The speakers at the 2025 Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning covered a wide range of issues, including planning implications of the 2024 elections, family business succession planning, recent developments in charitable giving and the advantages and disadvantages of relying on “portability.” Attendees had a lot of information to absorb. What were some of the key takeaways from the conference? We asked some of our editorial advisory board members who attended the conference to share their thoughts. Here’s what they said:
Al W. King, III: Purpose Trust as Succession Tool
The most important point at Heckerling, other than all the great updates, was the session talking about the purpose trust as a business succession tool. The purpose trust is one of the most underutilized estate planning trusts with many purposes such as caring for a family business, which was discussed in the session. More and more families are taking advantage of this strategy. It’s used to care for other family-valued assets such as vacation homes, antiques, cars and jewelry Certainly unique without any beneficiaries and an enforcer to enforce the purpose. This trust has become a very important trust for families to consider when doing their estate planning.
Al W. King, III is co-founder of the South Dakota Trust Company LLC
Jonathan G. Blattmachr: Charitable Donations
There are some advantages to having some charitable donations made by individuals as opposed to distributions by trusts, as at least two presentations covered. However, often there are more advantages in having distributions to charity made by a non-grantor trust. Speakers pointed out that one way to have a trust get the deduction, even if the trust instrument doesn’t authorize distribution of its gross income to charity, is if the trust becomes a partner in a partnership that makes the donation. The partnership should authorize donations to charity and the partnership agreement should provide that any partner can veto charitable contributions. There should be little concern about the adverse effects of doing so where the beneficiary agrees to the charitable donation. At a minimum, a portion of the trust probably can be decanted into separate trust for the beneficiary who
wants the charitable donation to be made. This might be considered for those who are residents of a state (like New York) that disallows the charitable deduction for individuals whose income exceeds a certain threshold.
Jonathan G. Blattmachr is the Director of Estate Planning at Peak Trust Company
Alvina Lo: Looming Sunset
The looming sunset of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) continues to dominate the discussion. As Sam Donaldson so cleverly put it in his opening session on Recent Developments, it’s the “elephant in the room” now that the Republican elephants have won the election, in both the White House and Congress. I think it’s important to continue to emphasize that despite the sense of “calm” among our clients about the possibility of an extension of the exemption, there’s still a lot of reasons to do planning. For the “mega rich,” even the extension of the current exemption won’t solve the entire problem. For the “rich,” there’s still value in getting the appreciation out of the estate, and you never know what the exemption will look like at one’s death years from now. Furthermore, given the real practical budgetary constraints and funding needs of the new administration, it’s not a certainty that even with a sympathetic White House and Congress, the exemption will be extended.
My other takeaway is the growth of the trusts and estates practice that’s beyond the technical. This is more of an overarching comment of the conference, as an indicator of where the industry is going. Many of the sessions were topics related to the core trusts and estates world but weren’t necessarily technical in nature. For example, the session on business succession planning and the purpose trust and religious beliefs around remains, were all tied to estate planning, but the main focus of the sessions weren’t technical in nature. The exhibit halls continue to see a rise in technology firms and start-ups that are trying to use technology to take friction out of the system and create efficiency and a better attorney/advisor-client experience. I truly think that this industry, as a whole, is entering an era of transformation.
Alvina Lo is chief wealth strategist at Wilmington Trust
Avi Kestenbaum: Succession Planning and Jurisdictional Diversification
In the session, “Taking Care of Business: New Approaches to Business Succession Planning,” the co-speaker, Natalie Reitman-White, discussed using special purpose trusts to own active businesses and as a tool in succession planning. She’s very experienced, thoughtful and well-spoken and even used the details of some of her clients’ success stories in this area as real-world examples. I think all attorneys who represent substantial businesses and their owners with succession planning should at least consider the merits of using special purpose trusts. Some of my existing clients are also using these trusts to protect and ensure the founder’s mission and purpose. It’s an important and growing topic, and I’m glad it is receiving more attention than it has in the past.
In the session, “Preppers Welcome! Jurisdictional Diversification for the Apprehensive American,” the speaker, Scott Bowman, once again did an excellent job covering a myriad of U.S. tax, trust, jurisdictional and compliance issues for U.S. people who are setting up trusts, companies and possibly themselves outside of the United States. The presentation was very clear, amusing and organized regarding some of the most complex topics in the estate-planning field. This seemed to be almost a continuation of his presentation at Heckerling two years ago on international estate and tax planning. For anyone who’s already practicing in this space, like me, the reminders on the international trust and tax complexities and practical pointers were helpful. For practitioners who want to learn how to practice international estate planning, I encourage them to listen to both of his presentations two or three times and review the written materials.
Avi Z. Kestenbaum is a partner at Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone, LLP and an adjunct professor at Hofstra University School of Law
