Professional Knowledge Areas

The curriculum for the Chartered Trust and Estate Planner is based on trust and estate planning for resident and non-resident clients. This core group of graduate topics focuses on the major functional issues of high net-worth consulting, ranging from tax, finance to law. A critical aspect of this course is addressing the interpersonal skills crucial to of advising the wealthy individual or family. The course will cover such planning obstacles as Common Law vs. Civil Law jurisdictions, non-resident alien spouse, and tangible and non-tangible assets in multiple jurisdictions.

Areas of Course Study

Personal Financial Planning, Estates, and Risk Management

The candidate will be exposed to advanced financial topics including wealth accumulation and distribution, asset transfer, tax planning, and retirement planning. This section will include a full discussion of insurance products including life, property, health, disability, casualty and catastrophic coverage insurance. Also, the student will learn techniques used to transfer assets during a client’s lifetime using planned gifts, as well as, planning at death using wills and trusts.

Offshore Private Placement Life Insurance

·          Introduction to Offshore Variable Life Insurance

·         Offshore Holding Structures

·         Asset Protection Benefits

·         Investment Management Benefits and Flexibility

·         Tax Benefits

·         Liquidity

·         The IRC 953 (d) Election

·         Diversification and Investor Control

·         Due Diligence Requirements

·         Gathering Information

·         Prequalification and Placing the Offshore Policy

The Law of Trusts and Fiduciary Obligations

This module covers the fundamental aspects of trust law and the fiduciary powers, duties, and responsibilities within the scope of applicable law. The candidate should already understand basic fiduciary relationships and activities that are essential to traditional administration. This module also covers the trustee's responsibilities relative to investing trust assets such as specific securities laws, relevant ethical issues, and the prudent person & prudent investor rule.

The course covers the following main topic areas:

·         Uses of trusts.

·         Distinction between a trust and a power.

·         Discretionary trusts.

·         Certainty, the beneficiary principle and purpose trusts.

·         Charitable trusts.

·         Unincorporated associations and pension funds.

·         Secret trusts and mutual wills.

·         Resulting and constructive trusts.

·         Breach of trust.

·         Breach of fiduciary duty.

·         Tracing, and strangers to the trust.

·         Appointment and removal of trustees.

·         Duties of trustees.

·         Termination and variation of trusts.

INTERNATIONAL ESTATE PLANNING

Income, Gift and Estate Taxation and Planning

• Taxation of U.S. citizen residents or domiciliaries

            1. Estate taxation 

2. Gift taxation 

3. Generation-skipping transfer taxation 

4. Marital deduction planning for citizens and residents with non-citizen spouses

• Asset protection trusts for U.S. persons

            1. Tax compliance and tax reporting requirements 

2. Penalties for failure to file

• Charitable contribution deduction under U.S. tax laws 
• Taxation of non-residents and non-domiliciaries 

1. Income taxation  

2. Estate taxation 

3. Gift taxation

• Income, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxation of non-resident aliens 

1. Passive investments 

2. Active Trade or business operations 

3. Foreign Investment Real Property Tax Act (FIRPTA) 

4. Use of foreign corporations to avoid FIRPTA

• Conflict of Laws 
• Marital deduction planning 
• Trusts and foundations under civil law jurisdictions 
• Asset protection trusts for foreign persons 
• Reporting and disclosure requirements for foreign persons 

Succession Planning: Planning a Family and Business Legacy

The course explains how to make your client the entire family (as opposed to just the patriarch and matriarch). It distinguishes between wealth creation and preservation, and wealth transfer and how to best address the challenges of planning and counseling the entire family. 

• Service Approach vs. Transactional Approach - Client and Advisor Benefits.

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• How to Switch From a Product-Oriented Salesperson to a Fee-Based Advisor.

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• Family Interviews, Fact and Feeling Finding.  How to determine family member wants, needs and expectations through family interviews.

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• Case Study - An actual case features a completed interview fact-finder, analyzing an interpreting data, determine family wealth transfer objectives and solutions.

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• The Family Retreat - This session focuses on organizing the family retreat, facilitation skills, how to conduct the retreat and make an effective presentation of the new wealth transfer plan, liquidity options and the importance of implementing the new plan and tracking its results.

Charitable Planning for the Financial Advisor

Divorce Planning and Prenuptial Agreements

With more than fifty percent of first marriages and sixty percent of second marriages ending in divorce in the U.S. (many other countries are not far behind), divorce planning is becoming increasingly more important. This section of the course looks at prenuptial agreements, mediation, equitable distribution and other marital planning techniques in the U.S. and other countries and cultures.

·         Homestead Laws

·         Jurisdiction

·         Adversarial versus non-adversarial proceedings

·         Equitable Distribution

·         Prenuptial Agreements

·         International Planning

International Anti-Avoidance and Tax Treaties

The objective of this module is to give the student an understanding of the fundamental principles that underlie anti-avoidance provisions and to acquaint you with the current state of the law in selected countries.

Tax avoidance is difficult to define. Additionally, interpretation from one tax jurisdiction to another varies and legislation changes from time to time reflecting changes in judicial tolerance. Advisors need to be aware of the current state of the law in the country of residence of the taxpayer and also in the countries that they are using to implement their client’s tax plans.

You will learn about:

·         Tax Planning

·         Shams and Step Transactions

·         Concepts of Residence and Source

·         General Anti Avoidance Regime

·         Concepts of Substance and Form and Abuse of Law

·         Specific Anti Avoidance Rules

·         Controlled Foreign Corporations

·         Controlled Foreign Companies Regime

·         Thin Capitalization

·         Advance Pricing Agreements

·         U. S. Tax Treaties, OECD Models, U.N. Models

·         The Use of Double Tax Agreements for Avoidance

·         Review of Important Tax Cases