How to Settle a Client’s Estate (in collaboration with the FICPA)

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

• 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