Inconvenience resulting from COVID-19 restrictions or other issues related to remote work are not an excuse for failing to meet ethical duties. The rules of professional responsibility, including the duty of confidentiality and duty to avoid conflicts of interest, still apply in the virtual environment. In fact, attorneys may need to implement extra safeguards to avoid violating their ethical obligations.  

With the Democrats in control of both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government, there has been a plethora of new proposals that could have sweeping effects within the estate planning industry. Some of the most notable proposals include increasing the capital gains tax rate to 39.6 percent, ending stepped-up basis, and making sweeping modifications to the estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax exemptions. 

From the Department of the Treasury’s issuance of a new “green book” to the Biden administration’s withdrawal of a proposed Trump-era independent contractor rule, 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.