welcome to wills, trusts and estate planning pa221-01

Welcome to Wills, Trusts and Estate Planning

PA221-01

The Syllabus

• Due dates for assignments (Tuesday of that Unit)• Seminars for Units 1, 2 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 (4 points)• Discussion Board for Units 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 (16

points)• Assignments – Units 3, 4 6 and 8• Midterm Essays – Unit 5• Quizzes – Units 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8• Final Exam – Unit 9• Office Hours – Wednesdays at 9 PM EST and

Thursdays at 8 PM EST

About the Course

• Rubrics for Grading and Discussion Board are in DocSharing

• Written Assignments: Subject matter is 40% and Mechanics, Format, Style and Language total 60%.

• Discussion Board: Breadth and Depth is 50%; Clarity, Organization, Grammar and Mechanics are 25%; and Timeliness and Frequency are 25%.

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Overview

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impact your career.

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Overview of the Subject Matter

• Students in the course are at different levels regarding their understanding of the subject matter – Wills, Trusts and Estate Planning – if you know more, please share your understanding on the DB; if you don’t understand something, please ask!

• We meet on Thursday evenings, one day into the unit week. Please try to read the materials before our seminar. I will attempt to provide a weekly overview of the materials.

Key Concepts and Learning Journal

• In every unit, you will be introduced to a set of key concepts. Reviewing and learning these on a weekly basis is vital to your understanding of each unit's content. In this unit they are Estate Planning, Estate Administration, Gifts, Life Insurance and Wills.

• The Learning Journal is for your personal future learning and is not for submission or grading.

Key Concepts

• Estate Planning• Estate Administration• Gifts• Life Insurance • Wills

Definitions• Estate Planning – Assisting a person in accumulating,

managing, and disposing of real and personal property, while alive and/or at the time of his or her death, in order to maximize benefits.

• Estate Administration – Distribution of a person’s assets after death. This process is governed by state statute.

• Gifts – Giving of property to another without consideration.

• Life Insurance – Proceeds of a policy pass directly to the beneficiary and not through the decedent’s estate.

• Wills – Legal document that disposes of a person’s property after death.

Estate Planning and Administration

• If a client dies without an Estate Plan --Some property passes automatically to a joint owner or to a designated beneficiary.

-All other property generally passes according to state intestacy laws.

Estate Planning and Administration

• Planning – addresses the accumulation, management and disposal of real and personal property during life and after death.

• Administration – governed by state statutes to address the orderly distribution of a person’s estate.

Estate Planning Considerations

• Disposable Income.• Financial needs of the client.• Investment strategies.• Financial planning.• Taxation.• Wishes of the decedent.

Assets – Probate vs. Non Probate

• Probate Assets – transferred by Order of the Court.• Non Probate Assets – pass directly from the decedent

to another person without court authorization.• Strategies in Estate Planning to Avoid Probate

Gifts

• Transfer of property by a donor to donee – giver to recipient – without consideration.

• Donor sees the recipient enjoying your gift.• Donor minimizes transfer taxes by taking advantage of

the $12,000 annual gift tax exclusion and other tax deductions.

• Removes future appreciation of property from donor’s taxable estate.

Title Transfers

• Own property jointly with rights of survivorship.• Tenancy by the entirety.• Joint tenancy.

Trusts

• Legal entity that holds property.• Parties to a trust: grantor, trustee, beneficiary.

• Living trusts vs. testamentary trusts.• Revocable trusts vs. irrevocable trusts.• Trustee Manages trust property according to trust

agreement.• Beneficiaries have rights to trust property under terms

of trust agreement.

Life Insurance

• Proceeds of the policy pass immediately to the beneficiary and not considered part of the decedent’s estate assets.

• Incidents of ownership retained by the insured may result in taxation.

• Types of policies: Term, Whole, Limited Payment, and Endowment.

Wills

• A Will is the cornerstone of an estate plan.• Directs how property will be distributed.• Names executor and guardian for minor children.• Can accomplish other estate planning goals.

-Minimizing taxes-Marital deduction-Qualified Terminable Interest Property Trusts (QTIPs)

• Written, signed and witnessed.

Estate Administration - Probate

• Distribution of property upon death governed by state statutes.

• Probate Courts.• Personal Representative• Testate.• Intestate.

Primary Jurisdiction

• Domicile – decedent’s legal home and permanent residence.

• Fiduciary responsibility of personal representative.• Ancillary jurisdiction in states where decedent owned

property.• Will and Death Certificate filed with petition.• Contest or challenge to probate.• Letters Testamentary vs. Letters of Administration.• Summary vs. Formal Administration.

Role of the Paralegal

• Chart on page 17 of the text.• ABA's Model Guidelines for the Utilization of Legal

Assistant Services

Tasks for this Unit

• Seminar• Quiz• Discussion Board

Planning Your Estate

• For the first Discussion Question identify and discuss one new area of information that surprised you from the article about estate planning. 

• This article from CNN Money addressed the “Top things to know” about an estate plan.

Domicile• For the second Discussion Question consider how you

would document a person’s domicile to distinguish it from his other residences and thus avoid a situation like the Dorrance case, which is set on page 19 of the text.

• This case involves a wealthy man who died owning two homes in two neighboring states. As he aged, he spent more and more time in what was originally his vacation home, until by the date of his death he spent approximately six months each year in each home. In attempting to establish domiciliary and ancillary jurisdiction for the estate, each of the states claimed domicile. Each state determined that he was domiciled in its jurisdiction, and the estate was doubly taxed.

Discussion Board Instructions

• For all Discussion Questions post your thoughts and responses to the Discussion Board as to each question.

• Read and comment on posts from your colleagues. • Do not hesitate to pose questions to your colleagues.• Discuss constructively with your colleagues their posts

and positions.• Post as early in the week as possible to foster

interaction

In the Weeks Ahead

• Estate Planning and Administration was introducted.• Next week we will continue our discussion as we

address the Sources and Types of Property in Estates.• In the weeks ahead we will address Laws of

Succession, Trusts, Wills, Estate Administration, Taxation and other Special Topics.