Heckerling
Institute 2003
Reports from the event, as posted to the ABA-PTL List Serve |
Report #5
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to 2003 Table of Contents
As we have done in January for the last six years, and again
with the permission of the University of Miami School of Law Center
for Continuing Legal Education, we will be posting to this list
throughout the coming week highlights of the proceedings of the
37th Annual Philip E. Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning that
is being held January 6-10, 2003 at the Fontainebleau Hilton Resort
and Towers in Miami Beach, Florida.
We also will be posting the full text of this year's Reports on
the ABA RPPT Section's Web site, as we have since the 2000 Institute.
Those Reports can be found at URL http://www.abanet.org/rppt/meetings_cle/heckerling/home.html.
In addition, each Report can also be accessed at any time from the
ABA-PTL Discussion List's Web-based Archive at URL http://mail.abanet.org/archives/aba-ptl.html.
A complete listing of the proceedings and speakers is available
on the Institute's Web site.
The URL for that site is http://www.law.miami.edu/heckerling.
===================================================
REPORT NO. 5 - Tues Jan 7
First - several hot new items:
- A fact sheet on the President's stimulus proposal
can be accessed at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030107.html
- The fourth quarterly edition of the Uniform Trust
Code Notes has been released. It includes an article by David
English on the Kansas adoption of the UTC and an article by Ed Halbach
on the duties of trustees.
The newsletter is available on the homepage of the NCCUSL website
- <file://www.nccusl.org>www.nccusl.org
- under "Important Documents."
Also, an omission occurred in the introduction to this year's program.
Michael Weinberg, of Denver, Co is also one of the panel in the
breakout session on Thursday. The correct information should
be:
IV-E Split-Dollar Life Insurance
Lawrence Brody
Jonathan G. Blattmachr
Mary Ann Mancini
Michael D. Weinberg
===============================
The following report has been filed concerning the software vendors
who are
in the Exhibit Hall this year and other technology news by our on-site
Reporter, Jason Havens, Esq. of Destin, Florida, the creator of
the Legal
Research for Estate Planners Web site (http://www.jasonhavens.net).
This
report continues the coverage of software and some other vendors
who are
exhibiting at the Institute. Although our reports do not include
direct
hyperlinks, we would recommend that users search for a particular
vendor
using a search engine such as Google (http://www.google.com).
Following are the highlights from the "second round" among
the software and
other vendors. These highlights are generally classified in categories
that
will hopefully prove helpful to list members. A final "round"
will hopefully
follow.
A. CALCULATION SOFTWARE:
1. Thomson (continued): Thomson also offers the Intuitive Estate
Planner,
which will probably face serious competition from the new Kugler
Estate
Analyzer (TM) by Brentmark (mentioned in our first software report
for 2003)
and the new Advanced ViewPlan by CCH.
2. BNA Estate Tax Planner: BNA's Estate Tax Planner is still available,
as
is BNA's tax preparation software.
3. Crescendo Interactive, Inc.: Crescendo has long been recognized
for its
excellent charitable planning software that handles calculations
and also
produces illustrations of charitable planning techniques.
4. PG Calc, Incorporated: PG Calc offers software for charitable
gift
planners.
B. DRAFTING SOFTWARE:
1. Lawgic (continued): Lawgic also intends to add a list serve and
bulletin
board feature to serve its users. The addition will emulate
the ABA-PTL
list serve.
2. Eidelman Associates (continued): EP Expert (TM) will allow a
user to
"drag and drop" people into various roles in structuring
documents, e.g.,
dragging a person into a fiduciary role as a trustee or personal
representative/executor/executrix. EP Expert also handles
pronouns, commas,
and other common grammatical issues. Several large firms apparently
use EP
Expert to produce their custom forms based on their own language.
3. Datatech Software, Inc. (continued): ThinkDOCS uses an integrated
database that stores answers that users input in dialog boxes.
Therefore,
if a change is made (e.g., changing a client's name from "Bill"
to
"William"), the database can prompt the user that a change
has occurred and
can then apply the change to all of the client's documents.
Users can also
use templates to make ThinkDOCS more efficient and effective, similar
to
other drafting programs. ThinkDOCS costs $695 for a two-user
license as of
May 2002 (according to Law Office Computing).
Datatech also offers Quick and Easy, a program that facilitates
the
preparation of tax returns (as listed under category C below).
This program
will probably become one of the most popular tax preparation packages
due to
its ease of use.
C. TRUST ACCOUNTING & RELATED ADMINISTRATION SOFTWARE:
1. The Lackner Group, Inc.: The Lackner Group, Inc. has consistently
offered
a single-entry estate administration program known as the 6-in-1
Estate
Administration System. This system produces the 706, 1041,
the accounting
and inventory for the estate administration, and relevant state
tax forms as
well.
2. Financial Data Service, Inc.: This program also produces the
706 and 709
transfer tax returns, as well as probate reports and other items.
3. Lynx Software Systems, Inc.: Lynx offers a trust accounting software
package to United States and international customers.
D. APPRAISAL & VALUATION SOFTWARE:
(N/A for 2003 software report #2)
E. RESEARCH SOFTWARE & SERVICES:
(N/A for 2003 software report #2)
F. MISCELLANEOUS VENDORS:
1. Advance Choice, Inc./DocuBank: DocuBank (R) offers a secure place
to
store disability planning documents, such as durable powers of attorney,
health care surrogates/durable powers of attorney for healthcare,
and living
wills. Attorneys can apparently join for free, and will then
receive
discounts for their clients.
2. Power Presentations: This company offers packaged presentations
for
estate planning seminars and client presentations.
3. Thomson: Practitioners Publishing Company (PPC) offers a "Basic
Estate
Planning Complete Engagement Kit" that purports to be a comprehensive
tool
to understand the basic estate planning techniques and the technology
resources to help attorneys advise their clients in a profitable
manner.
4. Schumaker Publishing, Inc.: This company markets packaged websites
for
estate planning attorneys.
If any vendors or any important developments were omitted that we
should
have mentioned, please stay tuned. We will attempt to cover all
items of
interest in future reports as time permits. Thank you.
=====================================
What to Do with Art and Other Valuable Stuff
Ralph Lerner
Tues, Jan 7
The primary issue of the presentation is to make sure the contribution
is correctly made so that the anticipated income, estate and gift
tax consequences are obtained.
Before making the gift, the donor must determine 4 things:
1.
The status of the charitable organization - a public vs private
charity
2.
The type of property being contributed - capital gain property is
best
3.
Whether the property satisfies the related use rule, and
4.
Obtain a qualified appraisal if the value and type of property so
requires.
The donor should write a letter to the charity before the contribution
describing the property and asking what use the charity will make
of it. Documentation of a related use is necessary to protect
the donor’s tax deductions.
Remember, if the donor retains too many rights, that the gift may
be of a future interest and no charitable deduction would be allowed.
Ralph’s materials also include checklists for letters to appraisers
and forms to be used in making the gift.
Interspersed with a number of great comments and war stories, this
program was both entertaining and enlightening.
Charitable Lead Trusts Re-examined:
The Dawning of a Golden Age
Ed Beckwith
Jan 7
Ed reviewed of CLTs in the current atmosphere of uncertainty
regarding the estate and gift tax and the increasing unified credit
amount.
Discussed were Qualified Non-grantor CLT’s - those that are treated
as separate taxpayers, and Qualified Grantor CLT’s - those that
are grantor trusts, and finally, Non-Qualified Non-grantor CLT’s.
Because for gift tax purposes, a deduction is allowable for the
present value of the charitable interest, the lower the 7520 rate,
the better.
He discussed the GST effects of such trusts - no GST effects on
creation but GST may be due upon termination if the remainder beneficiaries
are skip persons. The taxation of the trust and the beneficiaries,
and the excised taxes that could be imposed were also explained.
Ed then went through some of the advanced planning considerations.
These include opportunities created by the 2001 Tax Act and general
planning considerations applicable to CLT’s, as well as using the
CLT as the family’s charitable pocketbook. Finally, he finished
with a summary of current developments occurring in this area.
__________________________________________
GENERAL INFORMATION:
Inquiries/Registration:
Philip E. Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning
University of Miami School of Law
Center for Continuing Legal Education
P.O. Box 248087
Coral Gables, FL 33124-8087
Telephone: 305-284-4762 / FAX: 305-284-6752
Web site: www.law.miami.edu/heckerling
E-mail: heckerling@law.miami.edu
===========================================
Headquarters Hotel - Fontainebleau Hilton
4441 Collins Avenue
Miami Beach, FL 33140
Telephone (305) 538-2000, FAX (305) 674-4607
==================================================
NOTICE: Although audio tapes of all of the substantive session
at the Miami Institute currently are only made available to Institute
registrants for purchase, the entire proceeding of the Institute
are
published annually by Lexis/Nexis. For further information, go to
their Web site at http://www.lexisnexis.com/productsandservices.
The text of these proceedings is also available on CD ROM from
Authority On-Demand by LexisNexis Matthew Bender. For further
information, contact your sales representative, or call (800) 833-
9844, or fax (518) 487-3584, or go to http://www.bender.com,
or write to Matthew Bender & Co., Inc., Attn: Order Fulfillment
Dept.,
1275 Broadway, Albany, NY 12204.
______________________________________________________
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//-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Eugene P. Zuspann II
Denver, Colorado
Mail:
ezuspann@zuspann.com
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