Expert Estate Planning Approaches for Family Law Attorneys

This course will give attorneys the knowledge and tools necessary for effective estate planning. We will explore critical aspects of creating a comprehensive estate plan that addresses personal wishes, safeguards assets, and protects relationships, especially in non-traditional families. Participants will learn to avoid court battles and intestacy laws, ensuring their wishes are honored without lengthy legal disputes.

The course will cover how to protect non-traditional relationships and provide for children and the importance of making one’s wishes known through essential legal documents like standard wills, living wills, and powers of attorney (both financial and medical). Additionally, we will discuss how to include pet provisions in estate plans to ensure their care and well-being after their owner's passing.

Attendees will be guided through the estate document intake process, reviewing previous documents, summarizing financials, identifying trusted individuals, and using a comprehensive questionnaire to help them reflect on individual wishes. Key terminology and concepts will also be addressed, including bequeath, devise, legacy, testamentary capacity, nuncupative, holographic, codicils, joint, and mutual wills.

The course will also tackle inheritance taxes, discussing the implications of taxable assets and specific considerations for federal, and state tax laws.

Family law and estate planning attorneys of all levels are encouraged to participate in this informative CLE session.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the typical legal documents that make up an estate plan
• Explore drafting essential legal documents in an estate plan
• Learn how to include and protect non-family and non-human family members in estate documents
• Discover methods of passing property at death and how they affect estate planning
• Design a tax-efficient plan

Production Date: 11/9/2024 | Closed captioning (CC) available