Year-End Sales Tip to Get Clients to Engage You

By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law As we head into the final weeks of the year, you may experience some push back from clients and prospective clients you are meeting with.  In particular, they may say that the holiday time is too busy and they’d like to revisit things sometime next year. The problem with this is that once they leave your office, it’ll be much harder to circle back with them, get them in, get them re-motivated to do the planning, and do business…

Santa’s 2019 Estate Planning Naughty or Nice List

By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) Have you been naughty or have you been nice in 2019?  This article is directed towards all estate planners, including attorneys, accountants, trust officers, life insurance agents and financial planners.  This will help you decide whether you’re been naughty or you’ve been nice. Staggered Distribution Trusts: If you encourage your clients to create trusts that make mandatory outright distributions to the clients’ children upon reaching staggered ages, then you’re on the Naughty List.  This subjects the trust assets to the creditors and divorcing spouses of the children.  Trusts should generally be designed to…

Are You (or Have You) Drafted IRA Trusts? You Better Make Sure You Do THIS!

By Kristina Schneider, Practice-Building & Marketing Specialist As you may be aware, the SECURE Act threated to reduce the IRA beneficiary stretchout from life expectancy to only 10 years. However, after passing through the House in late May, it has yet to make its way through the Senate. It’s still unclear if and when it may get passed and now into December, it doesn’t seem likely to pass sometime this year. If you have been and/or are drafting standalone IRA Beneficiary Trusts (or IRA Inheritance Trusts®) for your clients, you may nevertheless have these or other law changes in the…