal: Property Tax Changes Affecting Unmarried, Non-Domestic Partners in California

By Alma Soongi Beck, J.D. LL.M. Taxation, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law With so much attention on the marriage cases, practitioners advising same-sex couples may be missing two crucial changes in property tax rules from 2013 affecting co-owners of property who are not married to each other or registered in the state as domestic partners. The issue is Property Tax Reassessment, which has often been bad news for same-sex couples. California state property taxes have been governed by Proposition 13 since 1978, which in most cases sets property taxes based on the acquisition…

SPECIAL TELECONFERENCE: The Future of Estate Planning with Jonathan G. Blattmachr

Thanks to The Trust Advisor and Alaska Trust Company for allowing us the opportunity to replay a special audio teleconference rebroadcast of the special program entitled, “The Future of Trusts, Wills & Estate Planning: Predictions from Futurist Jonathan G. Blattmachr that May Impact Your Clients’ Income, Wealth and Lifestyle” with speakers, Jonathan G. Blattmachr, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation) and Douglas Blattmachr on Wednesday, October 30, 2013 at 9am Pacific (12pm Eastern). On this special 60-minute teleconference replay, you will learn: How electronic wills will shape the future of estate planning Where asset protection planning is going and why How directed trust…

NEW SERVICE: Personal Consultation on Seminar Marketing with Ultimate Estate Planner Executive Director, Kristina Schneider

Think seminar marketing is dead? Not finding the same results with seminars as you used to? Your results may be due to some very important details, systems and procedures that you aren’t doing correctly (or even at all!). The devil is in the details and not following the tested and proven procedures for successfully implementing seminars may severely impact your seminar results. If you’re not regularly getting business from seminars, closing over 75% of your seminar attendees and over 75% of those coming in from your seminars, you might benefit from this brand new expert consultation we are now offering….

New White Paper: “How to Handle the Q&A Session at the End of a Living Trust Seminar”

Holding a Questions & Answers Session at the conclusion of a seminar presentation is always important, but perhaps not for the reasons that you might think. The Q&A session of a retail seminar, geared to generate business from either your existing clients or prospective new clients, is a great opportunity to develop interaction between you (the speaker) and the audience. It’s also an opportunity for you to find out what issues people are most concerned with. Keep in mind, while it might be tempting to want to completely answer each question you get, you don’t want to get into too…

Portability Resources for Estate Planners

With passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act in 2012, portability has now been made “permanent”. Introduced into law for the first time in 2011 with the 2010 Tax Act, the concept of portability permits a married couple to fully utilize its combined $10 million (and now $10.5 million) lifetime exemption as indexed by letting the surviving spouse claim any unused portion of the deceased spouse’s exemption. With this provision now permanent, the surviving spouse no longer has a time limit to decide how best to use the increased exemption both during life through increased gifting and at death by…

Another Successful Ultimate Level Event!

After a much-awaited third and final “Ultimate Level” attorney training program for 2013, we are pleased to announce that we had probably one of the most well-attended and successful events yet last week from October 3rd through the 5th. We went to the Crowne Plaza Redondo Beach & Marina Hotel where we were set up inside their beautiful Seascape Ballroom which not only accommodated our group of attorneys and support staff comfortably in a classroom setting, along with a stage and comfortable lounge chairs for the personal one-on-one consultations before the group, but we were able to display our various…

NEW CHART: Robert Keebler’s 2013 Year-End Tax Planning Chart

BRAND NEW—The 2013 Year-End Tax Planning Chart We are pleased to announce the release of Robert Keebler’s new 2013 Year-End Tax Planning Chart. This chart covers the Top 10 Tax Planning Ideas for 2013 including a further look at Roth Conversions, Harvesting Capital Gains, Gain Harvesting on Investments, PEP/PEASE and the 3.8% Healthcare Surtax. This chart takes a number of Bob’s charts and combines them on an easy-to-follow and simple chart to share with your clients and referral sources. NOTE: The 2013 Year-End Tax Planning Chart is available for purchase on our new credit card processing system and is not…

It’s Raining Cats and Dogs (and Llamas and Birds and Horses)

              By Eden Rose Brown, Esq. The statistics are compelling:  Over 90 million American households own companion animals – a total of more than 218 million pets of all shapes and sizes!  These pet owners spend an average of $500 on each pet, totaling more than $12 billion annually, and that does not include toys, grooming and food.  Of these pet owners, over 63% say that they consider their pets to be family members and 79% allow their pets to sleep with them. The strength of the human-animal bond is powerful. Through the years I have found that…

The Dynasty Trust: Jurisdictional Choices

By Steven J. Oshins, J.D., AEP (Distinguished) Most trusts are designed as Staggered Distribution Trusts which are trusts that make mandatory distributions to the beneficiaries upon reaching certain ages.   For example, many trusts pay out one-third of the assets upon the beneficiary reaching age 25, one-half of the balance upon the beneficiary reaching age 30 and the balance upon the beneficiary reaching age 35.  The philosophy used by the scriveners of these types of trusts is that the beneficiaries have multiple opportunities to learn from their mistakes. Those who recommend Staggered Distribution Trusts fail to properly consider the estate tax…

7 Tips for Making More Appointments – – Right at a Seminar!

By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law Many seminar speakers forget (or don’t realize) that the main goal of a seminar is not to educate, but to motivate the attendees to make appointments with you before they leave the seminar! Our goal is always to make appointments with a minimum of 80% of the “units” attending (husband and wife equal one unit).  That may be a lofty goal for you to begin with, but you should at least shoot for an initial appointment rate of 50%. …