Location: 25 Main Street, Lenox, MA

12:30 - 1:00pm: Brown bag lunch and networking

1:00 - 3:00pm: Teleconference

The idea of bringing trust administration to a conclusion may seem to the Trustee like a relief – and, in many respects, it is. However, terminating a trust isn’t nearly as simple as merely distributing its assets (and even that may not be so simple) and walking away. Numerous details must be successfully navigated along the way, and, if they aren’t, unhappy beneficiaries will ensure sleepless nights for the Trustee. In this presentation, we’ll delve into the following:

• Identifying and locating named or designated remainder beneficiaries

• Properly allocating assets among and distributing them to the remainder beneficiaries

• Income tax and generation-skipping transfer tax returns

• Statutes of limitation on actions by beneficiaries and IRS against Trustee

• Propriety of seeking releases from beneficiaries

Please RSVP. We look forward to seeing you.

Cannon – Marital Agreements from A to Z

Marriage dissolution, and the financial obligations that often flow from it, has become so prevalent that a client’s planning for this possibility is sometimes nearly as important as his or her core estate planning instruments. Thus, marital agreements, especially among those who have been through divorce, are becoming a foundational component of some clients’ financial security. These agreements must be closely coordinated with the client’s estate plan. Of frequent concern in this area are:

·        What are essential requirements for all marital agreements

·        Tax issues to address in marital agreements

·        Spousal rights in retirement assets

·        Anticipating and handling marital issues with closely-held business interests

Join us for this Cannon Teleconference: Deep Dive Into Disclaimers

Date: April 9, 2024; Time: 12:30pm networking/brown bag; 1pm presentation

Location: Lee Bank Marble House, 102 West Park Street, Lee, Massachusetts

RSVP to Marianne Fresia (button below). Free for Members! Non-members: $20. Pay via PAYPAL or mail a check: Donna Turner, Smith Watson & Company LLC, 7 North Street, Suite 205, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Thank you!

Program

A disclaimer (otherwise known as a renunciation) is nothing more than an unqualified, irrevocable refusal to accept a transfer of property from another person. That simple definition, however, overlooks the complexities associated with the many different tax and nontax contexts in which the making of a disclaimer might be considered and what its results may be. In this session, we’ll closely examine many aspects of disclaimers, including: Differences in handling under state laws and federal tax law Estate planning uses – including formula disclaimers Special federal tax rules applicable to disclaimers by spouses Disclaimers of transfers at death versus disclaimers of lifetime gifts Effects of disclaimers on disclaimant’s creditors

RSVP to Marianne Fresia (button below). Free for Members! Non-members: $20. Pay via PAYPAL or mail a check: Donna Turner, Smith Watson & Company LLC, 7 North Street, Suite 205, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Thank you!

Join us on Tuesday, January 23 for our first teleconference of 2024!

Spousal Lifetime Access Trusts — A Fleeting Opportunity!

When:  Tuesday, January 23. 12:30—Bring your lunch! 1:00 - 2:30—Teleconference

Location:  Berkshire Bank Wealth Management, 25 Main St., Lenox, MA

RSVP:  Marianne Fresia. Click button below.

Fee:  Free for members; $20 for non-members. Pay via PAYPAL or mail a check: Donna Turner, Smith Watson & Company LLC, 7 North Street, Suite 205, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Thank you!

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act brought historically high estate and gift tax exemptions.  With the seemingly inevitable “sunset” of the Act looming on the horizon, spousal lifetime access trusts (SLATs) have been widely promoted in recent years as the best “have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too” estate planning strategy out there. 

In this program, we’ll explore several aspects of the design, creation, and administration of SLAT, including:

• Purpose

• How best to fund to minimize estate risk

• Current & future beneficiaries

• Initial & successor trustees

• Pitfalls to avoid

Bring your bag lunch at 12:30pm, if you’d like.

This Teleconference is an IN-PERSON event at Lee Bank, 180 South Street, Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Decedents sometimes leave an estate plan that creates more problems than it solves. Under the laws of most states, various judicial and nonjudicial options exist with which to repair estate planning defects after-the-fact. It is important to our practices that we have a comprehensive understanding of the following potential solutions:

• Trust modifications, decanting, premature terminations, settlement agreements

• Construing or reforming governing instrument language

• Beneficiary waivers, releases and consents

• Virtual representation

•  Disclaimers or renunciations

Charles A. Redd

Charles A. ("Clary") Redd is a partner in the St. Louis office of Stinson LLP. Clary concentrates his practice in estate planning, estate and trust administration and estate and trust-related litigation. He is an elected member of The American Law Institute, a Fellow of The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law. He also serves as Co-Chair of the Editorial Advisory Board of, and writes a regular column in, Trusts & Estates magazine. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America and is nationally ranked by Chambers USA in its “Wealth Management” category.

Turney P. Berry

Turney P. Berry is a Member of the Executive Committee and the Chair of Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs’ 22 lawyer Trusts, Estates & Personal Planning Service Team. Turney is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and the American College of Tax Counsel, a Uniform Law Commissioner and member of the Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Trust and Estate Acts, a Trustee of the Southern Federal Tax Institute and a member of the Advisory Council of the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning as well as a Member of the Advisory Board of Trusts and Estates Monthly and a Vice-Chair of the Charitable Planning section for the ABA Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law. He is listed in Woodward/White’s The Best Lawyers in America®.

RSVP to Marianne Fresia (button below). Free for Members! Non-members: $20. Pay via PAYPAL or mail a check: Donna Turner, Smith Watson & Company LLC, 7 North Street, Suite 205, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Thank you!

Join us on November 22nd at 9:00am for a Cannon Teleconference—a replay of their September 20th event. Location: Berkshire Bank, 25 Main Street, Lenox. Light snacks provided.

A poorly conceived or sloppily designed estate plan can actually cause more problems than it solves. Fortunately, under the laws of most jurisdictions, various judicial and non-judicial options exist with which to remedy estate planning problems after-the-fact. A well-rounded estate planner not only needs to know how to create a high-quality estate plan that addresses a client’s needs but also should be facile with available methods to repair broken estate plans. This teleconference will focus on the following:

• Using Virtual Representation

• Beneficiary Waivers, Consents and Releases

• Trust Modifications, Premature Terminations and Decanting

• Identifying and Avoiding Adverse Tax Consequences in Settling Trust Disputes

RSVP to Dan Stanyon (button below). Free for Members! Non-members: $15. Pay via PAYPAL or mail a check: Donna Turner, c/o Smith Watson & Company LLC, 7 North Street, Suite 205, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Thank you!

Speaker: Robert S. Keebler, CPA/PFS, MST, AEP® (Distinguished), CGMA

This event is a replay from an earlier event from NAEPC.

Spurred by the events in 2020, the growing consensus is that there will be significant changes to the income tax code targeted to raise additional revenue from wealthier persons. There may be only months to capture fading opportunities. President Biden made specific campaign promises to increase income taxes. Moreover, President Biden’s current legislative push, the American Families Plan, includes specific and significant income tax changes. This course will focus on the best planning strategies in preparation for reform.

Robert S. Keebler, CPA/PFS, MST, AEP (Distinguished) is a partner with Keebler & Associates, LLP and is a 2007 recipient of the prestigious Accredited Estate Planners (Distinguished) award from the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils. He has been named by CPA Magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Practitioners in the United States and one of the Top 40 Tax Advisors to Know During a Recession. His practice includes family wealth transfer and preservation planning, charitable giving, retirement distribution planning, and estate administration. Mr. Keebler frequently represents clients before the National Office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the private letter ruling process and in estate, gift and income tax examinations and appeals, and he has received more than 250 favorable private letter rulings including several key rulings of “first impression.” He is the author of over 100 articles and columns and is the editor, author or co-author of many books and treatises on wealth transfer and taxation. Mr. Keebler has been a speaker at national estate planning and tax seminars for over 25 years including the AICPA’s: Estate Planning, High Income, Advanced Financial Planning Conferences, ABA Conferences, NAPEC Conferences, The Notre Dame Estate Planning Conference and the Heckerling Estate Planning Institute and is the immediate past the chair of the AICPA’s Advanced Estate Planning Conference, serving in that capacity from 2014-2020.

A provision in a trust instrument saying the trust is irrevocable, or the irrevocable nature of a trust because of the death of the settlor, may, in 2021, be a mere minor impediment to making changes to the trust. Furthermore, a surviving spouse or beneficiaries who are unhappy with the terms of a decedent's estate plan may launch a frontal assault on the plan. There are steps that can be taken to prevent or dissuade frivolous or vengeful actions by disgruntled parties and to help ensure a client's carefully constructed estate plan is preserved intact. This teleconference will highlight the following strategies:

• Trust Instrument Provisions Designed Specifically to Limit Decanting and Changes Under the Uniform Trust Code and Similar Laws

• Marital and Cohabitation Agreements

• Drafting and Enforcing No Contest Clauses

• Mediation and Arbitration Provisions

RSVP to Dan Stanyon (button below). Free for Members! Non-members: $15. Pay via PAYPAL or mail a check: Donna Turner, Smith Watson & Company LLC, 7 North Street, Suite 205, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Thank you!

Income tax rates and estate tax exemptions and rates will inevitably rise and fall depending in substantial part on changes in our country's political and economic climate. Far more often than not, when an estate planner designs a plan, the planner doesn't know what the tax laws will look like when the plan is implemented. In addition, in some cases, the composition and aggregate value of a client's estate changes materially between the time when estate planning documents were signed and the client's death. Thus, building flexibility into estate plans so that post-death decisions can be made to minimize estate tax, or income tax, as appropriate, is paramount. In this teleconference, we will focus on:

• Portability and Clayton QTIP Trusts

• Using General Powers of Appointment and Other Strategies to Achieve Basis Step-Up

• Design and Uses of Long-Term Multigenerational Trusts

• Minimizing Trust-Level Income Taxes

RSVP to Dan Stanyon (button below). Free for Members! Non-members: $15. Pay via PAYPAL or mail a check: Donna Turner, Smith Watson & Company LLC, 7 North Street, Suite 205, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Thank you!

Amazing advances in medical science have given people the prospect of ever-increasing longevity. The accompanying difficulty, however, is that folks living to an advanced age face a greater possibility of becoming disabled before death. Estate planners must contend with a unique, additional layer of complexity in representing clients who are getting older and whose acuity may be waning or who have an intended beneficiary who is disabled. We will review the following issues and challenges that are of particular interest and relevance in this context:

• Financial Elder Abuse

• Testamentary Capacity and Undue Influence

• Design and Efficacy of Revocable Trusts, Durable Powers of Attorney and Advance Directives

• Designing and Administering Special Needs Trusts

RSVP to Dan Stanyon (button below). Free for Members! Non-members: $15. Pay via PAYPAL or mail a check: Donna Turner, Smith Watson & Company LLC, 7 North Street, Suite 205, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Thank you!

There is a wide variety of trust laws among the states and the District of Columbia with their respective good and bad aspects – depending on one's point of view. Estate planning professionals need to be cognizant of the fact that a trust's situs and governing law, whether as originally established or later validly changed, will often have significant impact on how certain language in the trust instrument is interpreted, how the trust is administered and the extent to which the trust's objectives are able to be achieved. This teleconference will highlight:

• The Meaning of "Situs" and "Principal Place of Administration"

• Specific Results That May Flow from a Trust's Situs and Its Governing Law

• Selecting or Determining a Trust's Governing Law and Situs

• Establishing a Trust in a Target Jurisdiction or Moving it to a Target Jurisdiction

RSVP to Dan Stanyon (button below). Free for Members! Non-members: $15. Pay via PAYPAL or mail a check: Donna Turner, Smith Watson & Company LLC, 7 North Street, Suite 205, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Thank you!

The bane of many a Trustee's existence is the responsibility and potential liability associated with holding, and perhaps having to dispose of, trust property that does not readily lend itself to routine trust administration. Such types of trust property include various types of tangible personal property, various categories of real estate, closely-held business equity, mineral interests, intellectual property, digital assets and even concentrations of traditional trust assets. In addition to the practical administrative challenges the Trustee faces in handling unusual trust investments, the Trustee may also be confronted with conflicting demands from beneficiaries regarding those investments. In this teleconference, we will introduce and evaluate the following topics:

• The Uniform Prudent Investor Act and a Trustee's Duty of Diversification

• Unique Challenges Arising from Holding a Closely-Held Business Interest

• Trust Assets Not in Trustee's Physical Possession or Direct Control

• Steps to Mitigate Risk

RSVP to Dan Stanyon (button below). Free for Members! Non-members: $15. Pay via PAYPAL or mail a check: Donna Turner, Smith Watson & Company LLC, 7 North Street, Suite 205, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Thank you!

As of August 2020, in the 18 years since Kansas became the first state to enact the Uniform Trust Code, 33 more states, plus the District of Columbia, have enacted it. Additionally, several states that have not enacted the UTC have adopted portions of it or have modeled some of their trust laws on it. Thus, it can fairly be said that the UTC has become highly influential in the development of trust law nationally. A statutory compilation of such stature deserves a thorough review. We will examine some of the most important aspects of the UTC, including:

• Default and Mandatory Rules

• Virtual Representation

• Trust Modification

• Notice Requirements

• Duties Trustees Owe to Beneficiaries

RSVP to Dan Stanyon (button below). Free for Members! Non-members: $15. Pay via PAYPAL or mail a check: Donna Turner, Smith Watson & Company LLC, 7 North Street, Suite 205, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Thank you!

The year 2020 has been like no other in the memory of most of us. We have all been impacted in a significant way by the onslaught of COVID-19, the economic dislocation that followed, social unrest unmatched since the 1960s and a polarizing national election. Estate planning professionals have been striving to adjust to what some have referred to as "the new normal." In this teleconference, we will consider several aspects of how estate planning has evolved – in some ways, perhaps, permanently – including:

• Enhanced Interest in Large Lifetime Taxable Gifts and Long-Term Trusts

• Increased Use of Certain Leveraging Strategies

• Renewed Emphasis on Planning for Eventual Incapacity

• Practical Limitations on Client Counseling and Document Signing

RSVP to Dan Stanyon (button below). Free for Members! Non-members: $35. Pay via PAYPAL or mail a check: Donna Turner, Smith Watson & Company LLC, 7 North Street, Suite 205, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Thank you!

THIS CANNON TELECONFERENCE WILL BE VIRTUAL. We have 15 slots, which will go to the first 15 people who RSVP to Dan Stanyon. Dan will forward the sign in information and materials prior to the teleconference.

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Cannon Teleconference: After the dust has settled, trust beneficiaries who may think they just won the lottery are often surprised to discover that their position in the trust relationship may be less advantageous than they envisioned. Beneficiaries sometimes must take affirmative steps to enforce their rights and may find that their complaints regarding trust administration are determined not to be justified. Further, in some instances, a beneficiary may be required to account for and return distributions that should not have been made. We will discuss the following themes during this teleconference:

• The Nature and Timing of a Beneficiary’s Claims Against a Trustee

• A Beneficiary’s Potential Liability to the Trust

• The IRS’ Pursuit of a Beneficiary for a Tax Liability

• The Ability of a Beneficiary to Sue a Third Party Who Transacts Business with a Trust

RSVP to Dan Stanyon (button below). Free for Members! Non-members: $15. Pay via PAYPAL or mail a check: Donna Turner, Smith Watson & Company LLC, 7 North Street, Suite 205, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Thank you!

Business succession planning is vitally important to the long-term survival of a closely-held business. It requires focused consultation with the client (and often the other stakeholders in the business) and close attention to applicable state and federal laws. On top of all of this, every situation has unique aspects. Many closely-held business owners today have questions or concerns about the following:

• The income tax deduction for qualified business income

• Securing retirement income for the business owner

• Use of trusts in the disposition of closely-held business interests

• Transferring closely-held business equity among family members with divergent or conflicting interests

Location Adams Community Bank, 2 Center Street, Adams, MA. Presentation and snacks sponsored by Adams Community Bank.

RSVP to Dan Stanyon below. Free for Members! Non-members: Cannon Teleconferences are $15. Pay via PAYPAL or mail a check: Laurie Swint, Brazee & Huban CPAs, 55 Wendell Ave, Pittsfield, MA 01201.

This Cannon Teleconference is a brown-bag event sponsored by Berkshire Bank and hosted by BCEPC. Join us with your lunch at 12:30 pm. Program runs 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm. The topic is Ethics Issues Facing Trusts and Estates Practitioners. 

Representation of clients must always be within the ethics parameters imposed by applicable state law, the rules governing conduct within our various professions, the IRS and the courts. Consistent and fair adherence to the relevant standards, even when that results in client annoyance or the need to decline or exit an engagement, is mandatory. To avoid landmines, we need to exercise common sense and have an in-depth knowledge of ethics issues specific to estate planning and trust administration. We will discuss the following:

• Screening clients to avoid problems before they develop
• Ethics dilemmas in asset protection planning
• Representing clients with diminished capacity
• Obligations of lawyer after representation has become dormant

Location Berkshire Bank, 25 Main Street, Lenox, MA. RSVP to Dan Stanyon below. Free for Members!Non-members: Please pay $15 in advance via PayPal (click here). 

This Cannon Teleconference is a brown-bag event sponsored by Salisbury Bank and hosted by BCEPC. Join us with your lunch at 12:30 pm. Program runs 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm. The topic is Teleconference: Developments in Trust and Estate Administration and Fiduciary Liability. 

To be successful consistently, a fiduciary must have the skills and temperament to navigate turbulent waters with a steady hand. Fiduciaries frequently face risks and challenges from three, often conflicting, sources: the governing instrument; applicable state and federal law; and the beneficiaries. We will tackle issues emanating from all three of these sources.

• Areas of greatest hazard for fiduciaries
• Beneficiaries’ consents, waivers and releases
• Statutes of limitations for bringing claims against fiduciaries
• Lawyer liability that may arise from advising beneficiaries or fiduciaries

Location Berkshire Bank, 25 Main Street, Lenox, MA. RSVP to Dan Stanyon below. Free for Members!Non-members: Please pay $15 in advance via PayPal (click here). 

This brown-bag lunch and learn teleconference is sponsored by Salisbury Bank and hosted by BCEPC. Bring your lunch and join us at 12:30 pm. The teleconference runs from 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm. The topic is Estate Planning for Administration of Digital Assets. RSVP to Dan Stanyon

This brown-bag lunch and learn teleconference is sponsored by Salisbury Bank and hosted by BCEPC. Join us at 12:30 pm with your lunch. The program runs from 1:00 - 2:00 pm. The topic is Malpractice in Estate Planning: Guidance on How to Avoid It. RSVP RSVP to Dan Stanyon