Written by Sagar Jariwala, JD, LLM, and Phoebe Stone, JD, MA (Bioethics)

Gift tax, estate tax, generation-skipping transfer tax, inheritance tax, capital gains tax, income tax, and property tax: estate planners must consider all these types of taxes when creating a plan for a client’s assets.

In the past month, we have seen significant developments in estate planning, business law, elder law, and special needs law. A state supreme court declined to apply a savings statute to extend the time to initiate a probate proceeding; another state supreme court ruled that signing an arbitration agreement to gain admission to a nursing home is not a healthcare decision; and the FTC dismissed its appeals to implement its final rule banning noncompete agreements. Read on to learn how these decisions may impact your practice.

Written by Jill Roamer, JD

A special needs trust (SNT) is a planning tool used to provide funds for a beneficiary’s care without jeopardizing their eligibility for means-tested public benefits. The SNT is designed to optimize the beneficiary’s quality of life, and importantly, a third-party SNT can qualify as a qualified disability trust (QDisT) to obtain better taxation treatment if certain requirements are met.