Written by  Kim Kamin, JD, AEP® (Distinguished) and Cynthia D.M. Brown, JD, STEP

Estate planning today involves more than just drafting technically sound dispositive documents. Clients increasingly want their estate plans to reflect their values, guide future generations, and anticipate evolving family structures. At the same time, trustees, particularly corporate fiduciaries, are administering long-term discretionary trusts under heightened scrutiny in complex regulatory environments.

As attorneys construct trusts with broader distribution standards and intentional flexibility and as family structures become more complex, trust instruments alone are often not the appropriate place to convey the settlor’s nuanced intentions or to help trustees and other trust fiduciaries navigate changing times.

To address this reality, letters of wishes have emerged as a practical and increasingly popular planning tool. If thoughtfully designed, letters of wishes can be extremely effective. If carelessly drafted or inconsistently used, they can create significant problems, such as estate tax inclusion and litigation risks. For estate planning attorneys advising sophisticated families, understanding how clients can design and deploy letters of wishes can be the difference between a smooth trust administration and a turbulent one.

In the past month, we have seen significant developments in estate planning, business law, elder law, and special needs planning. We have highlighted the most noteworthy developments to ensure you and your firm stay informed of any changes. From federal cases imposing increased tax liability for an asset transfer not made for a nontax purpose and reversing an administrative law judge’s denial of Supplemental Security Income disability benefits, to a Department of Justice opinion that certain federal employment discrimination guidelines are unconstitutional and a new Florida rule requiring certification of the accuracy of legal citations in court filings, read on to learn how these developments may impact your practice. 

Written by Gerry W. Beyer, JD, LLM, JSD

Whenever you plan for married clients, it is vital to know what property your clients own and what their spouses own. However, clients are often unclear about ownership and may be unsure whether an asset is owned individually or jointly by the spouses. Because two different marital systems are recognized in the United States, title alone does not always determine who truly owns the property. This article is designed to shed light on this key estate planning issue.