EST2309. Asset Protection with Trusts

Many clients and many CPAs themselves should be using asset protection trusts in their planning. We live in an incredibly litigious society so this type of planning is appropriate for a wide swath of clients not only surgeons. This course will help practitioners understand and identify how, when and why to recommend asset protection trusts for client planning, how to work with the attorney who will prepare the document to assure the client’s needs are addressed, and what types of trust and techniques might be appropriate. There are key steps that CPAs should be involved in that are critical to the success of asset protection trusts (balance sheet for the client, financial forecasts, assistance on a solvency affidavit). One segment of the program will review a list of the most common trusts and explain the role they can play in asset protection planning, even trusts that are not viewed as asset protection trusts: revocable trusts (really!), ILITs, SLATs, DAPTs, hybrid-DAPTs, GRATs, SPATs, and more will all be analyzed from an asset protection lens. The focus will be on practical planning ideas CPAs can identify and help plan.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn specific steps CPAs can take to enhance the viability of client asset protection plans.
• Understand how vital the CPAs role is to the success of a trust asset protection plan including financial analysis, compliance and more.
• Learn how a wide variety of different trusts can, or cannot, be used in asset protection planning: GRATs, SLATs, SPATs, DAPTs and more.