Lawyers who represent family businesses often also represent the business owners, serve as a trustee or fiduciary on the business’s board, and provide personal estate planning for the owners and other family members. While fulfilling multiple goals  for clients may seem effective and efficient, it is important that the attorney consider potential ethical complications and the potential need to narrow the representation, obtain clients’ informed consent, or withdraw from a particular matter.

From new state statutes designed to attract wealthy residents to the validity of employer vaccine mandates, we have recently seen significant developments in estate planning and business law. To ensure that you stay abreast of these legal changes, we have highlighted a few noteworthy developments and analyzed how they may impact your estate planning and business law practice.

Among confusing legal concepts, the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax is at the top of the list. Because of its complexity, many attorneys lump it in with concepts such as the rule against perpetuities—topics taught in law school that they never quite fully understood and wish to forget. However, for estate-planning attorneys, understanding the GST tax is vital to helping their clients effectively plan to avoid it if possible. As with any concept that causes confusion, breaking it down is the key to better understanding.