Trust Protectors and Trust Modification
Please note that this is a 2-hour meeting.
Registration and cocktails
3:30pm – 4:00pm
Program
4:00pm – 6:00pm
Dinner
6:00pm – 7:00pm
Please register by Friday, March 16th and indicate whether or not you will be staying for dinner.
Please find the handout below.
* Please note printed handouts at the meetings are only provided to those individuals who have purchased the Handout Subscription *
About the speakers
Elizabeth (Rollings) Friman is a third generation Tucsonan. She graduated cum laude from Connecticut College before moving to New York City where she worked in the capital markets industry as a legal assistant for Davis Polk & Wardwell. Elizabeth returned to Tucson in 2009 and is a graduate of the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law. In 2013, she joined Fleming & Curti as an Associate. Elizabeth is a licensed private fiduciary and her practice focuses on guardianship, conservatorship, estate planning, and trust administration issues. She enjoys public speaking and has presented on different topics including Charitable Gift Planning, Diminished Capacity and Estate Planning, Representation of Fiduciaries and Best Practices for Trustees Managing Special Needs Trusts. Elizabeth co-Chaired the Probate and Trust track for the Arizona State Bar’s CLE by the Sea program in Summer 2017, and has been selected to co-chair the program again in 2018.
Elizabeth is a member of the Arizona State Bar Probate & Trust Executive Council. She also serves on the Professional Advisory Group for the Jewish Community Foundation and the Gift Planning Professional Advisory Counsel for the University of Arizona Foundation. She is currently serving as President of a local section 8 housing project, Blanche Johnson Affordable Housing, President of the Planned Giving Round Table of Southern Arizona and Vice President and Treasurer of the Arizona Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.
William M. Conway is an AV rated private practice lawyer and a partner in the firm of Moeller & Conway, PLLC in Tucson, Arizona where he limits his practice to the areas of estate planning, taxation and business formation and structuring.
Mr. Conway is a Fellow in the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel; past Chairperson of the Executive Counsel of the Probate and Trust Section of the Arizona State Bar; and former adjunct professor at the University of Arizona’s Rogers College of Law where he has co-taught the courses of Estate and Gift Tax and Estate Planning.
Mr. Conway is a Tucson native and received his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Arizona (1992) and his Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from the University of Arizona, College of Law (1996). Between undergraduate and law school, Will passed the CPA exam, but is not presently a certified public accountant.
In addition to his deep appreciation for the Internal Revenue Code, Will has great love for his wife, Kati, and his two teenage children, Carter and Kayla. Will is also an avid distance runner having completed numerous marathons (including three Boston Marathons), several ultra marathons, and a number of Rim to Rim to Rim runs across the Grand Canyon.
About the program
To have a Trust Protector, or not to have a Trust Protector? That is the question many estate planners, professional advisors and their clients want to know. While the incorporation of Trust Protectors into revocable and irrevocable trusts alike has become commonplace, the consensus is still out about how a Trust Protector can have sweeping authority without any fiduciary duty. While statutory authority and case law exists to shed light on this question, the use of Trust Protectors has yet to be examined in dept by the Courts. This leaves grantors, trustees and beneficiaries with many unanswered questions like: Who should act as a Trust Protector? Who can remove a Trust Protector? And, What is the relationship between a Trust Protector and Trustee?
If you have been asked to act as a Trust Protector, you will want to consider the types and extent of the powers granted to the Trust Protector, the possible liability for exercising those powers or failing to exercise those powers, what is the statute of limitations for that potential liability, how will you be compensated and can you resign. Find out what you should do before accepting the position of Trust Protector.
If a grantor is considering the appointment of a Trust Protector for the purpose of trust modification, he or she may want to first consider what other trust modification methods are available. The tax effects of decanting should be compared to a Trust Protector’s power to amend, with other methods of trust modification, before a trust is modified in any way. The specific powers of a Trust Protector can have income tax, gift and estate tax and generation skipping tax implications for estates of every size. These tax implications are sometimes overlooked by CPAs and Estate Planners when considering the appointment of a Trust Protector with unbridled authority. Drafting attorneys and those reviewing trust agreements will learn how to address and interpret specific powers granted by Statute or in the Trust Instrument; the duties and standards for liability that apply for the Trust Protector and trustee; communication sharing procedures between the trustee and Trust Protector; appointment, acceptance and removal provisions; compensation and expense reimbursement; and indemnification provisions.
This program will offer both practical and technical analysis of Trust Protectors and current trends in trust modification that will be useful to every attorney, tax and professional advisor who seeks to add value to their clients.
