Post-Election Estate Planning What to Do For Clients In November and December of 2020

November 23, 2020

The 2020 election demonstrated that the projected Democratic sweep did not occur. Former Vice President Biden won the Presidency but that is still being challenged. The Republicans have control of the Senate it appears, but two runoff elections in Georgia in January 2021 may provide the Democrats a chance to pick up two additional seats making the Senate evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. What does this all mean to clients that were engaged in planning in anticipation of the Blue Wave that did not happen? Why should that planning generally continue? When and why in some instances might prior planning be modified? What types of planning make sense to implement? How might prior planning be changed for clients that view the planning landscape differently? This presentation will review the use of GRATs, SLATs, Hybrid-DAPTs, SPATs and other techniques, step-transactions concerns, reciprocal trust doctrine concerns and in particular how the somewhat ambiguous election results may affect these techniques and issues. The focus will be on practical advice to give clients now, and planning steps to take now! Speakers:  Martin M. Shenkman, Esq., Jonathan Blattmacher, Esq., Robert Keebler, CPA *This may consist of attorney advertising.