From the United States Supreme Court’s ruling on penalties for nonwillful Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) violations to the New York Court of Appeals’ broad reading of New York’s long-arm jurisdiction statute in a breach of contract case, 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.

A pooled trust is also known as a d4C trust because it is authorized by US Code 1396p(d)(4)(C). It is established and managed by a non-profit organization and is funded by the individual with special needs, for that individual’s sole benefit. An individual’s pooled trust is a subaccount within a master trust, a collection of other individual trusts. The managing entity oversees the collective individual accounts within the pool as a whole. A pooled trust entity will have its own joinder agreement; the terms of the trust are controlled by the entity.

The Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT) is a powerful tool used in elder law planning. The MAPT can be used both in a proactive planning case or in a crisis planning case. Let’s take a look at when the MAPT would be used in each type of case, and how a MAPT intersects with estate tax, gift tax, and income tax.