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teleice@TrustsAndEstates.net

Clicking the Iceberg Will Always Take You Home.

• List of Articles in Table Form. Unfinished. I recognize that there is so much stuff on this site that finding a particular article can take a while. Therefore, I have begun a page that lists all of the articles on this site, and where to find them. You can use "Control f" to search the page using key words, and that should allow you to find what you need. It is about 25% finished. Check it out. Coming soon will be a find engine. It you have the Alexa toolbar, which is free, you can search any site.
   
• GRATs. The  grantor retained annuity trust is presently one of the best estate planning techniques on the market. It allows the grantor to convey an unlimited amount of property without gift tax, and is expressly sanctioned by statute. I recently wrote an article in question and answer  table form, a version of which were used at the New York University 62nd Tax Institute and another version of which was published in the Texas Tax Lawyer.  A more recent  word version is available for downloading by clicking GRATs\GRATMmClIce.doc. The HTML version is available by clicking GRATs\GRATMmClIce.htm.
   
• Income Tax Issues in Probate. I recently prepared a paper for the State Bar of Texas' Advanced Drafting: Estate Planning and Probate course.  A more recent  word version is available for downloading by clicking DraftingForIncomeTax.doc. The HTML version is available by clicking DraftingForIncomeTax.htm.
   
• Is trust income separate or community property? You would think the answer is simple and well established. Think again, and read "Is The Trust Income Community Property?"
   
• EGTRRA provisions affecting qualified plans and IRAs.
   
• THE Final  MRD Regs Annotated-Updated 9/12/2002 and a new Nutshell Article on the MRD Rules Under the Final Regs. I have even updated 4 or 5 chapters of the Estate Planning For Distributions Treatise, particularly Ch. 5 dealing with Creditor Issues involving IRAs, SEPs and Qualified Plans.
   
•  ENRON And ESOPs. This is an article I prepared recently for the 2002 Advanced Estate Planning Instituted Sponsored by the PDP of the State Bar of Texas.
   
• FORM BOOK (for attorneys only). A new Form Book page, designed for attorneys, and not to be relied upon, is located at Form Book. I have big ideas for this page. For now, there is an ACTEC article on document assembly, together with the Appendices to it. When I get around to it, I have a hundred or so forms to add. Whether or not I will charge for keeping it up-to-date is something I am mulling over. With my MAIL MERGE system as a Form Generator, I am in a position to produce quite a few forms that attorneys should find useful. Consider the Form Book page as a preview of things to come.
   
• Articles by Mike Bourland, Shannon Gutherie and Jeffrey Meyers on Private Foundations, Charitable Lead Trusts and Private Foundations, all on the new Guest Page.
   
• Articles by Thomas Baird and Steve Akers on the Guest Page including a brand new article on EGTRRA.
   
• 100 (or so) Do's and Don'ts in Estate Planning For IRA and Qualified Plan Distributions. (Only 10 pages!)
   
• Four New Articles on Planned Giving and Private Foundations.
  
• Here are a couple of items that should help you understand the new re-proposed Minimum Required Distribution Rules.
  
• Here is a hot item on which I have been working for four or five years, and which was just given new life with the advent of ERISA Op Letter 2000-10A: Under What Circumstances Can an IRA Invest In a Limited Partnership, and What Are the Tax Consequences?
  
• The website now has a couple of interesting FLP Memos: What You Should Know About Your FLP and Memo on the Gift on Formation Issue
  
• ESTATE PLANNING SPREADSHEET TEMPLATES for Excel. These include: (a) Form 706 Estate Tax Return (including Schs R, GSTT computations), (b) a Significant Date List for Texas Probate, and (c) a minimum distribution calculator under IRC §401(a)(9). I will periodically be posting more Excel Estate Planning Templates for downloading. A very few of the spreadsheet templates use functions that will required the purchase of ZCalc (which I highly recommend anyway) at a cost of around $100. If you are an Excel user and an estate planner, ZCalc is well worth the money. Note that you will need to load the Excel Analysis ToolPak in order to use all of the functions in these programs (e.g., EDATE).
  
  
• I have added the second half of a complete sample estate plan to the Articles Section. These documents were prepared for the SBT Advanced Strategies Course in San Diego (1999). The first half was prepared for the SBT Advanced Drafting course in 1998. Together these documents make up an entire plan, of sorts. The Annual Withdrawal (Crummey) Trust documents are annotated, and are something that I highly recommend. I would be interested in the comments of the experienced lawyer or accountant regarding any of the terms found to be of interest.
  
  
• NEW ESTATE PLANNING FOR IRAs AND RETIREMENT PLANS MESSAGE BOARD
  I am collaborating with David Baker, the host of Benefits Link (the mother of all Pension/IRA websites), to moderate a message board: "Estate Planning Aspects of IRAs and Retirement Plans Message Board." Please visit.
  
  
• I have translated some documents into PDF Format, which used to make for much easier onscreen viewing than HTML. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader, however. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is free, and can be downloaded by clicking here. The PDF documents can be either viewed online or downloaded and viewed from you computer offline, or printed in original format. The PDF files are by and large more current than the other versions on my site. However, MS Word 2000 does such a good job of translating to HTML that you may find it preferable and faster.
  
• I have completed a new version of the Roth IRA Article. This article weighs in at around 130 pages, covers the final regulations. It is in Q&A format, with short answers after the questions, followed by a much more detailed answer.