ACTEC Fellows

Our panel reviews topics such as: How to protect your searches from prying eyes (aka, how to protect privileges) The impact on billing rates when using AI • Implementing AI in a safe way into your practice – confidentiality and privilege • Avoiding work slop – using AI in an effective and efficient manner • How to deal with clients who use AI to do their own estate and tax research • Guidelines for your employees on how they will use it • Ethics – supervision of younger lawyers

The Hot Topics Program features a dynamic blend of federal tax and state fiduciary law developments during the past year. Among the topics addressed are: • The impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, H.R. 1, including the 2/37th cutback on itemized deductions, and ACTEC's comments thereto; • Estate planning in light of the permanent estate and gift tax exclusion amount of $15 million (subject to indexing) beginning on January 1, 2026; • The IRS's aggressive litigation position on grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs) in the Elcan case; • Changes to the rules that apply to Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) under the new tax law; • QTIP marital trust case developments; • The Fields FLP case; and • Significant, Curious, or Downright Fascinating Fiduciary Cases.

Equity compensation offers great opportunity—and great complexity. This session explores the evolving landscape of executive pay, including stock options, restricted stock, and deferred compensation arrangements, and examines practical income and estate tax planning strategies to help executives (and their advisors) unlock value, manage timing, and preserve wealth.

Estate tax apportionment is easy in theory but can be unforgiving in practice creating a number of challenges and, if you are not careful, unanticipated consequences. This session will provide a practical view on how apportionment using different formulas and concepts will significantly impact trust funding and potentially the entire estate plan. The presentation will focus on the choice of funding formulas and tax apportionment clauses, including critical factors to consider, as well as various challenges which can occur with hard to value assets, IRAs, and the failure to fund at the first death (such as the so-called "Portability Tax Apportionment Trap") with examples of apportionment calculations under different scenarios and the ultimate impact on beneficiaries. The session will also include a discussion concerning the income tax issues and consideration in funding.

This program will review the recent court decisions and policy positions of the Trump administration and its interpretation and enforcement of federal civil rights laws, including potential impacts on exempt status under IRC section 501(c)(3). The panel's discussion will focus on the impact of these decisions and policy positions on existing restricted funds, such as scholarship funds, with criteria based on one or more protected characteristics, such as race or national origin. The panelists will address how charitable organizations are approaching this changing landscape and the methods by which fund restrictions may be modified as well as the current state of donor standing with respect to modification and enforcement of restrictions on gifts.

Nothing is certain except death and taxes… and disasters. Although one never knows when disaster will strike, one can prepare for it, plan for ways to persist through it, and learn about the ways charitable resources can be provided to disaster relief victims. The panelists will discuss pre-disaster planning ideas with a focus on insurers' responsibilities and the pitfalls of homeowners insurance coverage related to Dwelling, Personal Property, and Alternative Living Expenses, and preparing your house and family for the legal, physical and mental tribulations that come from surviving a disaster. Then, through the lens of a wildfire victim, they will discuss the realities of life after a disaster including the evacuation process, the truth about insurance claims, how to obtain government assistance from FEMA and SBA and what they actually cover, the cleaning-up and rebuilding process, and, most importantly, how to stay sane throughout it all. Finally, the panel will discuss different methods for providing charitable resources for disaster relief, ranging from GoFundMe accounts to using existing charities and community foundations to creating new charities to assist victims.

In the high-stakes world of fiduciary litigation, timing is everything. File timely or your claim may be forever barred. Will contests can turn on periods of limitations, repose, and notice requirements. After-discovered wills pose their own unique problems. Trust contests may face a hard statute of limitations, or extend for decades, absent being torpedoed by equitable doctrines. And claims against fiduciaries for breach blend both worlds: statutory periods collide with equitable concepts, and the ever-present notice questions. Claims involving minor beneficiaries or those suffering diminished capacity add yet another layer. Miss the notice, ignore the red flags, or wait too long to cry foul, and even the most egregious misconduct or patent invalidity may rest in eternal repose. This presentation will explore the various applications of periods of limitation and repose on various challenges to testamentary documents, non-testamentary transfers, trusts, and fiduciary breach claims from various state viewpoints.

This panel will explore foreign trusts in the context of US tax and estate planning. The panelists will use case studies to ladder from fundamentals to intermediate and advanced applications, with the intent of domestic planners deepening their understanding of cross-border planning and cross-border specialists finding a challenge or two.

The term "family office" has become pervasive, but what does it even mean? What are the choices for families who think they might need or want a family office? This program will provide an overview of various family office designs and the tax and non-tax considerations for each. The presenters will provide a framework for advisors to use when helping clients determine the best option to achieve the family's goals over time, including the creative use of directed trusts and purpose trusts in the overall design. When is a "Lender-style" profits interest/investment office structure appropriate for a family? When should a family consider a private trust company? How do these structures fit within a family's other family enterprises, entities, and trusts? The presenters will answer commonly asked questions and address important issues when advising ultra-high net worth families in family office design.

When an elder is relocated across state lines amid family conflict, the result is often a high-stakes legal brawl. This session explores how contested guardianships intersect with interstate jurisdiction and attempts to assert pre-mortem control over vulnerable adults. With a focus on competency—especially in the execution of powers of attorney and other estate planning documents—you'll hear from two litigators and a probate judge about how these cases unfold in real time, and how to navigate or weaponize the procedural and jurisdictional complexities that define them.

Neurodiversity: Leveling Up Our Perspective

Speakers: David A. Handler, Kimberly Gill Mckinnon, Daniel S. Rubin

Speakers: Cynthia D.M. Brown, Todd A. Flubacher, Erica E. Lord

Speakers: Julia B. Meister (Moderator), Charles P. Golbert, Professor Reid Kress Weisbord

The Interaction and Tension Between Estate Planners, Fiduciary Counsel and Fiduciary Litigators in Representing Their Respective Clients Speakers: Margaret G. Lodise, Eric W. Penzer, Ray Prather

The Interaction and Tension Between Estate Planners, Fiduciary Counsel and Fiduciary Litigators in Representing Their Respective Clients

Bunny Hill to Double Diamonds: Conquering the Slopes of Subchapter J (Part I - Session 1)

Bunny Hill to Double Diamonds: Conquering the Slopes of Subchapter J (Part 2 - Session 2)

Bunny Hill to Double Diamonds: Conquering the Slopes of Subchapter J (Part 2 - Session 1)

Bunny Hill to Double Diamonds: Conquering the Slopes of Subchapter J (Part I - Session 2)