Last week, Minnesota CLE held the 35th Annual Probate & Trust Law Conference in St. Paul. I always look forward to this conference and this year was particularly good. Nearly all of the break-out sessions looked interesting and it will take me quite a long time to wade through the (what looks to be) 700+ page materials we received. The featured plenary speakers were good (though not stellar). Some of the plenary topics are not on my front-burner right now, but I could definitely envision using their materials in the future.
It would be impossible for me to recap the whole conference and do it justice. A person’s experience at the conference would, in large part, depend on their experience at the break-out sessions (the bulk of the conference). But for what it is worth, what follows are some of the highlights of the conference for me.
Ronald Aucutt on the Future of the Federal Estate Tax
Mr. Aucutt believes that estate tax changes will likely be dealt with this year, though it may not be until late in the year. He gave multiple reasons for why estate tax change is ripe:
- In 2005, 272 Representatives in the House voted for estate tax repeal. 179 of those Representatives are still in the House.
- In 2007, 84 Senators voted for some time of estate tax change (across various bills/amendments). 71 of those Senators are still in the Senate.
- Estate tax relief has become a middle-class issue for Congress. Congress talks about estate tax relief along with other traditionally middle-class issues. This is remarkable considering that previously estate tax relief was thought of and spoken of as something that only benefited the elite. There is lots of momentum to rescue the middle-class from the effects of the economy.
- President Obama is on record supporting freezing the 2009 exemption levels for the estate tax.
- President Obama’s budget proposal assumes the estate tax will remain at 2009 levels.
- Senator Baucus, the Senate Finance Committee Chairman and perhaps the most important person in the Senate on this issue, has proposed a bill freezing the estate tax at 2009 levels. Though the House writes tax bills, his bill is seen as persuasive.
It is possible that the estate tax “fix” lasts only one year, to get us through 2010. Under current law, the estate tax exemption will be unlimited in 2010 (read: no federal estate tax in 2010). If the fix lasts for more than one year, we are probably looking at an indexed exemption level that will rise over time. Portability, an estate tax reform that has gained traction recently, is neither dead nor a sure thing. Mr. Aucutt gave the chances of its passage as “just more likely than not.”
Because of his insights into this hot topic, Mr. Aucutt’s plenary session was my favorite.
This plenary session is always a must-attend and will likely be for quite some time given that Minnesota’s probate code will certainly be updated in the next few years. Important highlights include:
- The $20,000 limit for the collection by affidavit procedure has been increased to $50,000. See my previous blog post about changes to the Affidavit of Collection procedure. The speaker indicated that this new limit is now in effect (which is different than what I reported earlier). Update 6/18/09: Everyone is on the same page. The effective date is August 1.
- There are changes to disclaimers, effective January 1, 2010. Of particular importance: the disclaimer usually will not need to be filed with the Court and the disclaimer provisions have been merged so that nonprobate and probate disclaimers are treated under the same statute. Also, there will be no time limit to disclaimer for Minnesota purposes. However, tax-qualified disclaimers will still have to be completed within 9 months of the date of death under federal law.
- Court filing fees increase July 1. See my blog post about the increase in court filing fees. Stay subscribed to this blog for an automatic reminder.
Post-Mortem Estate and Tax Planning
Messrs. Forsberg and Slye presented the best summary of alternate valuation I have heard to date. You’ll want to get their materials if this is an issue for you. Especially in a down-economy, always consider alternate valuation and installment payments of the estate tax, if the situation applies. See my previous blog post about alternate valuation considerations.
One interesting tidbit: the code section on alternate valuation came out of the Great Depression.
Case Law Update
The Dorsey firm always does a great job putting together case law summaries of important cases around the country and in Minnesota. A few notes:
- The Margolis line of cases (MN) seems to have reached a conclusion. This has been an interesting case to follow and worth your time to read. The latest decision was filed June 2, 2009 as A08-1407 – MN Ct. of Appeals.
- In re Estate of Moldenhauer (MN) contains a good summary of the standard for testamentary capacity. A08-0263 – MN Ct. of Appeals.
What They Didn’t Teach You in Law School
This session had the potential of being a bust– it could have been too basic. It wasn’t a bust and was well-attended by many experienced attorneys. The 8 or 9 person panel was way too large for a one-hour session. Panelist introductions took over 5 minutes. Nevertheless, there was good information.
The best part of these panels is hearing from one of the metro-area probate registrars. The Anoka County registrar was asked about the most common errors on probate forms she encounters. Among them are:
- Using the wrong form
- Using an incorrect heading (e.g. listing county as Hennepin, instead of Anoka)
- Leaving blanks in the forms, especially in the asset summary (if the amount is $0, put that, don’t leave it blank)
She has no problem with customized forms rather than fill-in-the-blank forms. Just be careful that you don’t delete something that must be included. Also, if you are still using forms from the 70′s, it is time to update your forms!
Finally, since Anoka does probate hearings only every other Monday, formal hearings are being scheduled 6-8 weeks out.
Other Session Materials
I’m looking forward to reading quite a number of other session documents, including:
- “Who Gets Grandma’s Yellow Pie Plate? – Managing the Emotional Minefield of Tangible Personal Property Distribution” [I've already found this helpful]
- “Coordinating Beneficiary Designations with the Client’s Estate Plan”
- “Asset Protection Planning”
- The Medical Assistance Update
- The update on the Barg case.
- “How to Respond to Fiduciary Theft”
- “The Latest on New Trust/Banking Rules”
Twitter Experience
This year I decided to live-twitter the conference. I was concerned that this would become a distraction for me, especially since I had to use my keypad on my phone to write each post. Surprisingly, rather than being a distraction, it helped me to focus on the speakers. Each session I tried to listen for at least one thing the speaker said that would be worth sharing. That process helped me to leave each session with more take-aways.
The real power in something like this would be having 10, 20, or 30+ people all live-twittering the conference. The accumulation of all the tweets would provide a better feel of the conference and it would be interesting to read other people’s take-aways, especially for those who attend break-out sessions you didn’t get to attend.
It would also provide a better feedback system than the standard surveys Minnesota CLE always hands out. I can’t imagine they get too many of those back. Raw, off-the-cuff comments about the conference on Twitter would be much more helpful.
Note to Minnesota CLE: Give away free conference registration to 10 young attorneys next year with the only requirement that they twitter the whole conference. Then, announce the twitter feed at the conference and provide a link on your website for conference attendees to either join in or check out. It would be a win for everyone.
I’m pretty certain I’ll be live-twittering future section CLE’s that I attend.
Miscellaneous
Final, miscellaneous thoughts while at the conference:
- It was odd that, although this was the 35th annual section conference, there seemed to be no extra pizazz associated with that milestone.
- There was a discussion at the “What They Didn’t Teach You in Law School” session about the various probate forms systems available to Minnesota attorneys. The panelists couldn’t remember the names of the two main probate systems (mndocs by MSBA and CLEPro by MinnCLE). There was also confusion regarding whether mndocs was the same system as the forms on practicelaw.org. It didn’t seem like they could adequately explain the differences between the two main systems. Admittedly, the panelists were mostly big-firm attorneys. Yet it seems there is still significant branding work to be done. [Side note: I plan on posting a comprehensive review of both systems on this blog in the coming weeks.]
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