Salvatore J. LaMendola, Esq.
Your Client Wants to Name a Trust as the Retirement Plan Beneficiary … Now What?
In this webinar, InterActive Legal Advisor Sal LaMendola will examine the rules about trusts as beneficiaries of retirement assets and review case studies to see how each estate planning scenario might play out. The presentation will consider the differences between conduit and accumulation trusts, what happens if a client has charitable goals, and more.
Laws change, but in many respects, the laws related to estate planning and taxation can change slowly, or not much at all.  Tax exemptions and rates change, of course, but the laws themselves – not so much.  One major deviation from this maxim was the SECURE Act, which came as a bit of a surprise at the end of 2019.  It was followed by SECURE 2.0, proposed regulations, and then (finally!) final regulations, all of which combine to create a new landscape for clients who want to leave their retirement plans or IRAs in trust.  For many clients, retirement assets comprise the bulk of their net worth and preserving them is a common goal.  Hence, knowing how to use trusts for these assets is an important tool for estate planners. Leaving retirement assets in trust can mimic leaving them outright to individuals, from a tax standpoint, but with the added protection a trust provides.  However, to obtain the best overall tax results, the trust must be carefully drafted to qualify as a see-through trust.  And in some cases the client’s estate planning goals may directly conflict with what the SECURE Act and its regulations require.  In this webinar, InterActive Legal Advisor Sal LaMendola will examine the rules about trusts as beneficiaries of retirement assets and review case studies to see how each estate planning scenario might play out.  The presentation will consider the differences between conduit and accumulation trusts, what happens if a client has charitable goals, and more.