The SECURE Act: Everything You Need to Know (and How to Advise Your Clients!)

On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed a spending bill which had attached to it a piece of legislation that much of the estate, tax and financial world has been anxiously awaiting for an update on called the “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019” (or “SECURE Act”). The SECURE Act went into effect January 1st, 2020 and is set to dramatically impact retirement planning for you and your clients! As many are aware, the most important provision of the SECURE Act to impact our clients and the planning we do for them includes the elimination of…

LUCKY DAY PROMOTION

IT’S YOUR LUCKY DAY!SAVE 50% OFF YOUR ORDER* TAKE ADVANTAGE OF HUGE SAVINGS! It’s YOUR lucky day here at The Ultimate Estate Planner from Friday, March 15th through Sunday, March 17th! Take advantage of some HUGE savings on a variety of products on our website.  That means you can get some significant deals, including the following: Save 50% off of everything* on our website! BROWSE ALL PRODUCTS CHECK THESE OUT! All Instant Downloads (formerly On-Demand Programs) – All of our educational programs are now instantly downloadable when you place your order.  Covering a wide variety of topics, including legal/technical, as…

BUNDLE PACKAGE: The Personal Asset Trust & IRA Inheritance Trust® Legal Document Form Packages

Get 2 of Our Most Popular and Unique Legal Products – – for One Reduced Bundle Price! Estate planning these days has become a bit of a commodity and it’s harder and harder for estate planners to stay competitive, especially with all of the low-priced and online options available to consumers. However, there is still a need for estate planning lawyers.  In fact, the need is even greater than ever with all of the complex issues among families and new laws and rules constantly evolving.  The online and occasional estate planners cannot keep up or compare. One of the largest…

Top Mistakes Attorneys Make Marketing Their Seminars

By Kristina Schneider Many estate planning attorneys think that seminars don’t work—for a variety of reasons.  Some of these reasons may be valid, but the most common reason that I find when I talk to estate planning attorneys is they say, “I tried it and they didn’t work.” It’s then that we begin to have a discussion about how they went about marketing it and as we begin to look into things further, it is clear to me why they don’t think that seminars work.  Worse yet, for some attorneys, I have found that when we actually reviewed the return…

Oh *%@! You Messed Up! Now What?

By Kristina Schneider, Executive Assistant We have all been there at some point in our lives, whether in the workplace, school, at home, anywhere.  You make a mistake of some kind.  It happens.  You’re human.  It’s bound to happen.  However, how to handle the mistake that you made is very different for a lot of people.  What might seem like common sense for some people, isn’t always for others. Here are some tips for how to handle making a mistake.  The intention is for mistakes made in the workplace, but these tips can be used really anywhere in life. STEP…

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Oshins – Chapter I (Uniform Acts: Good or Bad?)

By Steven J. Oshins, Esq., AEP (Distinguished) Testing his theory that in every man dwells a good and an evil force, the reserved Dr. Jekyll develops a formula that separates the two, turning him into an argumentative estate planning attorney named Mr. Oshins who tells it like it is.  Dr. Jekyll soon realizes he is becoming addicted to his darker self as he unleashes his opinions on the estate planning industry. In Chapter I, Dr. Jekyll tackles the issue of whether Uniform Acts are good or bad.  As expected, Mr. Oshins will provide a different view of the issue than…

FAKE NEWS!

By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law Since I first rolled out my “IRA Inheritance Trust®” in 2001 and got the breakthrough positive IRS ruling in 2005 (PLR 200537044), many critics have circulated “alternative facts” about the trust that are simply untrue. Unfortunately, no matter how often I’ve fought off these various unwarranted attacks, the same ones keep reappearing from the dark recesses of the internet.  Worse yet, these are believed as gospel by many estate planners who could otherwise be doing their clients and their…

Pre-Election Estate Tax Proposals: Clinton vs. Trump

By Martin M. Shenkman, CPA, MBA, PFS, AEP, JD Are major estate tax law changes in the offing? Perhaps, but my Ouija board smoked when I asked the question. So, barring that type of guidance, what assurance can there be? The election hasn’t occurred yet, so there’s certainly no way to know which candidate will win. Party platforms haven’t even been finalized. And, there’s no assurance that the winner’s proposals will be enacted. In spite of the above, practitioners should put all clients involved in active planning on notice of Clinton and Trump’s proposals because they’re so dramatically different. No…