2012 Probate & Estate Planning Conference for Tennessee Attorneys - Materials Only

Held Friday, November 16, 2012

This event featured some of the state’s top estate planning and probate practitioners, and the probate judge for Davidson County. Your distinguished faculty will explain the very latest developments and strategies.

Attendees will receive valuable tips for advanced estate planning using trusts and estate planning for non-traditional couples, as well as tips for planning opportunities and challenges in drafting wills in 2012.

Highlights:

• Advance planning with trusts
• Drafting GDOTs, GRATs, and QPRTs
• Will drafting tips – planning opportunities and challenges for 2012
• Estate planning for non-traditional couples – unmarried, remarried, or same-sex
• TennCare Medicaid estate recovery
• Trusts, estate planning, and probate update
• Common sources of conflict in drafting probate documents
• Considerations when executing a power of attorney
• Ethical considerations – identifying the client, handling clients with diminishing mental capacity, practicing before the IRS, and getting paid
• Useful estate and guardianship/conservatorship forms

Speakers:

• Rebecca Blair, The Blair Law Firm
• Harlan Dodson, Dodson, Parker, Behm & Capparella P.C.
• Judge Randy Kennedy, Davidson County Probate Court
• Patricia Porter Kryder, King & Ballow
• Anne McKinney, Anne M. McKinney, P.C.
• Hunter R. Mobley, Howard Mobley Hayes & Gontarek, PLLC
• Jeff Mobley, Howard Mobley Hayes & Gontarek, PLLC
• Timothy L. Takacs, CELA, Hendersonville attorney
• Karl D. Warden, Jackson, Kweller, McKinney, Moore, Warden, Lewis & Hayes
  

Your Conference Faculty

Rebecca Blair has more than 14 years experience fighting for the rights of her clients in the courtroom.  Prior to founding The Blair Law Firm, Rebecca Blair practiced at one of Tennessee's largest law firms focusing on complex litigation cases. Immediately before founding The Blair Law Firm, Ms. Blair was a named partner at Day & Blair, a premier Tennessee boutique law firm known for high-quality work in catastrophic injury and complex litigation. Ms. Blair was named a MidSouth Super Lawyer in 2009 and 2010. She was a member of the American Bar Association, T.I.P.S. Leadership Academy Class of 2008–2009. Ms. Blair is actively involved in professional associations dedicated to preserving the integrity of the bar and protecting the rights of her clients.

Harlan Dodson III, of Dodson, Parker, Behm & Capparella P.C., focuses his practice on work for individuals, corporations, and their businesses – including general business advice, real estate law, estate planning, and litigation in all courts. Mr. Dodson is a frequent speaker and writer on business entities, and especially limited liability companies, as well as on wills and estate planning. He has taught Estate Planning at the Nashville School of Law since 1975, where he was presented with the Distinguished Faculty Award in 2007. Mr. Dodson has also served as Adjunct Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of a book on estate planning entitled, Introduction to Estate Planning and Administration in Tennessee, which he updates annually and is the editor to West Publishing Company’s Tennessee Practice series on business formation and estate planning. Additionally, he continues to be a lecturer for the bar review company BAR-BRI on wills and estates.

Judge Randy Kennedy is judge of the Davidson County Seventh Circuit Court, which handles all probate and estate administration cases for Davidson County. Judge Kennedy was first appointed to replace Judge Frank Clement in 2003, and was elected to the circuit court judgeship in 2004 and re-elected in 2006. Judge Kennedy served as presiding judge of the 20th Judicial District from 2005 to 2007. Judge Kennedy also formerly served as a member of the Metropolitan Council for Nashville/Davidson County, having been elected to two terms and was a member of the Metro Charter Revision Commission from 1995 to 2009. Judge Kennedy was engaged in the general practice of law for 26 years, most recently as the managing partner of Kennedy & Brown.

Patricia Porter Kryder is an attorney in the Tax Department at King & Ballow in Nashville, and she primarily works in the areas of tax and estate planning and general business law. Prior to joining King & Ballow, Ms. Kryder engaged in “private client services” for high net worth individuals and businesses. She was previously “of counsel” to the law firm, Heiskell, Donelson, Bearman, Adams, Williams & Kirsch, and a partner with Waller Lansden Dortch and Davis, both in Nashville. Ms. Kryder is admitted to practice in Florida, Tennessee and the District of Columbia, and before the U.S. Tax Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Anne McKinney, founder of Anne M. McKinney, P.C., in Knoxville, has over 30 years of legal and tax experience. She practices in the areas of probate, trusts, and wills, nonprofit and charitable organizations, taxation, business formation, and planning. She is a Fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. She has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law in Estate Planning and Wealth Transfer Tax at the University of  Tennessee College of Law, and as an Adjunct Professor in Business Law at the University of Tennessee Undergraduate School. Ms. McKinney co-authored Estate Planning in Tennessee in 1996 and Estate Planning in Tennessee, 2nd ed. in 2002. She is continually collaborating on new publications.

Hunter R. Mobley is an attorney at Howard Mobley Hayes & Gontarek, PLLC, a boutique trusts and estates firm in the Green Hills community of Nashville. He concentrates his practice in the areas of estate planning, estate administration and charitable planning. In addition to estate planning for individuals and families, he advises foundations, churches and other nonprofits in connection with tax planning, tax disputes and organizational governance. Hunter received an LL.M in Taxation from New York University, a J.D. from University of Kentucky and a B.S. from Davidson College.

Jeff Mobley is a member of Howard Mobley Hayes & Gontarek, PLLC, in Nashville and concentrates his practice in the areas of estate planning, tax planning for estates and trusts, business succession planning, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, estate administration, resolution of disputes involving estates, and related real estate matters. He is certified as an Estate Planning Specialist by the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education and Specialization. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America (2001-2010 editions) and Mid-South Super Lawyers (2005-2010 editions). He is a Fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.

Tim Takacs began his legal career in 1980, right after graduating from law school. He joined three other lawyers to open a general practice in Hendersonville. He is certified as an elder law attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation and as a Certified Elder Law Specialist by the Tennessee Commission on CLE and Specialization. In 2006, he helped found the Life Care Planning Law Firms Association and was the LCPLFA’s first president. Mr. Takacs has been a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA), the nation’s preeminent professional organization for elder law attorneys, since 1991, and served on NAELA’s board of directors. He is a charter member of the Special Needs Alliance, a network of the country’s leading disability lawyers. In 2000, he founded The Tennessee Pooled Trust, which is Tennessee’s first “special needs pooled trust.”

Karl D. Warden is a member of the law firm of Jackson, Kweller, McKinney, Moore, Warden, Lewis & Hayes in Nashville. He practices in the areas of elder law, estate planning, business law, business litigation, and civil law. He has been practicing law for more than 25 years, and has lectured for the National Business Institute and other professional groups on matters related to ethics, estate planning, elder law, veteran’s benefits, and asset protection. Mr. Warden is the chair of the Continuing Legal Education Section of the Nashville Bar Association. He is the author of the required course on “Guardian Ad Litem, Benefits, and Practice” for the Davidson County Probate Court.

2012 Probate & Estate Planning Conference for Tennessee Attorneys

8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.: TennCare’s Last Bite: Update on TennCare Medicaid Estate Recovery
Timothy L. Takacs
Hendersonville attorney

• What is “estate recovery”?
• When is estate recovery permitted?
  
• When does federal law prohibit estate recovery?
  
• When does Tennessee law prohibit estate recovery?
  
• The Tanner decision and beyond
  
• State Medicaid Plan amendment
  
• Questions – for the heirs, the closing attorney, the title insurance company, and the estate’s attorney
  

9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.: Planning Opportunities & Challenges
Harlan Dodson
Dodson, Parker, Behm & Capparella, PC

• Tips for taking advantage of the special situations in 2012: Historically low transfer tax rates; historically high exemptions; historically low capital gains rates; historically low APR; Tennessee gift tax repealed; and troubled economy so (HONEST!) low valuations
• Tips for hedging your 2012 bets: What if we guess wrong about what 2013 will bring?
  
• Tips for 2012 planning to address the certainty of federal tax changes in 2013 – and the uncertainty of what they will be!
  
• Client’s need to consider documents now to address the uncertainty of 2013 and beyond
  

10:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.: Morning Break

10:15 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.: Advanced Planning with Trusts
Jeff Mobley and Hunter R. Mobley
Howard Mobley Hayes & Gontarek, PLLC

• Credit Shelter/Bypass Trust Upon Death
• QTIP/Marital Trust Planning
• Inter-vivos Family Gift Trusts
• Life Insurance Trusts
• Gift Tax and Crummey Powers
• Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts
• Qualified Personal Residence Trusts
• Trusts for IRA’s
• Intentionally Defective Grantor Trusts
• Charitable Trusts
• Unusual Tennessee Trusts

11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.: Ethical Considerations in Probate and Estate Planning
Karl D. Warden
Jackson, Kweller, McKinney, Moore, Warden, Lewis & Hayes

• Who is the client?
• Handling clients with diminishing mental capacity
  
• Lawyers acting as fiduciaries
  
• Estate status updates for client
  
• Practicing before the Internal Revenue Service
  
• Getting paid: Billable/non-billable hours and retainer agreements
  
• Preventing unauthorized practice of law by legal staff
  

12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.: Lunch (on your own)
 
1:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.: Tips for Probate Drafters from a Litigator’s Perspective
Rebecca Blair
The Blair Law Firm

As a probate drafter, it is your goal to effectuate the testator’s intent through his or her estate plan. Ms. Blair focuses on common issues of conflict and identifies key points to consider at the time of drafting and advising the client that may avoid conflict down the road – or at least protect the testator’s intent.

• Common sources of conflict
• Transfers during life
  
• Unequal treatment of beneficiaries
  
• Modifications to the estate plan after the loss of a spouse or late in life
  
• Considerations when executing a power of attorney
  
• A necessary precaution or opening Pandora’s box?
  

2:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.: Common Problems in Probate from a Judge’s Perspective
Judge Randy Kennedy
Davidson County Probate Court

• How to prepare for probate court
• Basic principles for trying a conservatorship case
  
• Opening up and administering the intestate estate
  
• Handling a testate estate
  

3:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.: Afternoon Break

3:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.: Estate Planning for Non-Traditional Couples
Patricia Kryder
King & Ballow

• Premarital and post-marital agreements
• Planning for children from previous marriage(s)
  
• Planning for unmarried couples
  
• Estate planning for same-sex couples
  

4:15 p.m. to 5:15 p.m.: Trusts, Estate Planning and Probate Update
Anne McKinney
Anne M. McKinney, P.C.
 
Ms. McKinney guides you through estate planning tips you need to know. This fast-paced and entertaining presentation will get you up to date on the latest developments and trends on the use of trusts and other estate planning strategies, recent probate developments and techniques to avoid the probate process entirely.