Webcast
Basic Estate Planning
Build a practical foundation in estate planning, from wills, trusts, and probate avoidance to gifting, basis, portability, retirement accounts, and post-death tax issues.
$98.00
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Without FlexCast, you must start with enough time to finish. (1 Hr/Credit)
Secure Transaction CPE Credits
2 Credits: Taxes
Course Level
Basic
Format
Webcast
Course Description
Estate planning is more than drafting a will. Accountants and tax professionals need to understand how documents, asset ownership, beneficiary designations, trusts, and tax rules work together to carry out a client’s wishes and avoid unnecessary complications. Basic Estate Planning provides a practical overview of wills, powers of attorney, revocable trusts, probate avoidance, estate and gift tax exclusions, lifetime gifting, portability, basis rules, and the marital deduction.
The course also addresses charitable planning, estate and trust administration expenses, income in respect of a decedent, inherited retirement accounts, life insurance, annuities, and trust funding. Participants will develop a working knowledge of the key estate planning concepts and tax considerations needed to recognize planning opportunities, identify potential problems, and better assist clients and their other professional advisors.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Identify the principal documents and beneficiary arrangements used in a basic estate plan and explain their purposes.
- Explain how revocable trusts and other ownership or beneficiary arrangements can be used to avoid probate and manage assets during incapacity.
- Apply fundamental estate and gift tax concepts, including the applicable exclusion amount, annual gift tax exclusion, portability, and the marital deduction.
- Compare the income and transfer tax consequences of lifetime gifts with transfers occurring at death, including carryover basis and step-up in basis rules.
- Identify common charitable and trust-based estate planning strategies and the circumstances in which they may be appropriate.
- Determine key post-death tax and administration considerations involving estate expenses, income in respect of a decedent, retirement accounts, life insurance, and annuities.
- Describe the purposes and funding considerations of common trust structures, including bypass and QTIP trusts.
Course Specifics
WC1826485275
August 24, 2026
None
None
Compliance Information
IRS Provider Number: 0MYXB
IRS Course Number: 0MYXB-T-02838-26-O
IRS Federal Tax Law Credits: 2
CTEC Course Number: 2071-CE-02283
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
Mary Kay Foss CPA is a frequent lecturer for professional and business groups. She has over thirty years of practical experience advising about retirement, income and estate planning issues. Ms. Foss is a member of the AICPA Individual and Self-Employed Technical Resource Panel, past chair of the AICPA Trust Estate and Gift Tax Technical Resource Panel and past chair of both the Estate Planning and the Taxation Committee of CalCPA. She is also past president of the Estate Planning Councils of Diablo Valley and East Bay and the East Bay Chapter of CalCPA. She teaches classes for CalCPA and has …
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