PANKAUSKI ATTENDS SOUTHERN FEDERAL TAX INSTITUTE

The annual Southern Federal Tax Institute is being held in Atlanta, Georgia.  John Pankauski, who holds a masters of law (LLM) from the University of Miami School of Law Graduate Program in Estate Planning attended today.  The Institute offers detailed, in-depth and cutting edge analyses and lectures on important tax matters.  Many probate attorneys and attorneys who prepare wills and trusts and who administer estates would find it helpful.  John was not the only Florida probate attorney there, although he appears to have been the only Florida probate litigator to attend.  There were specific topics and many hours related to gift tax, estate tax, estate administration issues and the generation skipping transfer tax.  Probate lawyers and lawyers who have a probate practice and who advise family owned businesses would find it helpful.  Today, a retirement plan expert from St. Louis spoke about qualified plans and making plan contributions.  There was a recent Florida case on retirement plans which produced an appellate opinion which will be commented on under a separate entry.  The lunch seminar involved a lecture on the use of life insurance for family wealth, paying estate taxes and providing liquidity for estates which may have hard to sell assets or other illiquid or unmarketable assets — or assets like family businesses which you don’t want to sell to pay the estate tax.  Plan smart.