LAW 445P - Wealth Transfer Planning Practicum.

This course considers the principal tax and asset-management issues encountered in a sophisticated estate planning practice. The emphasis is on planning and drafting to accomplish tax-efficient inter-generational transfers of wealth. The course also considers non-tax asset-management issues, including such topics as planning for incapacity, devising strategies to project assets from creditors’ claims, planning for business succession, and estate and trust administration.

Students will acquire a solid grounding in estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxation. They will also be introduced to the special income tax rules that apply to trusts and estates and their beneficiaries. Students will also be exposed to the law of wills and trusts and the laws governing executors and trustees.

All topics will be considered through the lens of simulated practice experiences, in which students will respond to assignments from supervising law firm partners, interview and counsel clients concerning wealth transmission issues, draft estate planning documents, counsel executors and trustees, counsel trust and estate beneficiaries, and the like. There will be no final examination, and grades will be based entirely on students’ written work product and on their performance in the various mock exercises. Five hours. Danforth (Students enrolled in this must also be enrolled in Estate and Gift Taxation.)