For many of us, mid-December is a time to enjoy the sights and sounds of the holidays, attend parties and prepare for the New Year ahead. But, here at Trusts & Estates, it was time to gear up for another big event: the 2017 Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning in Orlando, Fla. Instead of deciding on presents for friends and relatives, we focused on how to create a booth that best demonstrates the value practitioners receive by subscribing to our journal. (Not to mention the most pressing decisions of which parties and events we want to attend at the conference!) Despite all the work that goes into planning for this conference, we always enjoy being there and meeting our authors and subscribers in person. If you’re at Heckerling this year, we hope you’ll stop by our booth and say hello. Also, if you’re interested in writing for Trusts & Estates, be sure to sign up for our breakfast seminar explaining our editorial process, which will be held at the conference on Jan. 11. Register at www.wealthmanagement.com/how-get-published-trusts-estates.
If you can’t make the event this year, don’t despair. Martin M. Shenkman will be busily taking notes at the sessions and presenting his annual “Highlights of Heckerling” webinar on Jan. 25 at 2 p.m. Eastern time.
This year may be a challenging one for practitioners, as President-elect Donald J. Trump takes office and may (or may not) make changes to the tax law. In “Planning in a Time of Uncertainty,” p. 78, Jonathan G. Blattmachr and Martin M. Shenkman suggest some ways you can advise clients in this environment. For more certainty, it may be best, however, to focus on what’s happened in the past. For that information, you can check out Sharon L. Klein’s “State of the States: 2016” (p. 54) and our special insert, “Tax Year in Review 2016,” by David A. Handler and his colleagues.
Finally, we welcome Dr. Fredda Herz Brown, senior consultant at New York City’s Relative Solutions, to our editorial board and Family Businesses Committee.
