Incentive Trusts in Estate Planning - Promise and Peril
October 2014
Incentive Trusts in Estate Planning - Promise and Peril
The Professional Education Broadcast Network is a national network of bar associations providing high quality, practically useful CLE across a range of practice areas. All programs are conveniently delivered to your desk as a teleseminar which you can access from your telephone or as an audio stream over the Internet. Just dial into an 800 number, and hear nationally recognized practice leaders speak on important issues in the law. You are also able to ask them your questions. Teleseminars marry the best of technology and education to bring the world of CLE to your office or home. Can't join a program - or you registered but missed it? Register for a program and if you miss it, we will automatically email you an MP3 file of the program!
ACCREDITATION INFORMATION: Individual attorneys may apply for credit through the Colorado Supreme Court Board of Continuing Legal Education using the FORM 1, which can be found at www.coloradosupremecourt.com.
How to Register
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2. Or REGISTER ONLINE NOW by using the corresponding course links above.
Program Description:
Incentive trusts are a mechanism by which the settlor tries to "incentivize" or control the behavior of beneficiaries. Settlors may want to encourage children or grandchildren to achieve certain educational milestones, maintain a job, get married or have children, or remain free of substance abuse or other risky behaviors. A beneficiary's attainment of these behavioral benchmarks triggers certain distributions. In a sense, it is an estate planning mechanism for awarding settlor cash for good beneficiary behavior. But there are serious limits. There are the limits of what the law will allow a settlor to demand of a beneficiary or a trustee to enforce. There are also practical limits, including how to objectively judge a beneficiary's behavior when making distributions. Incentive trusts are decidedly a mixed bag. This program will provide you with a real-world guide to drafting incentive trusts, counseling clients about their effectiveness and limits, and understanding what the law will (or won't) allow.
- Uses and limitations - practical and legal-- of incentive trusts
- Types of incentive trusts - and rates of success or failure in achieving settlor goals
- Increasing the enforceability of incentive trusts - and what's not enforceable
- Structuring incentives so they can be objectively measured and administered by trustees
- Drafting distribution provisions
- Alternatives to incentive trusts, including "principle trusts"
- Counseling clients about downsides of incentive trusts
Faculty:
John A. Warnick is an attorney and wealth counselor in Denver, Colorado, with a national estate and trust planning practice. He is widely recognized for his counseling of high net worth families on purposeful giving, the process of not only transferring wealth but creating a lasting legacy. He is also the managing collaborator of the Purposeful Planning Institute and a wealth consultant with Family Wealth and Transition Solutions. Mr. Warnick is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and formerly practiced law with Holme, Roberts & Owen, LLP in Denver. He received his B.A. from Brigham Young University and his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School.
Each program will run from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. M.T. (60 minutes each).
Registration Fees
| Non Member | $109.00 |
| CBA Member | $89.00 |
- General Credits:
- Ethics Credits:
- EDI Credits:
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