E-mail me at
teleice@TrustsAndEstates.net

Clicking the Iceberg Will Always Take You Home.

One of the purposes for publishing this site was to make my articles available in a central location. I have a ways to go before this site will be finished, but for the time being I am posting a few documents. I expressly retain my copyright.

I am not intending to give legal advice by making these materials available. Legal advice would require an intimate knowledge of a person's individual circumstances, and a tailoring of that legal knowledge to those circumstances. These materials are being offered for free, and although I hope they will be useful to you, they are not to be relied upon. If you want specific legal advice, you should consult, and pay, a lawyer.

Estate Planning And Pension Articles For the Attorney or CPA (or the really dedicated Financial Planner) Written By Ice

Note that I have in most cases posted most of the articles in a variety of formats (e.g., Word, RTF, PDF, HTM, etc.). Everyone e should be able to open the HTM versions without leaving the browser. I use Word 2000, so that version should be the same as what I use in my office. However, I can generally find no difference between the Word 2000 and the RTF versions, the the RTF format will usually open flawlessly in either Word (all versions) or WordPerfect. The PDF version requires that you have the free Adobe Reader. However, Word 2000 does such a good job of converting to HTM that I am beginning to see less and less reason for taking the trouble to convert to PDF. Besides Adobe Acrobat either cannot handle longer documents or or does not handle them very well. My recommendation is to view the documents on screen using the HTM version If you want to download a copy for use in your office, and if you have Word 2000, and if I have posted a Word version, you should use Word as your download format of choice. Otherwise, download the RTF version and open it in any version of either Word or WordPerfect.

Since most of us have T-1 lines or the equivalent, I am not as concerned with compressing the documents as I used to be. However, in a few cases, with some of the longer documents, I have used a self-executing zip format to save you time downloading. For example, on the Distribution Treatise, which is now broken up into 15 or so segments to control its size, I packaged all of the documents into one self-executing zip file, that will unzip itself when you double click on it after downloading. You will be presented with a dialog box telling you where to put the unzipped document(s). Be sure to pay attention to it.

It may be the case that the document you download is not what it was supposed to be, or perhaps the link is broken and you can't download anything. If so, or if you are having any other problems with the site, please let me hear from you. Either call me at (817) 877-2885 or e-mail me at teleice@TrustsAndEstates.net. Again, please report any problems with the site to me.

My treatise on Estate Planning for IRAs and Qualified Plan Distributions is now on a separate page. If you want to go to it now, click on the blue button.	Press Blue Button To Go To Treatise
My series of "Nutshell" and other simple guides for the layperson, as well as for the lawyer, C.P.A. and financial planner have been moved to a separate page, for your convenience. If you want to go there now, click on the red button. The following articles, and perhaps a few more, are located on the page you will go to if you press the red button.	Press Red Button To Go To Nutshells
Memo on Estate Planning Techniques and Costs, covering basic, intermediate and advanced techniques. Community Property Law in a Nutshell. Claims Guide For the Independent Executor. What You Should Know About Your Familiarly Limited Partnership. A Short List of Basic Post Mortem Estate Planning Elections. ***The Minimum Distribution Rules in a Nutshell (in 12 easy pages). This article could definitely benefit the CPA, Financial Planner and Layperson, As Well as Most Lawyers.

Article Name	Comments	Push HTML Button To View in Your Browser The PDF format gives a near perfect reproduction. You will, however, need Adobe's FREE Acrobat Reader to view documents in PDF format. The free reader can be downloaded by clicking here. I am not using PDF as much as formerly, because it does not convert from large documents very well, and because MS Word does such a good job of converting to HTML that there very little point in using PDF.	Push the MS Word Button to download a Word 2000 version of a document. Push the RTF Button to download in RTF. Use RTF if you are using WordPerfect or an earlier version of Word.   A few of the documents may be zipped in a self-extracting format. To unzip it, simply click on it and pay attention to the location where the unzipped document will be found. The unzipped document can be directly opened with your word processor. Zipping the files decreases the transfer rate dramatically, and takes up less space on my web site. However, because T-1 lines and faster transfer rates are more generally available than formerly, I am now using the zipped format only for the very large files. You do not need to have WinZip to open a self-extracting archive, but if you are interested in purchasing WinZip, click below. Get WinZip.
		View in HTML or Adobe PDF To View a PDF file, simply double click on it. To download a PDF using IE, right click. To Download in Netscape, save as source.	Download in Word ‘2002 Push The Button and Download Will be Automatic	Download in RTF Push The Button and Download Will be Automatic
Is the Income From a Trust Separate or Community Property?	You would think that the answer to this question would be either "yes" or "no." Unfortunately, things are more complicated than that.
Community Property in Qualified Plans and IRAs	This short article discusses the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Boggs, among other things.
Hot Topics in IRA and QP Distributions 2000	This is a FAQs article which attempts to answers roughly 50 cutting edge questions, including a number of questions involving trusts as beneficiaries of IRAs and QPs.  .
Roth IRAs Including Technical Corrections In The IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 and The Final Regulations	This is an 135 page article on Roth IRAs. It is not particularly user friendly. I took a fairly technical approach here, parsing the statute word for word, eventually quoting it, and almost all of the final regulations, in full, using a question and answer format and adding comments where I thought it appropriate.
Alternative Probate Procedures	Texas has a myriad of alternatives to probate, many of which can be very useful, if only you know they exist. Here is my 1992 outline on Alternative Probate Procedures. Although it is somewhat dated, there are not many current materials on this subject, and this hoary old standby may still prove a valuable resource for the experienced Texas probate attorney.
Annotated Will & Revocable Living Trust	This is an updated version of a comprehensive (and complicated) form of Will with Revocable Living Trust, similar to the one given at the State Bar of Texas 1997 Advanced Tax Law Institute, & more recently given in November 1998 to the SBT Advanced Drafting: Estate Planning & Probate Law Course
Ancillary Probate Documents	This set of documents includes a Durable Power of Attorney, a Health Care Power of Attorney, a Guardianship Directive, Burial Instructions, etc.
Annotated Annual Withdrawal Trust (Crummey Trust)	This is the Crummey Money Specimen Trust, given in November 1998 to the SBT Advanced Drafting: Estate Planning & Probate Law Course
Partition Agreement & Notice Annual Withdrawal Trust	This is the Crummey Money Specimen Partition Agreement and Notice to Beneficiaries, given in April 1999 to the SBT Advanced Strategies: Estate Planning & Probate Law Course in San Diego.
Sample Crummey Trust Letters	These are sample explanatory letters to the client and trustee of a new Crummey Trust, given in April 1999 to the SBT Advanced Strategies: Estate Planning & Probate Law Course in San Diego.
Sample Letters Comprehensive Estate Plan & Living Trusts	These are sample lists and explanatory letters to the client that accompany a comprehensive estate plan, given in April 1999 to the SBT Advanced Strategies: Estate Planning & Probate Law Course in San Diego.
FLP Memo to Client "What You Should Know About Your Family Limited Partnership"	This is a sample memo to a client who has formed or is considering forming a Family Limited Partnership, updated in 2000.
	This is letter to moderator of a panel of attorneys that used the San Diego Documents
	A brief article "Computers Fin de Millennium
Creditor Claims in Probate, Exempt Property, Allowances, Sales of Probate Property and Liability of Personal Representative For Taxes	This is a long outline covering a number of technical legal matters facing the personal representative of a decedent's estate. The Texas exemption and homestead statutes applicable to living persons are discussed as well. It is a little out of date.