Planning for Blended and Stepfamilies

This webinar discusses estate planning for clients who have blended or stepfamilies. Estate planning for clients who have blended or stepfamilies often presents significant and perplexing challenges for estate planners in the substantive planning. As if that was not difficult enough, estate planners may also encounter important ethical issues.

This webinar covers the often-counterintuitive ethical traps and landmines that estate planners face when working with blended or stepfamily clients, including:

  • How practitioners can work effectively with blended families
  • Joint and separate representation
  • Precautions practitioners can take during the initial client meeting
  • How to properly prepare for the initial meeting
  • How to update questionnaires and other forms to reflect blended family data
  • Sources of common conflicts of interest
  • What the distinction is between consentable and non-consentable conflicts
  • Specific practical estate planning situations that can present ethical challenges, including marriage contracts, joint tenancy, gift-splitting, powers of attorney, SLATs, gift tax returns, etc.