The Corporate Transparency Act of 2020 (CTA), passed on January 1, 2021, is designed to prevent malign actors, i.e., companies that seek to conceal their ownership of businesses in the United States in an effort to facilitate illicit activity such as money laundering, financing of terrorism, tax fraud, and other acts of foreign corruption, from harming the national security interests of the United States and its allies. But why should this be of any interest to estate planners?

From sweeping new tax proposals to an extension of the Paycheck Protection Program, 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 some noteworthy developments and analyzed how they may impact your estate planning and business law practice.

by Phoebe Stone, JD, MA (bioethics)

Transferring title of real property to an inter vivos trust is an extremely common practice for most estate planners. Many practitioners also engage in transfers of real property to ownership vehicles such as limited liability companies (LLCs). Practitioners must exercise caution when making these transfers if the property is subject to an existing mortgage, however, because such transfers can trigger the due-on-sale clause that is typically included in the mortgage contract.¹