With new bills introduced in Congress to repeal the federal estate tax, estate planners and advisors face an increasingly uncertain landscape. In this advanced webinar, three of the nation's foremost estate planning experts—Martin Shenkman, Robert Keebler, and Jonathan Blattmachr—examine the potential consequences of estate tax repeal, the future of the GST tax, and strategies to safeguard wealth in a volatile regulatory environment.
Using real-world examples and case studies, the panel will explore the ripple effects of repeal on portability, formula clauses, state estate taxes, and planning with grantor and dynasty trusts. Attendees will leave with practical, forward-thinking strategies for infusing flexibility into estate plans and helping clients stay ahead of legislative shifts.
Identify the potential federal legislative changes affecting the estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes and their planning implications
Evaluate how estate tax repeal could impact common planning structures, including formula clauses, QDOTs, and bypass trusts
Determine strategies for building flexibility into estate plans through trust design, powers of appointment, trust protectors, and decanting provisions
Recognize the income tax implications of estate tax repeal, including the treatment of basis step-up and capital gains on inherited assets
Plan for the effects of repeal or sunset provisions on state-level estate taxes and understand the timing and structure of pre-repeal transfers
Shenkman Law
Dual Practitioner, Financial Planner
[email protected]
(201) 845-8400
Martin M. Shenkman, CPA, MBA, PFS, AEP (distinguished), JD, is an attorney in private practice in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and New York City, New York, with Shenkman Law. His practice focuses on estate and tax planning as well as planning for closely-held businesses and estate administration. Throughout his career, Mr. Shenkman received awards and acknowledgments from the New Jersey Bar Association, Worth Magazine, CPA Magazine, the American Cancer Society, and the AICPA. Mr. Shenkman holds a Bachelor of Science from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from the University of Michigan, a law degree from Fordham University School of Law. He is admitted to the bar in New York, New Jersey, and Washington D.C.
Keebler & Associates, LLP
Partner
[email protected]
(920) 593-1701
Robert S. Keebler, CPA/PFS, MST, AEP (Distinguished) is a partner with Keebler & Associates, LLP and is a 2007 recipient of the prestigious Accredited Estate Planners (Distinguished) award from the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils. He has been named by Forbes as one of the 2024 America’s Top 200 CPAs, by CPA Magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Practitioners in the United States, and one of the Top 40 Tax Advisors to Know During a Recession. His practice includes family wealth transfer and preservation planning, charitable giving, retirement distribution planning, and estate administration. Mr. Keebler frequently represents clients before the National Office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the private letter ruling process and in estate, gift, and income tax examinations and appeals, and he has received more than 350 favorable private letter rulings including several key rulings of “first impression.” He is the author of over 100 articles and columns and is the editor, author, or co-author of many books and treatises on wealth transfer and taxation. Mr. Keebler has been a speaker at national estate planning and tax seminars for over 30 years including the AICPA’s: Estate Planning, High Income, Advanced Financial Planning Conferences, ABA Conferences, NAPEC Conferences, The Notre Dame Estate Planning Conference, and the Heckerling Estate Planning Institute. He also served as chair of the AICPA’s Advanced Estate Planning Conference from 2014-2020. Mr. Keebler received an award from CPAacademy for Top Presenter 2022. This award honors those who are committed to the education of accounting professionals and shares their knowledge in an open and easily accessible format.
Pioneer Wealth Partners
Senior Advisor
[email protected]
(212) 328-0300
Jonathan Blattmachr is a Principal in Pioneer’s estate planning advisory group. He brings over 35 years of experience in trusts and estates law. He is a retired member of Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy and the Alaska, California, and New York Bars. Jonathan has been recognized as one of the country’s most creative trusts and estates lawyers. He writes and lectures extensively on estate and trust taxation and charitable giving and has authored or co-authored six books and over 500 articles on estate planning topics. He has served as a lecturer-in-law of the Columbia University School of Law and as an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University Law School in its Masters in Tax Program (LLM). He is a former chairperson of the Trusts & Estates Law Section of the New York State Bar Association and of several committees of the American Bar Association. Jonathan is a Fellow and a former Regent of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and past chair of its Estate and Gift Tax Committee. Among professional activities, which are too numerous to list, Jonathan has served as an Advisor on The American Law Institute, Restatement of the Law, Trusts 3rd, and as a Fellow and Director of The New York Bar Foundation and as a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Jonathan graduated from Columbia University School of Law cum laude, where he was recognized as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He received his A.B. degree from Bucknell University, majoring in mathematics. He served as an officer in the United States Army from 1970 to 1972 and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal.
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