This course is part of the Las Vegas, NV – December 2025 Conference. Click the link below to view the conference page.
$399.00
Availability: 89 in stock
Webcasts are available for viewing Monday – Friday, 8am – 8pm ET,
and Saturday & Sunday, 10am – 6pm ET.
Without FlexCast, you must start with enough time to finish. (1 Hr/Credit)
Secure Transaction CPE Credits
2 Credits: Taxes
Event Date: December 10, 2025 11:30 am
Course Level
Intermediate
Format
Conference
Course Description
The landscape of estate planning has fundamentally changed. With the federal estate tax exemption at a historic high, traditional planning for the “1%” no longer applies to the vast majority of your clients. This critical course, led by Steven Siegel, JD, LLM, refocuses the practitioner’s mindset from transfer tax avoidance to the more relevant and pressing concerns of the “99%.”
We will navigate the post-OBBBA world where income tax planning, basis step-up optimization, and asset protection have become the primary drivers of a sound estate plan. This session provides a practical framework for advising clients with estates under the exemption limit, tackling real-world questions: Is portability a silver bullet or a trap? When does a bypass trust still make sense? What is the new role of life insurance and retirement plans? How do we plan effectively in decoupled states? Through a strategic analysis of core dispositive planning, compressed trust tax rates, and the implications of the SECURE Act, you will learn to construct efficient, resilient plans that protect your clients’ assets and ensure their legacy in this new era.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Evaluate the ongoing relevance of traditional estate planning tools—such as bypass trusts—in a high-exemption, portable world and articulate their non-tax benefits to clients.
- Develop income tax-centric planning strategies that prioritize securing a basis step-up at death and managing assets to avoid the compressed tax brackets of nongrantor trusts.
- Analyze the strategic use of portability, including the critical compliance requirements for a valid election and the potential pitfalls of relying on it exclusively.
- Reassess the role of life insurance and retirement assets (including Roth IRA conversions and planning under the SECURE Act) within estates that are not subject to the federal estate tax.
- Formulate effective planning recommendations for clients in decoupled states, balancing the trade-offs between state estate tax savings and the long-term income tax cost of a lost basis step-up.
Course Specifics
25CLasVegasDec-LE424727
None
Compliance Information
IRS Provider Number: 0MYXB
IRS Course Number: 0MYXB-T-02744-25-I
IRS Federal Tax Law Credits: 2
CFP Provider Number: 3199
CFP Course Number: 343547
CFP Credits: 2
CTEC Course Number: 2071-CE-02188
CTEC Federal Tax Law Credits: 2
CFP Notice: Not all courses that qualify for CFP® credit are registered by Western CPE. If a course does not have a CFP registration number in the compliance section, the continuing education will need to be individually reported with the CFP Board. For more information on the reporting process, required documentation, processing fee, etc., contact the CFP Board. CFP Professionals must take each course in it’s entirety, the CFP Board DOES NOT accept partial credits for courses.
CTEC Notice: California Tax Education Council DOES NOT allow partial credit, course must be taken in entirety. Western CPE has been approved by the California Tax Education Council to offer continuing education courses that count as credit towards the annual “continuing education” requirement imposed by the State of California for CTEC Registered Tax Preparers. A listing of additional requirements to register as a tax preparer may be obtained by contacting CTEC at P.O. Box 2890, Sacramento, CA, 95812-2890, by phone toll-free at (877) 850-2832, or on the Internet at www.ctec.org.
Meet The Experts
Steven G. Siegel, JD, LLM, is president of The Siegel Group, which provides consulting services to attorneys, accountants, business owners, family offices, and financial planners. Based in Morristown, New Jersey, the Group provides services throughout the United States. Steven is the author of many books, including: The Grantor Trust Answer Book (2018 CCH); The Adviser’s Guide to Financial and Estate Planning(AICPA 2019); Federal Fiduciary Income Taxation (Foxmoor 2019); and Federal Estate and Gift Tax (Foxmoor 2016). He is also a co-author with Richard Oshins, Esq. of The Anatomy of the Perfect Modern Trust, Estate Planning Magazine January and February 2016. In conjunction with numerous tax-planning lectures he has delivered …