How to Settle a Client's Estate - VIRTUAL
8.00 Credits
Member Price $275
Non-Member Price $375
Overview
Federal estate and gift taxes currently affect few clients, but there are many other issues involved in settling an estate or administering a trust. Clients who are beneficiaries of a trust or estate often turn to their financial advisors to understand the administrative process and its effect on their interests. This course enables the accountant to cut through the jargon to understand the legal concepts, communicate a real-world explanation to clients, and serve, in some instances, as an advisor to them. After taking this course, practitioners will feel more confident to serve in a fiduciary capacity. Updated for developments relative to estate taxation.
Highlights
- Issues involved when settling an estate - marshaling of assets, payment of creditors, & distribution and accounting to beneficiaries
- Explaining the needs and limitations of durable powers of attorney, health care directives, and living wills Why a will is probated, and on what grounds it may be challenged
- Comprehensive checklists on how to read a will, duties of an executor and trustee, and much more Identification and report of estate assets
- What to do and what not to do as a fiduciary, executor, or trustee - duty of care, investment, informing, payment of debts and taxes, & defending a will contest
- How executors and trustees interact with beneficiaries
- Elective shares, and when a spouse might make that choice
- What a trustee needs to know about incompetents and minors
- Rights of creditors, third parties, and beneficiaries
- Key issues in transferring property to a trust and from a trust or estate to a beneficiary
- Identifying income, estate, and inheritance taxes
- Fiduciary accounting - principal and income concepts
- An introduction to drafting an account, and why it is relevant
- Administration of revocable trusts Estate basis reporting
Prerequisites
None
Designed For
Accounting and Financial Professionals who wish to assist in settlement of an estate, regardless of size
Objectives
- Understand how creditors' claims impact a beneficiary's claims
- Understand the key provisions in a will or trust
- Understand the duties of an executor or trustee in relation to beneficiaries and other third parties Identify trusts, wills, and other documents encountered, & their uses
- Understand the stages of an estate administration including costs, collections, payment of debts/taxes, & distribution to beneficiaries
- Be aware of the duties a fiduciary and members of the estate planning team owe to creditors, beneficiaries, and the courts
Preparation
None
Leader(s):
Leader Bios
Pamela Davis-Vaughn, Surgent McCoy CPE, LLC
Pamela J. Davis-Vaughn, CPA, is a general practitioner providing accounting, tax, and consulting services to clients across the United States from her office in Painted Post, New York. She has designed and taught undergraduate and graduate courses in state and local tax at Texas universities, including Baylor and Texas Tech; and has been a highly rated speaker at the Controller’s Roundtable, a sponsored event for controllers of automobile dealerships in Texas.
In addition to her accounting practice, Pam and her husband, Darryl, are owners of One Main Place Farms, an organic farming operation located in upstate New York. Pam has over 25 years of experience in both public and private accounting sectors. Her public experience ranges from a Big Four firm where she assisted several Fortune 500 companies in restructuring their operations to provide state income and franchise tax savings, participated on the mergers and acquisitions team, and served as the Southwest Area Employment Tax practice leader to providing tax consulting services for closely held businesses of a 16-partner, 100-staff Dallas CPA firm. Her experience in the private sector as CFO of a Dallas based manufacturer servicing the telecom industry and Tax and Accounting Manager of a large independent oil and gas company provides her with significant insight into the challenges faced by those practicing in industry.
Pam holds a BS degree in Business and Accounting from the University of Kansas, an MBA from Wichita State University, and has completed post-graduate work in International Tax at New York University. She holds a license to practice in Kansas, Texas, and New York.
Non-Member Price $375
Member Price $275