Posts by Kristina Schneider
The Beneficiary Controlled Trust*
By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) The Beneficiary Controlled Trust name was first introduced to the estate planning industry by my father and me in our two-part article, “Protecting & Preserving Wealth into the Next Millennium,” published in the September and October 1998 issues of Trusts & Estates magazine. [Portions of this article were…
Read MoreWhat to Do When Everything is Urgent & Important?
By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success CoachToo often for most people, there’s far too much to do and not enough time to do it. This requires a balancing act of figuring out how to prioritize your work. For most people, the work that gets set aside are the non-important, but also sadly, the non-urgent and important…
Read MoreA Conversation About Perceived Value
By Melinda Merk, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, AEP® (Distinguished) This time of year, we tend to see an uptick in estate and trust administration and guardianship cases. All too often, we see situations where the deceased or incapacitated person did their estate planning on the cheap, did it themselves or, worst of all, did nothing.…
Read MoreHeckerling 2024 Reports from the ABA
The 2024 Heckerling Institute was held in-person (and virtually) in Orlando on January 8-12 and marked the conference’s 58th year. The Phillip E. Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning is the nation’s premier conference for estate planning professionals, offering unparalleled educational and professional development opportunities for all members of the estate planning team. Over the course…
Read MoreWhich Jurisdictions Are Best in 2024?
By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) It often makes sense to situs clients’ trusts in a trust jurisdiction where there is no state income tax, where the trust assets are protected from creditors and divorcing spouses, where estate taxes can be avoided forever or close to forever, and where there is flexibility to make…
Read More5 Digital Marketing Trends and Predictions for 2024
By Foster Web MarketingIf you take a look back at 2023, you’ll see a lot of change over just 12 months. Google’s algorithms and analytics evolved dramatically. Online behavior and user preferences evolved, too. AI technology rapidly took center stage, and lots of law firms rose or fell based on how willing they were to…
Read More8 Steps to Hiring a Great Executive Assistant
By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success CoachAn executive assistant is an often overlooked position for many estate planning professionals. I know this because I often interact with a lot of attorneys, financial advisors, and CPAs directly on matters that I also know would be best handled by an executive assistant. Not having an executive assistant means…
Read More7 Reasons Marketing Automation Software Is the Ultimate Gift to Yourself
By Foster Web MarketingYou spend all year working with clients and crafting plans to secure their legacies. Now that it’s December, why not give a little something back to yourself that will make your life easier, save you time, and boost your business in 2024? If it’s not already part of your strategy, marketing automation…
Read MoreDomestic Asset Protection Trusts: Why the Huber Case is a Million Percent Wrong
By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished)In Waldron v. Huber (In re Huber), Waldron v. Huber (In re Huber), Case No. 11-41013 (Bankr. W.D. Wash. Nov. 25, 2013), the court (in dicta) ruled that the law of the residency of the settlor of a Domestic Asset Protection Trust (“DAPT”) applies rather than the law chosen…
Read MoreIt’s You! Hi! You Might Be the Problem! It’s You!
By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success CoachI am not going to sugarcoat this article and it may rub some people the wrong way. This is a topic that has the power to be life-changing and transformative to your life and your practice, but it depends on what you do with this information. I recently had the…
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