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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    On-Demand

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

    Intermediate

  • work Practice Area

    Estate Planning

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Tuesday, April 22, 2025

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

$297.00
CLE
CPE
ALL

This CLE/CPE webinar will provide estate planners a detailed analysis of key legal and tax considerations for structuring estate plans for unmarried couples, polyamorous families, and LGBTQ+ relationships. The panel will discuss strategies to reduce gift and estate tax liability and provide an analysis of key issues that may arise as well as offer strategies to ensure the best results. The panel will provide guidance for using gifting, trusts, title transfers, and other options to pass assets to desired beneficiaries and the necessary directives that nontraditional families should have in place.

Faculty

SJ Chapman
Managing Partner
Bielski Chapman, Ltd

Mx. Chapman practices in the areas of estate planning, probate, real estate, and corporate law in New York and Illinois. She tailors estate plans to each client’s individual needs, from basic planning for clients who have a home and life savings, to new parents who want to name a guardian for minor children, to advanced planning for retiring or retired clients who are worried about losing their life savings to long term care costs.  Mx. Chapman also helps clients with special needs family members to make sure their loved ones’ public benefits are protected. Her corporate clients are in a variety of industries – breweries, education, marketing, fashion, pets and insurance.  Mx. Chapman handles matters for corporate clients that include start-ups, shareholder and partnership agreements, buy-out agreements, social media policies, independent contractor agreements, consulting agreements and leases.   

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Denise Tessier
Attorney
The Tessier Law Firm, PA

Ms. Tessier has been a lawyer for over 25 years, admitted in Massachusetts and Connecticut. For many years, she served diligently as in-house counsel for large multinationals, international and start-up operations, rising to General Counsel and Compliance Officer roles. Ms. Tessier has extensive expertise in highly complex areas such as global insurance and corporate law, regulatory compliance, and dispute resolution. 

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Description

The number of nontraditional families, including unmarried couples, polyamorous families, and LGBTQ+ relationships, has increased in recent years. Estate planners must recognize the legal and tax issues that arise for these families and plan accordingly.

Spouses can gift unlimited amounts without using their estate and gift tax exemption, while unmarried individuals are limited annually. Similarly, there is an unlimited estate tax marital deduction between spouses and portability, allowing one taxpayer to benefit from both spouses' estate tax exclusion.

For unmarried cohabitants, polyamorous families, and LGBTQ+ couples, knowing that their assets will be distributed to the people they choose is key. Utilizing gifts, trusts, title transfers, and other mechanisms to pass assets to desired beneficiaries and the necessary directives that unmarried cohabitants should have in place are critical to achieving optimum results.

Estate planners working with these individuals need to understand the choices available for bequests and how they affect potential estate tax liability.

Listen as our panel discusses strategies to reduce gift and estate tax liability and other options to pass assets to desired beneficiaries and the necessary directives that nontraditional families should have in place.

Outline

  1. Overview of planning challenges for nontraditional families
    • Tax implications
    • Gift taxes
    • Estate and inheritance taxes
  2. Legal considerations
    • Retirement accounts
    • Beneficiary designations
    • Wills and trusts
    • Incapacity
  3. State considerations

Benefits

The panel will review these critical issues:

  • What are the estate planning challenges for nontraditional families?
  • What are the gift and estate tax implications?
  • What gifting strategies are available to transfer assets to desired beneficiaries?
  • What are the inequities between married and unmarried taxpayers in the estate and gift tax regime?
  • Best practices for estate planners when establishing plans for nontraditional families