The Corporate Transparency Act, a new law in effect January 1, 2024, requires most business entities to file an information report with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
Paper: Understanding the New Corporate Transparency Act (Dec 2023)
Typically, when a client is considering options to help reduce estate taxes, the client must consider techniques that require the client to part with assets he or she has accumulated over the years. For example, many estate planning techniques involve gifting and/or selling the client’s assets to trusts that benefit the client’s children. As a result, the client permanently parts with the assets, as well as all of the future appreciation and the income stream from the assets. However, use of a “678 Trust” (sometimes also called a Beneficiary Defective Irrevocable Trust or “BDIT”) allows the client to combine asset protection, estate tax savings associated with “estate freeze” techniques, and the continued ability to benefit from assets he or she has accumulated over the years.
Paper: 678 Trusts – Planning Strategies and Pitfalls (2024)
Paper: Squeeze, Freeze, and Burn with 678 Trusts (2024)
Slide Deck: Squeeze, Freeze, & Burn – Estate Planning with 678 Trusts (2018)
John Hunter and Christopher Beck presented a “Tax Workshop” to member of TIGER 21 in Dallas on August 28, 2023.
Slide Deck: Tax Workshop (John Hunter & Christopher Beck, 8-28-2023)
Marvin Blum and Frank Leffingwell spoke at Business Owners Conferences in April 2023 sponsored by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch on “Planning in a Perfect Storm.” Knowing that 50% of owners will sell their business over the next 10 years, Marvin and Frank focused on the goal of minimizing the tax bite to leave more in the family’s pocket at the end of the day.
Slide Deck: Planning in a Perfect Storm (Marvin Blum, 4-26-2023)
Slide Deck: Planning in a Perfect Storm (Frank Leffingwell, April 27 2023)
Marvin Blum presented “Estate Planning Checkup: 10 Questions to Ask” to several TIGER 21 groups in Dallas and New York in February and April of 2023.
Slide Deck: Estate Planning Checkup: 10 Questions to Ask (4-13-2023)
Marvin Blum spoke to the Dallas Council of Charitable Gift Planners on March 14, 2023, to present “In Search of ‘Family Glue’- Improving the Odds of Multi-Generational Success.” Every family deals with challenging family dynamics. When you throw an inheritance into that mix, it’s like adding fuel to the fire.
The statistics are daunting, as 90% fall victim to the adage “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.” In this speech, Marvin covers the “Best Practices” of the 10% who succeed.
Slide Deck: In Search of Family Glue (3-14-2023)
Marvin Blum joined the Dallas Estate Planning Council on March 2, 2023, to discuss “Life Insurance Planning Opportunities.” In this new world of estate planning, planners think “outside the box” to derive creative solutions to address our clients’ needs. Many of those solutions involve life insurance.
Slide Deck: Life Insurance Planning Opportunities (3-2-2023)
After putting all the elements of the estate plan in place, what’s next? The final, and almost always overlooked step, is a Red File. A Red File is a roadmap containing critical information to guide the family through a loved one’s incapacity, estate administration, business succession, and creation or continuation of a lasting legacy. The Red File covers the items missing from even the most carefully crafted legal documents, such as key contacts, passwords, caregiving wishes, and heartfelt reflections.
The Blum Firm’s Red File Checklist available here
Slide Deck here: Marvin Blum at the Midland-Odessa Business & Estate Council on February 14, 2023, for “A Red File- Putting a Bow on Top of Your Estate Plan”
Slide Deck here: Marvin Blum at the Lion Street Trusted Advisors Conference on July 13, 2021, for “The Final Wrap Up – A Red File. Putting a Bow on Top of Your Estate Plan”
Marvin Blum delivered the keynote address on “Business Succession Planning” for a symposium sponsored by the Purposeful Planning Institute on February 9,2023. Business succession planning is often described as the most neglected area of estate planning.
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Paper here and Slide Deck here: Marvin Blum at TXCPA East Texas CPE Expo on May 18, 2022, for “Last Chance Tax Planning – The Golden Age of Estate Planning Won’t Last Forever (If You’re Not Doing Estate Planning Now, What Are You Waiting For?)
Slide Deck here: Marvin Blum at TXCPA Permian Basin CPE Expo on November 3, 2021, for “‘Last Chance’ Tax Planning- The Golden Age of Estate Planning Won’t Last Forever”
Video here and Paper here: Marvin Blum joined Scott Bishop at the Financial Planning Association’s June 2021 Tax & Estate Planning Knowledge Circle for “A Conversation with Marvin Blum”
Marvin Blum joined the Midland-Odessa Business and Estate Council on March 8, 2022, to discuss “I Do Round Two – Second Marriage Estate Planning.”
Paper: I Do Round Two – Second Marriage Estate Planning (3-8-2022)
Marvin Blum joined John A. Warnick on July 6, 2021 to discuss his journey into the “soft” side of estate planning as part of the Purposeful Planning Institute’s Thought Leader & Industry Innovator Series.
Video available here
Paper: Marvin Blums Journey into the Soft Side of Estate Planning (Marvin Blum 7-6-2021)
